Student Success and Well-being

My project is designed to support engineering students primarily in their freshman and sophomore years, when they struggle the most, resulting in high failing rates. Students do not always implement the best study strategies as they transition from high school to college, and do not prioritize their self-care and well-being. College level coursework is significantly more difficult compared to high school level courses and require more critical and abstract thinking. Our ECE students are very proficient in taking multiple choice tests like the AP exams, but none of our engineering courses are structured that way. Additionally, most of our students are away from home for the first time and are learning ways to take care of themselves. In this project we plan to address both aspects of a new engineering college student’s experience: student success in coursework, and overall well-being. I will be working with Sanger Learning Center and my undergraduate assistants to monitor attendance in all Supplemental Instruction (SI) sessions. We will analyze attendance data to see if all students who signed up for the program attended the sessions. Student performance on all assignments and exams will be analyzed to check for correlations between attendance in SI sessions and performance. At the end of each semester, we will analyze overall course grades in EE306 and EE319K to determine whether participation in the SI sessions resulted in improved performance and decreased %DFQW. An end-of-semester survey administered in all SI sessions will be used to collect qualitative feedback form students on the effectiveness of the SI program. The program will be considered successful if student qualitative feedback is mostly positive. Student attendees of all the workshops conducted by Sanger, CMHC, and Longhorn Wellness, will be surveyed to assess their level of awareness of well-being practices and their intentions to practice them.