scholarly journals COURSE SCHEDULING ACCORDING TO STUDENT STRESS

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuai Ma ◽  
Ali Akgunduz ◽  
Yong Zeng
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Retention Rate ◽  
First Year ◽  
Scheduling Problem ◽  
Stress Model ◽  
Student Stress ◽  
Course Scheduling ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Course Difficulty

As many as one in three first-year undergraduate students cannot make it back for the sophomore year. The low retention rate for students, especially engineering students, is a widespread problem. In this paper, the quantification of course difficulty and student stress is discussed, followed by a student stress model which can integrate student stress into the course scheduling problem. Some future work is presented in the conclusion.

scholarly journals One Week, Many Ripples: Measuring the Impacts of the Fall Reading Week on Student Stress

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 163-172
Author(s):  
Heather Poole ◽  
Ayesha Khan ◽  
Michael Agnew
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Negative Experience ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Student Stress ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Lower Ratio

More and more Canadian post-secondary institutions are introducing a fall break into their term calendars. In 2015, a full week fall break was introduced at our university in order to enhance academic performance and improve mental health amongst students. Our interdisciplinary team surveyed undergraduate students at our university about their experience of the fall break, collected standardized measures of experienced stressors and perceptions of stress before and after the break, and hosted several focus groups to develop a detailed narrative of students’ experience. Stress can also be assessed through non-invasive hormone measures. We collected saliva samples to profile metabolic hormones, cortisol, and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), from first-year male engineering students in order to document possible changes in their stress levels before and after the week-long break. This group was compared to male engineering students at a similar university that does not hold a fall break. Students exhibited a lower ratio of cortisol to DHEA after a fall break than those that did not experience a break. Our survey results indicate that the majority of students thought the fall break was a positive experience. However, self-reports of stress show a more complex picture, with many students reporting increased perceived stress after the break. Additionally, a portion of students reported that the fall break was a negative experience. To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first of its kind to use a mixed-methods approach to examine the impacts of a fall break.

scholarly journals CONSIDERATIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF CRITICAL REFLECTION SKILLS IN FIRST-YEAR ENGINEERING INFORMED THROUGH STUDENT PERSPECTIVES

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth DaMaren ◽  
Danielle Pearlston ◽  
Stephen Mattucci
Keyword(s):  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Learning Skills ◽  
Student Activities ◽  
Academic Settings ◽  
Directed Learning

Reimagined curriculum models offer new possibilities for embedding durable competencies into the curriculum, including critical reflection, which promotes the development of self-directed learning skills. However, students often perceive these skills as unimportant with pre-existing biases focusing on technical content as the core of engineering.  The primary goal of this work was to identify key considerations when integrating critical reflection into engineering curricula, specifically in the context of first-year engineering, to promote the development of student self-directed learning skills.  This work was framed within the Students-as-Partners (SaP) approach, where two undergraduate students worked in collaboration with the instructor. To gather information regarding student perceptions of critical reflection, focus groups were conducted for first-year engineering students and students familiar with reflection.  Qualitative thematic analysis was performed on the focus group data and key insights were identified and categorized into five themes: approaches, supporting students, evaluation and framing, development pathway and value, and reflection for engineers. Suggested learning outcomes, student activities, and evaluation methods are proposed. These findings are applicable to implementing reflection across a variety of academic settings, as they highlight main considerations and challenges faced with reflection from the perspective of students in multiple programs. 

scholarly journals Understanding Barriers to Student Success: What Students Have to Say

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Kuley ◽  
Sean Maw ◽  
Terry Fonstad
Keyword(s):  
Student Success ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Self Directed Learning ◽  
Directed Learning ◽  
College Of Engineering ◽  
The University

