Effects of Large-Scale Programmatic Change on Electrical and Computer Engineering Transfer Student Pathways

Abstract

Contribution: This article details the potential impacts of a curricular revision at a four-year institution on electrical and computer engineering (ECE) vertical transfer students using Heileman et al. 's curricular complexity framework. Background: The curriculum refresh was prompted by a National Science Foundation funded program called “Revolutionizing Engineering Departments”-encouraging departments to radically shift their curricula and cultures such that it is not possible to complete a one-to-one mapping between the former curriculum and new curriculum. The purpose of the study was to examine the extent to which transfer students could integrate into the new curriculum. Research Questions: This article addresses the following research question, “how did the structural complexities of the transfer student pathways into the ECE degree programs change from their previous iterations?” Methodology: Plans of the study were collected from 12 community colleges that had articulated pathways into ECE bachelor's degree programs ( n = 24 plans of study) at a four-year institution and aligned those plans with the university pathways both before and after the radical curricular change. The complexities of transfer degree pathways of the old and new curriculum were compared using Heileman et al.'s structural complexity metric. Findings: All transfer pathways in ECE increased in complexity by 84% on average. We found Computer Engineering to be a much less supported transfer pathway throughout the state's community college system compared to Electrical Engineering. Moreover, we found considerable variation in the community college system, raising concerns of consistency across partnerships in the state's system. Other programs can adopt the approach presented here to evaluate the complexity of their curricula.