Improving student retention and soft skills: Faculty experiences on transitioning to active learning approaches on first-year engineering programs at Universidad Panamericana

Motivation and problem background. This complete evidence-based practice paper describes the pedagogical redesign process of an introductory physics course for first-year engineering students at Universidad Panamericana, and the experience of professors that applied problem and project-based learning methodologies. Teaching and learning concepts and approaches in higher education are experiencing dramatic transformations due to contextual changes in recent years. Contemporary teaching models are student-centered, and based on active learning, technology, and social media integration. Engineering education research has grown exponentially and even though there is vast evidence of how different teaching practices can improve learning, professors still face a lot of barriers to include them in their practice. Adequate transfer of conceptual knowledge to problem solving requires appropriate pedagogies that ensure student engagement in the learning process. Quality of instruction and pre-college preparation are key for student success in STEM courses, and therefore, in the decision of students to stay in their programs (Chen & Soldner, 2013,). In Mexico, according to ANFEI (National Association of Colleges and Schools of Engineering), only 40% of engineering students graduate on time. First-year course are easy for some students, but represent a big challenge for others, who frequently do not succeed (Vargas Leyva & Jiménez Hernández, 2015). In addition, research has shown that student's prior mathematics and physics training, as well as their academic attitude, influence their decision to stay in STEM majors (Astin, 1993). Besides, since 2010, Universidad Panamericana has deployed a series of strategies to help students strengthen the professional skills. These strategies include skills ABET proposed for engineering graduates, such as multidisciplinary teamwork, critical thinking, and effective communication. Nevertheless, there is still a significant gap between the skills engineering graduates need to succeed in the workplace and those developed through college experience. To address the previous concerns, the Center for Innovation in Education was invited to collaborate with the College of Engineering at Universidad Panamericana to redesign an introductory physics course. Problem and Project-based Learning (PBL) methodologies were chosen to teach the course and strategies to develop students’ soft skills were included. The course was taught in the fall of 2017. This paper is divided into two parts. In the first part we describe the redesign process that the Center for Innovation in Education followed in collaboration with three engineering faculty members teaching the course. The second part we present the experiences of the eight professors that taught the redesigned course. ©2019 American Society for Engineering Education