Program Solution for Improving Retention in

the College of Engineering

Prepared for The College of Engineering,

Wayne State University
Prepared by: Rahul Raj
April 3rd, 2016

From:

Rahul Raj

50233 Venice Ct,

Northville, MI 48168

TO:

Wayne State University

College of Engineering
5050 Anthony Wayne Dr,
Detroit, MI 48202
April 3rd, 2016

To Whom This May Concern,

The following doucument contains a two-component report concerning the
retention rate in the College of Engineering at Wayne State University. This
report discusses possible ideas in order to increase the retention rate in the
College of Engineering and evaulates which of the solutiions are the most
feasible.
The proposed solutions to increase the retention rate are as following:

Learning Centers specific to Engineering students

Creating Study Soup for Engineering Students
Mentoring Programs
Courses specific to the Engineering curriculum
Active Counseling

These solutions were researched and evaulated for feasiblity through primary
and secondary research. Primary research method was conducting a survey
of various Engineering students to understand difficulties they face as well as
which solutions they feel would help the most. The secondary research was
conducted through online research of retention rates at other Universities
nationwide and solutions they implemented to increase the retention rate.
Thank you for taking the time to review these research solutions in the
document. If you have any furter questions, contact me at
rahul@coremindz.com
Thank You,
Rahul Raj

Table of Contents

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1. Letter of Transmittal

2. Executive Summary

3. Introduction

4. Research Methods and Results

6-7

5. Overview of Proposed Solutions

6. Criteria

7. Evaluation of Solutions Against

Criteria

10

8. Recommendations

11

9. Works Cited

12

10.

Appendix

Executive Summary:
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13-14

For the past month, I have been researching and developing methods
to increase the retention rate in the College of Engineering at Wayne State
University. These methods will help eliminate problems and obstacles
engineering students face throughout their coursework as well as allow them
to have a chance to succeed rather than dropping out or switching from an
engineering major. During the research, I have created a survey for
engineering students of different grade-levels in order to understand to learn
more about their struggles as well as taking their opinion about which
methods would help the most. The solutions researched through the survey
include:

Setting up Learning Centers specific to Engineering Students

Creating a Study Soup group for Wayne State Engineering
Students
Mentoring Programs that will benefit the students
Developing courses that are specific to Engineering
Active counselors that have experience in the Engineering field

These solutions were researched through surveying various

Engineering students at Wayne State University. The estimates for each of
the solutions were obtained through research online. Each solutions was
evalued based on the following criteria:

Feasiblity
Benefit to Students
Benefit to School

Overall, the survey has shown that Engineering students feel that
changes need to be made in the College of Enginnering. Methods of high
majority in the surveys should be implemented as soon as possible.

*refer to Appendix on Page 13-14

Introduction:
The main purpose of this report is to provide solutions that address the
low retention rate for the College of Engineering at Wayne State University.
Many Engineering students tend to drop out or switch majors after the first
year due to the difficulty of the coursework. Engineering courses tend to be
fast-faced and much work is needed to succeed but students should not be
discouraged by this fact and be forced to drop out or switch. As of the latest
Fall Enrollment Report of 2014, the one year retention rate was 75.7% which
was worse than the prior year1. The two year retention rate was only 65.7%
which is not that great and can be improved1. This rate may be due to the
rigorous coursework and difficulty as well as students
I have prepared some solutions to increase the retention rate as well as help
engineering students be succesful as they complete their degrees. These
solutions include setting up learning center specific to engineering students,
using a tool called Study Soup, setting up mentoring programs, or
developing more courses specific to the engineering ciriculum. These
solutions were evaluated based on criteria in order to determine the
effectiveness of each solution.
In order to determine and evaluate these solutions, I have created a
survey aimed towards various Engineering students of different years to
expand my results. This survey helped me understand what other
engineering students believed would help them succeed in the Engineering
department as well as understand difficulties they face in the coursework.
This survey also allowed me to take recommendations from students to
improve the College of Engineering.
As a secondary research method, I researched online about retention
rates at Engineering departments in various Universities across the nation.
Through this research I was able to understand how other Engineering
departments improved their retention rate as well as the ideas they came up
with to help engineering students succeed in the coursework. This research
also allowed me to understand more about why students continue to
struggle in engineering courses.