This paper focuses on feedback received from a set of qualitative questions that were administered to undergraduate students in the College of Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan, as part of a larger mixed methods study. The larger study aims to identify what characteristics, if any, can predict or are related to student success; The “start-stop-continue” method was utilized to assess student perceptions about  their success in the college as a whole. The students were asked: Are there any specific things that you can think of that act/acted as barriers to your success in engineering (stop)? What could the college do/change to make first year more successful for engineering students (start)? Is there anything in your engineering degree so far that you feel is done well and helps students succeed (continue)? Students identified the quality of instruction early in their program as well as adjustment to college workloads and self-directed learning as the most significant barriers tostudent success.

scholarly journals Design and implementation of a student-taught course on research in regenerative medicine

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 360-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Naveed Tavakol ◽  
Cara J. Broshkevitch ◽  
William H. Guilford ◽  
Shayn M. Peirce
Keyword(s):  
Regenerative Medicine ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Biomedical Sciences ◽  
Undergraduate Major ◽  
Early Introduction ◽  
Introductory Course ◽  
Scientific Papers ◽  
The University

In the Undergraduate School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at the University of Virginia (UVa), there are few opportunities for undergraduate students to teach, let alone develop, an introductory course for their major. As two undergraduate engineering students (D. N. Tavakol and C. J. Broshkevitch), we were among the first students to take advantage of a new initiative at UVa SEAS to offer student-led courses. As part of this new program, we designed a 1000-level, 1-credit, pass-fail course entitled Introduction to Research in Regenerative Medicine. During a student’s first year at the University, opportunities to build research skills and gain exposure to topics within the field of the biomedical sciences are relatively rare, so, to fill this gap, we focused our course on teaching primarily freshman undergraduate students how to synthesize and contextualize scientific literature, covering both basic science and clinical applications. At the end of the course, students self-reported increased confidence in reading and discussing scientific papers and review articles. The critical impact of this course lies not only in an early introduction to the popularized field of regenerative medicine, but also encouragement for younger students to participate in research early on and to appreciate the value of interdisciplinary interactions. The teaching model can be extended for implementation of student-taught introductory courses across diverse undergraduate major tracks at an institution.

scholarly journals Stressors and the Levels of Stress Among the Undergraduate Medical, Dental and Nursing Students of a Medical College in Kathmandu

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-25
Author(s):  
Seerina Adhikari Manandhar ◽  
T Pramanik
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Students ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Student Stress ◽  
Medical College ◽  
Psychological Distress Scale ◽  
Related Stress ◽  
Distress Scale ◽  
Kessler Psychological Distress Scale

 Educational environment in medical schools is highly demanding and stressful due to various factors. The study was aimed to explore level of stress, stressors and the coping strategies among the undergraduate medical, dental and nursing students of a medical college in Kathmandu. A cross- sectional observational study was conducted among 174 consenting (95 medical, 51 dental and 28 nursing) first year undergraduate students with predesigned, pretested, semi-structured questionnaire which included socio-demographic details, Kessler psychological distress scale and Medical student stress questionnaire. Average age of students was 19.54±1.28 years. Results revealed that 66.66% of students were under stress with 25.86% having mild, 18.96% having moderate and 21.83% having severe levels of stress. Highest prevalence of stress was noted among nursing students (75.00%) with 32.14% under severe stress. Among 116 males and 58 females, males were more stressed (75.00%) than females (50.00%). Most of the students enjoyed music and chatted with their close ones to cope with stress. Academic related stressor was found to be the major stressor (2.65±0.69) with statistically significant association (p< 0.01) with the stress levels among the students. Informing students about the “must know” and “good to know” areas of the topics of every subject may be helpful to decrease the academic related stress. Regular practice of meditation, sports and cultural activities may help to reduce stress.

scholarly journals Measuring the Impact of a Weeklong Fall Break on Stress Physiology in First Year Engineering Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayesha Khan ◽  
Heather Poole ◽  
Elliott A Beaton
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Nous Avons ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Control Sample ◽  
First Year ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Student Stress ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Lower Ratio ◽  
The Impact

