Preliminary Findings From A Quantitative Study: What Are Students Learning During Cooperative Education Experiences?

Since most of our engineering students follow careers in industry, of particular importance is how cooperative experiences help to make better engineers. Although cooperative experiences are well-known to have many benefits to students and employers as well as have great potential for bringing active learning to the undergraduate level, there is limited empirical evidence of students’ learning outcomes as a result of these experiences. Preliminary findings from a validated survey instrument, National Engineering Students’ Learning Outcomes Survey (NESLOS), derived from ABET criteria, are presented. Key findings of what students learned and valued, insight into variations across female and male students, and student career path goals are presented. These findings can aid engineering departments, cooperative education professionals, career service offices at institutions, and industry representatives to improve co-op experiences and assessment efforts.