Conceptualizing Engagement: Contributions of Faculty to Student Engagement in Engineering

The concept of student engagement, now prominent in the engineering education and higher education communities, has a long intellectual history. Yet only recently has attention focused on the role that faculty play as designers of educational environments to support student engagement. Drawing from examples and data from the Engineering Change study (which evaluated the impact of the new EC2000 accreditation standards on engineering programs and student learning), the Academic Pathways Study of the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education, and studies underway at the United States Air Force Academy, we explore the role of faculty, as the institutional agents who are most proximal to the student experience, in developing, facilitating, and sustaining high levels of student engagement.     

Outcomes of a Longitudinal Administration of the Persistence in Engineering Survey

Background Understanding more about student decisions to leave engineering may lead to higher retention. This study builds on the literature and focuses on the experiences of a cohort of students who aimed to complete their undergraduate work in 2007. Purpose (Hypothesis ) This paper presents the outcomes of the longitudinal administration of the Persistence in Engineering survey. The goal was to identify correlates of persistence in undergraduate engineering education and professional engineering practice. Design /Method The survey was administered seven times over four years to a cohort of students who had expressed interest in studying engineering. At the end of the study, the participants were categorized as persisters or non‐persisters. Repeated measures analysis of variance was used, in conjunction with other approaches, to test for differences between the groups. Results Persisters and non‐persisters did not differ significantly according to the majority of the constructs. Nevertheless, parental and high school mentor influences as a motivation to study engineering, as well as confidence in math and science skills, were identified as correlates of persistence. Intention to complete an engineering major was also a correlate of persistence; it appears to decline sharply at least two semesters prior to students leaving engineering. The findings also suggest that there might be differences among non‐persisters when they are further grouped by when they leave engineering. Conclusions Facilitating higher levels of mentor involvement before college might increase student motivation to study engineering, and also constitute a mechanism for fostering confidence in math and science skills. Since the intention to complete an engineering degree decreases well before students act, there may be opportunities for institutions to develop targeted interventions for students, and help them make informed decisions.     

An Examination of Indicators of Engineering Students' Success and Persistence

Student success and persistence within the major and university were examined through hierarchical linear and logistic regression analyses for two cohorts of engineering students. Indicators of success and persistence were based on theoretical and empirical evidence and included both cognitive and noncognitive variables. Cognitive variables included high school rank, SAT scores, and university cumulative grade point average. Noncognitive factors included academic motivation and institutional integration. Outcome variables included grade point average, enrollment at the university, and status as an engineering major. Gender differences also were evaluated. Several significant relationships among the variables were found. For instance, increased levels of motivation were significantly related to continuing in the major. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

在污染环境中个体的持续生存与绝灭

近年来,国内外许多学者对环境污染下种群的持续生存与绝灭进行了大量的研究。但是,有关污染环境中非自治个体生长模型的研究刚刚起步,有关这方面的文章还很少见到。本文对具有毒素影响的非自治个体生长模型进行了研究,给出了个体持续生存与绝灭的一些充分条件。     

Comparing the Undergraduate Experience of Engineers to All Other Majors: Significant Differences are Programmatic

Background The authors partnered with the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to examine how persistence within the engineering major and engagement of undergraduate students in engineering compare to other majors. Purpose (Hypothesis ) We explored three research questions: How do engineering students rate their college engagement compared to students in other majors? How do engineering persisters, non‐persisters, and migrators compare in terms of collegiate engagement, time on task, and enriching educational experiences? What college engagement factors predict persistence in engineering? Design /Method Data are from nearly 12,000 students who completed the NSSE survey in their first and senior years as undergraduates. Surveys were analyzed using ANOVA and Chi‐square calculations to determine whether differences emerged in three dimensions of student engagement based on students' self‐reported major. Due to the large sample, effect size was used to determine statistical significance. Binary logistic regression was used to identify factors that predict persistence among first year students and seniors in engineering. Results Results show that engineering majors are similar to non‐engineering majors on most variables. However, engineering majors reported significantly higher gains in practical competence and higher order thinking, but the lowest means on reflective learning and gains in general education. Engineering majors reported significantly more time preparing for class and less time participating in educationally enriching experiences. Conclusions We conclude that different educational outcomes between majors are the result of programmatic differences. The packed engineering curriculum requires students to make trade‐offs between gaining practical/marketable skills and participating in educationally enriching activities. We question this trade‐off and suggest alternative approaches.     

A Middleware for Polyglot Persistence and Data Portability of Big Data PaaS Cloud Applications

Vendor lock-in can occur at any layer of the cloud stack-Infrastructure, Platform, and Software-as-a-service. This paper covers the vendor lock-in issue at Platform as a Service (PaaS) level where applications can be created, deployed, and managed without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. These applications and their persisted data on one PaaS provider are not easy to port to another provider. To overcome this issue, we propose a middleware to abstract and make the database services as cloud-agnostic. The middleware supports several SQL and NoSQL data stores that can be hosted and ported among disparate PaaS providers. It facilitates the developers with data portability and data migration among relational and NoSQL-based cloud databases. NoSQL databases are fundamental to endure Big Data applications as they support the handling of an enormous volume of highly variable data while assuring fault tolerance, availability, and scalability. The implementation of the middleware depicts that using it alleviates the efforts of rewriting the application code while changing the backend database system. A working protocol of a migration tool has been developed using this middleware to facilitate the migration of the database (move existing data from a database on one cloud to a new database even on a different cloud). Although the middleware adds some overhead compared to the native code for the cloud services being used, the experimental evaluation on Twitter (a Big Data application) data set, proves this overhead is negligible.     

具有多时滞和广义扩散的N-种群竞争反馈控制系统的持久性

本文讨论了一类具有αi类功能性反应函数和广义扩散的n种群竞争反馈控制生态系统的持续生存性.利用比较原理,得到了系统的所有正解最终有界的条件.通过构造持久生存函数,给出了系统一致持久生存的充分条件,并导出了系统的持久生存域.最后,通过建立具体模型说明所得结果的可实现性.研究结果表明,时滞不影响系统的持续生存性,通过适当控制扩散率,可使系统中的各个种群长期共存.     

DGH方程的持久性和唯一连续性

本文研究了DGH方程的持久性和唯一连续性.我们证明:如果DGH方程的强解与它的空间导数在初始时刻指数递减,而且在以后的任一时刻解本身也指数递减,那么解必然恒为零.     

顾客融入视角下服务价值共创的类型、维度及效果

目的 在服务设计与整合创新语境下,讨论如何实现服务价值共创的过程,以及如何评价共创的结果。方法 从顾客融入视角,根据卷入度的不同,将服务共创行为划分为“共同完成任务”的参与式共创、“建立长期关系”的融入式共创以及“获得短暂友谊”的其他类型共创;同时指出服务价值共创行为是多元的、复杂的,可从认知、情感、行为三个维度展开;建议从强度和时间两个维度来评估共创的效果。结论 服务价值共创“类型-维度-效果”研究框架的构建,完善了服务设计中传递阶段的理论基础,为服务设计师通过合理的流程和触点设计降低“服务体验不确定性”提供了方法论依据。