Author(s):
Need: Peer-led team learning (PLTL) is a peer support intervention where a peer leader facilitates active learning sessions with a small group of students to reinforce various concepts introduced in a course. PLTL has been successful in improving student performance and persistence in STEM disciplines in traditional face-to-face classroom environments but has yet to be fully explored in an online asynchronous environment. The peer leaders facilitate the learning sessions with students in foundational engineering courses that have the highest attrition rate such as aerodynamics, statics, digital circuits and fluid mechanics. The intent of the PLTL is to assist in the learning while building relationships between students to enhance the collaborative experience. Similar to the traditional classroom, PLTL support has potential to yield promising results when implemented at a unique, private university recognized for offerings in aerospace and aviation-related degrees.Guiding Questions: How does students’ participation in PLTL activities in online engineering courses correlate to their a) commitment to engineering, b) engineering identity, and c) self-efficacy? How do students in PLTL activities compare to students in non-PLTL groups in terms of a) academic performance and b) persistence in engineering pathways?Outcomes: The research goal is to increase student’s academic performance and persistence in engineering pathways. The anticipated outcomes are that the average final grades of students participating in the PLTL labs will be higher than the baseline. Another outcome is that students in the PLTL labs will have a stronger commitment to engineering and higher persistence rate than those not in the PLTL labs. Discussion will build on Year 1 and 2 findings from the 3-year NSF sponsored project that seeks to explore new strategies to engage students early. The poster will also review findings based off qualitative responses on the experiences of veterans and adult learners in engineering pathways with a particular focus on the role of peer support.Broader Impact: The project addresses the immediate aviation and aerospace workforce needs to sustain and produce a diverse pipeline of non-traditional graduates from engineering programs. Expanded supports and access for non-traditional students, specifically veterans, has potentially transformative implications for the professional demographic of engineering careers. The project creates increased opportunity through the intentional placement of support interventions at critical points in students’ academic pathway with peer leader enhancements that align with areas where students’ show the greatest need for support as indicated by low assignment grades. Scalability of the model of support has transferrable utility across STEM disciplines, specifically within online programs and in the courses students are co-enrolled such as physics and differential equations. The research will contribute to other fields through findings that resonate with efforts to enhance pathways into STEM careers and create supports for veteran groups that function in both formal and informal learning settings at critical junctures in engineering pathways. Additionally, this work will bring to light how military and veteran peer leaders perform with the collaborative team learning support and how military and veteran students respond to peer leadership.
Coauthors
Dr. David Harvie, Dr. Keith Wilson, Dr. Monica Surrency, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL.