Canadian post-secondary institutions are increasingly introducing a fall break into their term calendars, with the stated goal of reducing student stress and improving academic success. We conducted a pilot study around the time of this fall break during which we collected saliva samples to measure the ratio of two metabolic hormones (cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)) from first-year male engineering students in order to document possible changes in their stress levels before and after the break. Participants self-identified a particular day in the week prior to the break that they considered to be most stressful, followed by a day in the week after the break that was perceived to be equally stress-inducing. A control sample of student engineers was recruited from another university with equivalent academic rigour but without a fall break. Students who experienced the fall break exhibited a marginally lower ratio of cortisol to DHEA after the break than did those who did not experience the break indicating a difference in psychological stress. Since fall breaks are now increasing in popularity, we make the recommendation that it is imperative to empirically investigate their impact on student mental health. Un nombre de plus en plus grand d’établissements post-secondaires introduisent un congé d’automne dans leur calendrier, avec l’objectif déclaré de réduire le stress des étudiants et d’améliorer la réussite académique. Nous avons mené une étude pilote aux alentours de ce congé d’automne au cours duquel nous avons recueilli des échantillons de salive auprès d’étudiants mâles de première année en génie afin de mesurer le ratio de deux hormones métaboliques (le cortisol et la déhydroépiandrostérone - la DHEA)) et pour documenter les changements possibles dans leurs niveaux de stress avant et après le congé. Les participants ont identifié eux-mêmes un jour spécifique de la semaine avant le congé qu’ils considéraient comme étant le plus stressant, suivi par un jour particulier de la semaine après le congé qu’ils percevaient comme étant aussi stressant. Un échantillon témoin d’étudiants en génie a été recruté dans une autre université où la rigueur académique était équivalente mais où il n’y avait pas de congé d’automne. Les étudiants qui ont bénéficié d’un congé d’automne ont manifesté un ratio plus bas de cortisol par rapport à la DHEA après le congé par rapport aux étudiants qui n’avaient pas bénéficié d’un tel congé, ce qui indique une différence de stress psychologique. Étant donné que la popularité des congés d’automne est en augmentation, nous recommandons qu’il est impératif d’établir empiriquement leur impact sur la santé mentale des étudiants.

scholarly journals Dropout of first year undergraduate students: A case study of engineering students

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 349-356
Author(s):  
Constantin Bungău ◽  
Adrian Petru Pop ◽  
Adriana Borza
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Variable Number ◽  
Drop Out ◽  
Bivariate Analysis ◽  
First Year ◽  
National Education ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Student Relationship

Abstract The phenomenon of drop out studies appears in the current Romanian context as an acute problem of the national education system. In the present research we will try to identify how factors such as the average obtained in the baccalaureate exam, the place of provenance and the number of credits obtained at the end of the first year of study influence the abandonment. Using a bivariate analysis method, we followed the correlation between the variables "number of students expelled after the first year of study" in the case of students enrolled in the first year of study and having obtained a "grade less than or equal to 7 in the baccalaureate exam" and, respectively the correlation between the variable "number of students expelled after the first year of study" and the origin from urban or rural areas. As can be seen from the data collected, an obvious need to investigate the expectation of students at high risk of drop out - as regards the teacher-student relationship - can be presumed: what are the most effective ways of transmitting knowledge and what communication is acceptable by college students.

scholarly journals Measuring Disciplinary Perceptions of Engineering from a Cultural Lens: A Validation of an Instrument in a Research Technical University

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. p19
Author(s):  
Homero G. Murzi ◽  
Juan M. Cruz
Keyword(s):  
National Culture ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
First Year ◽  
Senior Year ◽  
Phase 3 ◽  
Engineering Programs ◽  
Engineering Culture