1 Fall Enrollment Report 2014 (Rep.)

*refer to Appendix on Page 13-14

Research Methods and Results:

In order to compile this report, I used Surveys as my research methods
to obtain results about possible solutions.

Primary Research: Surveys with Wayne State Engineering

Students
In order to conduct surveys with the various students, I used Google
Forms as a tool to create a survey which I would be able to share with the
students so they would be able to finish it on their own time. Using Google
Forms was very effective as it recorded the results and analyzed these
results into pie graphs, charts and etc. The survey consisted of the following
questions:

Current Enrolled Year (Figure 1*)

How difficult would you rate the coursework for the
Engineering Degree(1- Easiest, 5 Hardest)(Figure 2*)
Which of these options would you believe would help as
you work towards a degree in the Engineering
Field(Multiple choice accepted)(Table 1*)
What difficulties do you currently face as an Engineering
Student?(Figure 3*)
Any Recommendations to improve the College of
Engineering(Figure 3*)

There were a total of eight responses for the survey conducted. The
Current Enrolled Year helped me show that various grade inputs were taken
in the survey allowing for more broad results. Three freshman, one
sophmore, three juniors and one senior took the survey showing the
broadened results. In terms of difficulty for the coursework, one would mean
coursework was very easy while a five would mean very difficult. One
student rated the difficulty level a three out of five, while five students rated
the diffculty a four out of five and two students rated the diffculty five out of
five. This shows how the students believe coursework is very tough for
Engineering. For the various solutions that would help, students believe that
Learning Centers, Study Soup, and mentoring programs would be the best
for helping them succeed in the field. In terms of difficulties they face in
Engineering, students replied that prerequisite courses are not good and can
lead students to fall behind, coding can become very difficult in labs,
coursework can get confusing without much help , and its hard to meet

*refer to Appendix on Page 13-14

professors during office hours when students have busy class schedules. The
data for these results can be found in the Appendix on page 11.

*refer to Appendix on Page 13-14

Secondary Research: Online Research

For my secondary research, I conducted online research to discover
more about retention rates in College of Enginnering at other Universities
across the nation. Through this online research I was also able to discover
about solutions and stratergies universities implemented in order to improve
the retention rate. While many solutions were the same as the one I have
proposed in this report, there were some which I had not thought of but
would definitely help engineering students struggling with the coursework.
For my first source, I used a report created by the American Society for
Engineering Education(ASEE) about the Best Practice and Stratergies for
Retaining Engineering, Engineering Technology and Computing Students2.
The ASEE is an non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and improving
engineering and engineering technology education. The data in this report
was composed from succesful retention activities given my Engineering
Technology and Computing deans of two and four year colleges across the
nation. From this data it was determined that frequent types of succesful
support include:

Tutoring
Mentoring
Learning Centers
Programs developed specifc for at-risk students
Program developed for first-year students
Academic Advising
Career Awarness

The second source I researched was also from the American Society for
Engineering Education but this research was about Keep Students in
Engineering A research guide to improve retention3. Through this guide I
was able to understand more about why engineering students tend to switch
majors or even drop out of college. According to a study of 113
undergraduates conducted by the ASEE, undergraduates who left
enginering in 2004, 2007, and 2008 points to three key reasons: poor
teaching and advising; the difficulty of the engineering curriculum; and a lack
of belonging within engineering2. This research also allowed me to
understand more in depth solutions to help engineering students and how to
implement the ideas.
2 Yoder, B. L. Going the Distance.
3 Matthews, M. Keeping students in engineering.

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*refer to Appendix on Page 13-14

Overview of Proposed Solutions:

1. Learning Center
A teaching and learning center specific to the engineering
coursework at Wayne state is much needed as the center will help
students gain more guidance for their subjects rather than a general
learning center. Currently, there is a learning center located in the
Undergraduate library designed for general study and test-taking
skills but it would be more benficial to create one for engineering
students in specific. With senior level Engineering and graduate
students, the center can help students struggling with courses
personally. This will also help create a more active learning
enviornment where students can learn what they didnt understand
in lectures. The learning center will also be benficial to engineering
professors as they can learn more about the different ways students
will learn material as well as allow students to give advice on
teaching methods4.
2. StudySoup
StudySoup is a new peer-to-peer education tool that contains
content of personal study guides and class notes online. StudySoup
is very beneficial as it allows for students and professors to share
notes and study guides on the website which can help students
study better. These notes will be categorized by the college, Wayne
State, and the courses. These notes students can find on the
website will be able to help students pass classes through welltaken notes by other students in their current class or previous
classes.
3. Mentoring Programs
Creating Engineering Mentoring Programs can help students that
are struggling and debating on dropping out or switching majors.
The mentoring experience will be unique for students and offer
them a chance to see how the working world is. This program will
pair alumni from the College of Engineering with current students in
order to show them how working as an engineer is as well as
teaching them methods on how to be successful. The students will
4 Matthews, M. Keeping students in engineering.

