Improving student success through an effective learner-centered course in introductory engineering, mathematics, and programming

Academic success of engineering students in sophomore and junior years have been tied to their successful navigation of the first-year program that typically includes fundamental courses in engineering, programming, and mathematics. While mathematics is a core of engineering, it is often cited as a reason for poor performance in sophomore courses. Addressing this challenge, this paper reports a first-year course to bridge the student knowledge gap between engineering, programming, and mathematics, and demonstrates improved student learning. This new course was designed and taught for two years to 233 students. Student performance in the proposed course and follow-up sophomore circuit analysis course is tracked and analyzed. The effectiveness of the proposed course is validated through an increase in student performance and their perceptions of their learning experience across several academic years. Results showed that students have a better understanding of engineering and programming concepts as evidenced by their performance in the proposed first-year course, and in the follow-up sophomore circuit analysis course. In comparison with control and experimental groups, the number of students who are at risk of failure in Circuit Analysis course has decreased from 32% to 25%. Additionally, the number of students that have the potential to succeed but needs motivation has increased from 17.6% to 27%.