The effect of course sequence on the retention of freshmen engineering students: when should the intro engineering course be offered?

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ECE 100, Introduction to Engineering Design, is required of all students in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) students at Arizona State University (ASU), USA. Due to space and staffing constraints, approximately half of the students entering in the fall take the course during their first semester and the other half does so during their second semester in the Spring. Most of the students who take ECE 100 in the Spring do not take any engineering course in their first semester. Studies done when the introductory course was in a different format suggested that if engineering students took the introductory engineering course during their first semester, their rate of retention was higher than for those who took the course in the Spring. In a recent study, it was shown that the retention rate of the fall 95 first-time, full-time freshmen (FFF) in ECE 100 their first semester had a higher retention rate one year later than the average FFF in the CEAS. ECE 100 students were surveyed in the Fall 95 and Spring 96 semesters. Surprisingly, for all groups-men, women and minority students-retention was higher after two years for those students who took ECE 100 in the Spring. This difference was significant for the male students. Among FFF students, while men did better taking ECE 100 in the Spring, women and minority students showed a trend of higher retention by taking ECE 100 in the Fall. This trend would suggest that special programs for FFF women and minority students, not in ECE 100 in the Fall, might help increase retention.