Engineering culture is a complex phenomenon that needs to be understood to promote the value of professional skills and not only the technical skills that have been traditionally valued in engineering. This study investigates ways to identify patterns of cultural traits in undergraduate engineering students, by using and validating an instrument originally developed to measure national culture. This study was conducted in three phases: in Phase 1, we validated an instrument to measure engineering culture based on Hofstede’s model of national culture. In this phase, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis and a reliability analysis with responses of 1261 undergraduate students. In phase 2, we identified how the dimensions in Hofstede’s model mapped and differed between academic engineering disciplines. To accomplish that goal, we conducted descriptive statistics and an analysis of the variance of responses of 794 engineering students. In phase 3, we analyzed if some of Hofstede’s dimensions are inherent to prospective engineering students or if they were influenced by their specific engineering programs. In phase 3, we collected data from 1,330 first-year engineering students and compared them with data from the same students at the end of their first year. Moreover, for three specific majors, we compared them with data of 261 senior students. Results demonstrated the validity of the instrument in academic disciplines and showed that the uncertainty avoidance dimension of Hofstede’s model differed between three engineering majors (i.e., ECE, ISE, and CS). This dimension did not differ after the first year but changed in the senior year.

scholarly journals DEVELOPING ETHICAL ENGINEERS WITH EMPATHY

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Howcroft ◽  
Kate Mercer ◽  
Jennifer Boger
Keyword(s):  
Biomedical Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
First Year ◽  
Development Communication ◽  
Implicit Instruction ◽  
Stakeholder Perspectives ◽  
High Level ◽  
Future Work ◽  
Pedagogical Approaches

Empathy-based skill development can help engineering students work towards professional expectations regarding ethical duties. However, there is a lack of explicit, holistic pedagogical approaches toempathy education in engineering. In BME161, a first-year biomedical engineering design course, students received explicit and implicit instruction focused on empathy and ethics. Students were also expected to use empathy-based tools and incorporate stakeholder perspectives in their design process in meaningful and explainable ways. While this approach was successful in incorporating empathybased education into a design course, a more holistic approach is needed throughout the program. Therefore, a high-level framework is presented based on four pillars of empathy development: communication, collaboration, decision-making, and values with a goal of achieving an interpersonal, user-centered, empathic culture of design in engineering students. Future work will focus on developing a more detailed and actionable framework.

scholarly journals Use of Library Services Can Be Associated with a Positive Effect on First-Year Students’ GPA and Retention

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eamon C Tewell
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Retention Rate ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Year ◽  
Library Service ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Library Use ◽  
Second Year

A Review of: Soria, K. M., Fransen, J., & Nackerud, S. (2014). Stacks, serials, search engines, and students’ success: First-year undergraduate students’ library use, academic achievement, and retention. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 40(1), 84-91.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2013.12.002 Abstract Objective – To investigate the degree of relation between first-year undergraduate students’ library use and their academic achievement (measured by cumulative GPA) and first- to second-year retention. Design – Quantitative data obtained from library systems combined with regression analyses. Setting – A large public university located in the United States of America. Subjects – The study included 5,368 non-transfer first-year students, with a total of 5,162 students retained for the final sample. Methods – Data on 10 library usage variables were collected using student logins to library databases and websites and analyzed using SPSS. These variables included logins to databases, use of electronic books and journals, chat reference questions, and workshops signed up for, among others. There were 2 separate regressions utilized to predict students’ cumulative GPA by these 10 types of library use. Two separate logistic regressions were utilized to predict first- to second-year retention by the same library usage variables. Main Results – 81.9% of first-year students used at least one library service. Overall, students who used their academic library’s services and/or resources once or more during an academic year had a higher average retention rate and GPA compared to their peers who had not used the library. It was found that four library use areas, including book loans, database logins, electronic journal logins, and library workstation logins, were positively associated with students’ GPA. Database logins and library workstation logins were positively associated with retention. Each of the models used to predict either student GPA or retention by library use were found to be statistically significant. Conclusions – The study suggests that there is a positive and significant relationship between a number of library activities and students’ GPA and retention. The effect size of these activities upon the primary outcome variables of GPA and retention is small, though this is logical considering the one-time use of a library service is unlikely to meaningfully influence one’s academic success. Other non-library factors in the student experience must be considered.

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