First-year Engineering Program Evaluation: Understanding Senior Students' Perceptions About Their First-year Experience

The Undergraduate Physics Olympics (UPO) was run for the first time in the second semester of the 2005/06 academic year. The aim of the event was to enhance the first year experience by organising teams of freshers to compete for prizes on a set of practical physics challenges. Over the course of an afternoon each team of 4 had to race against the clock to design and build a boat, set up and use their own code, and demonstrate linear acceleration in the park outside. Communication between students was encouraged by awarding points for bonus questions demonstrating good team spirit as they prepared for their first laboratory sessions together. The event also enabled students to be introduced to the departmental laboratories, and to the staff and more senior students in an informal environment, at an early stage in the year.

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In Their Own Words

Journal of College Orientation, Transition, and Retention ◽

10.24926/jcotr.v17i2.2720 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Diane M. Waryold ◽

J. Joy James

Keyword(s):

Program Evaluation ◽

Qualitative Study ◽

Natural World ◽

First Year Experience ◽

First Year ◽

Orientation Programs ◽

State University ◽

Naturally Occurring ◽

Unobtrusive Measure ◽

Personal Welfare

Wilderness orientation programs, as a special type of orientation, have become commonplace at many colleges and universities. The First Ascent (FA) program is an example of one such program and is a small piece of a comprehensive first-year experience offered at Appalachian State University (ASU). This program evaluation is intended to uncover the meaning of First Ascent through students' voices. Specifically, this qualitative study used naturally occurring data as an unobtrusive measure to gether feedback from participants over the eight-year period in which First Ascent has been in existence. Analysis of the data revealed that students spoke of the interpersonal and intrapersonal aspects of the experience as well as the importance of the natural world as a medium. Issues of personal welfare were notable but not prevalent.

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Mentoring program for students newly enrolled in an Engineering Degree

Multidisciplinary Journal for Education Social and Technological Sciences ◽

10.4995/muse.2016.4609 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 30

Author(s):

Juan Pedro Peña-Martín ◽

Eva González-Parada ◽

Carmen García-Berdonés ◽

Eduardo Javier Pérez-Rodríguez

Keyword(s):

Program Evaluation ◽

Peer Mentoring ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Virtual Learning Environment ◽

First Year ◽

Mentoring Program ◽

Engineering Degree ◽

Generic Competences ◽

The University ◽

Senior Students

<p class="Textoindependiente21">This work presents a mentoring program for first year engineering students in the Telecommunications Engineering College (ETSIT) at the University of Malaga (UMA). Actors involved in the program are professors from staff, veterans mentoring students and, of course, freshmen. All of them has been organized trough the Moodle based Virtual Learning Environment Platform of the UMA. The program has gone through several phases over three years. This paper shows the main objectives of this mentoring program, the initial design to get them where professors played mentor role, and successive changes made to try to improve the results, including the assumption of the mentor role by senior students (peer mentoring). The tools used for program evaluation are shown too. Despite the low participation, it has been a framework for the development of various educational and socializing activities (for mentors and mentees) focused on developing generic competences. Furthermore, it has been a research tool to get a better understanding of problems affecting students newly enrolled.</p>

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