The Effects of Co-Enrollment on the Retention and Success of Mechanical Engineering Freshmen

This Work-In-Progress paper describes ongoing efforts at Kennesaw State University to combine a two-credit introduction-to-major course with a three-credit first-year seminar course. We are also implementing learning communities that will tie first-year introduction-to-major courses with other first-year courses such as English Composition 1 (ENGL 1101) and Introduction to Graphics. Since Mechanical Engineering is the largest engineering department at Kennesaw State, we are piloting this idea with a three-credit Introduction to Mechanical Engineering (ME 1001) course that includes learning outcomes typically found in a first-year seminar course. While trying to create a learning community for this project last fall, we experienced complications getting all instructors to agree to collaborate on content and assignments, which afforded us the opportunity to investigate the effects of co-enrollment alone on the academic success of first-year mechanical engineering students taking the same sections of a 2-credit-hour ME 1001 and a 3-credit-hour ENGL 1101. Academic success in ME 1001 among the students who were co-enrolled and those who were not co-enrolled is compared in this study. The success of the students was tracked using the following rubrics: attendance, course grades, peer evaluations during the design project, and retention for the following semester in the mechanical engineering program. The students that were co-enrolled had similar attendance and peer evaluation rates in the ME 1001 class, but earned lower grades in all areas. However the retention of the students that were co-enrolled was higher during the subsequent semester. Deeper analysis into the profiles of the students indicated that there were additional contributing factors to student success, and that student maturity and university experience may outweigh potential benefits of co-enrollment.