Student Chosen Professional Contributions In The Freshman Experience

A novel approach to the freshman experience was used in the Introduction to Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering course at North Dakota State University (NDSU) towards maximizing retention using professional contributions. The students were required to become members of either the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) or Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) and make a contribution to the respective student organization for fifty percent of their course grade. This encouraged student chosen engagements with industry, professors, upper classmen, and each other. The resultant activities accommodated individual learning styles, interests, and career paths. Based on the Individual Development and Educational Assessment (IDEA) Center nationally normalized long-form survey of the student reactions to this instruction and course, three aspects of the teaching methods and style were rated significantly higher than for other classes of similar size and level of student motivation. These highly rated aspects were relevant to the essential and important objectives of the course and involved fostering student collaboration, establishing rapport, and encouraging student involvement. This paper introduces the course, explains its pedagogy, summarizes the student chosen professional contributions, and demonstrates its value through the IDEA student survey results, National Survey of Student Engagement results, and NDSU Student Rating of instruction results. Introduction The one credit course titled "Introduction to Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering" is the first Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (IME) Department course taken by students considering a career in Industrial Engineering and Management (IE) or Manufacturing Engineering (ME) at North Dakota State University (NDSU). As such, it was especially desirable to maximize the student ratings of the course, which was considered important for student retention. There were four primary objectives for each student to reach during the course. (1) Understand what industrial and manufacturing engineers do. (2) Experience how industrial or manufacturing engineers learn. (3) Appreciate why industrial and manufacturing engineers lean systems. (4) Practice self-directed learning. These objectives were conceived to lead each student into the knowledge and engage each student in the activity of either the industrial engineering curriculum or the manufacturing engineering curriculum, as the two options available in the Department.