*refer to Appendix on Page 13-14

be matched based on their career interest, area of study and

specific interests in a mentor. The mentor and student will be able
to meet whenever needed in person or over email. This program will
be great opportunity for the students.

Criteria:
Each of these solutions were basesd on several factors that should be
considered in order to be termed as an effective solution. The criteria used
are as follows:

Feasibility:
This criteria will assess the practicality of each solution. It will implement
questions such as: How easy or hard will it be to implement the solution?
How much will it cost to implement the solution? How practical is the
solution?

Benefit to Students:
This criteria will assess how each solution will benefit the students in the
Engineering department. The solution should be able to help students
suceed in the engineering curriculum. An effective solution will increase the
retention rate in the Engineering College as well as allow students to be able
to graduate and earn their degree.

Benefit to School:
This criteria will evaluate how the solutions will benefit Wayne State
University. The solution should show a good image for the University with
their retention rate in the College of Engineering as well as producing
succesful engineers in the real world. Improving the retention rate should
also be able to attract more students towards the Engineering field.

*refer to Appendix on Page 13-14

Evaluation of Solutions Against Criteria:

Solution 1: Learning Center
Creating a learning center would not be too expensive for the school. There
are many large empty rooms in the library or around campus that can be
used as a base for the center. The only expense for the learning center would
be the salary for the tutors or student helpers. This will not prove to be too
expensive for the school. This solution will help struggling Engineering
students as well as engineering students that have any questions.

Solution 2: StudySoup
StudySoup would not cost the Wayne State University any money. The school
would just need to create Wayne State as an acceptable campus on the
website such as registering the school and students will then be able to
share notes on the website. This will help students that miss class to find
notes or use other students notes to understand tough concepts. The
solution will also help students that have tough time in the engineering
coursework to have another approach to their work. Also, as study soup is an
existing organization Wayne State need not use this service but may rather
implement a similar version of the service for the college of engineering
itself. An example would be creating a group for Engineering students on
blackboard itself with the ability to share notes just as study soup would.

Solution 3: Mentoring Program

The Mentoring Program would not cost the school too much to develop.
There are many senior engineering students and graduate students that
should be willing to mentor students who need the advice. These mentors
could be voluntary or paid depending on what the school and mentors decide
on. The mentoring program will help students understand the experience of
out of school work while also being taught tips on how to succeed. The
school will have a good reputation as having a program to help students
*refer to Appendix on Page 13-14

discover how jobs can be and this will help increase the retention rate if
students understand how the jobs will be outside of school.

Recommendation:
My recommendation to improve the retention rate in the College of
Engineering would be too develop a learning center for engineering students
that includes an mentoring program if deemed necessary by an student. The
learning center will be the most effective method to increase retention rate
as students that are struggling will be able to get help from peers or
professors. This learning center will also have many resources that will
benefit students to help them excel and succeed in their area of study. I
believe that it would also help to incorporate the mentoring program solution
into the learning center as it can help students demotivated by the work load
of engineering. These mentors will be able to show students how the work
experience is after obtaining a degree while also being able to give out tips
and advice on how to succeed at the college as they are alumni.

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*refer to Appendix on Page 13-14

WORKS CITED
1. Yoder, B. L. Going the Distance. Retrieved from https://www.asee.org/retentionproject/best-practices-and-strategies/ASEE-Student-Retention-Project.pdf
2. Matthews, M. Keeping students in engineering. Retrieved from
https://www.asee.org/retention-project/keeping-students-in-engineering-a-research-guideto-improving-retention
3. Fall Enrollment Report 2014 (Rep.) Retrieved http://wayne.edu/engaginggened/documents/enrollment_report_fall_2014.pdf

*refer to Appendix on Page 13-14

Appendix:

Figure 1

Figure 2

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Figure 3

Table 1

*refer to Appendix on Page 13-14