Gender Differences in First-Year Engineering: Peer Connections in the Time of COVID-19
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Date
2022-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Connection with peers is one of the most important factors in determining the persistence of students in engineering. During the COVID-19 pandemic, engineering classes transitioned to fully online learning. Little research has been done on the effect of this online learning on student's social networks. This study sought to understand the factors that affect the connections students
are making within a single first-year engineering course at The Ohio State University. The study included the university's honors and standard offerings of the course. Participants were sent a Qualtrics survey that included ranking their level of connection to every student in each class on a scale from 0 (don't know this person) to 4 (Strong connection). Students were also
asked Likert scale and opinion questions on their feelings of belonging in engineering and online learning. In total, there were 32 usable responses. Overall, females self-reported a higher average number of "Strong" and "Good" connections than
males. A Mann-Whitney U test showed that this difference in number of connections was significant. To assess which factors affected the number of Strong and Good connections students self-reported, several ANOVA tests were conducted. These tests found that gender, feeling supported in the class, and class offering (honors vs. standard) yielded significant differences between groups. The study also found that out of all classes, a over 85% of students Strongly agreed that they would have formed better connections with their peers had their classes been in person. In order to visualize student connections within each class, social network diagrams were created using UCINET software. These diagrams supported the findings that females tended to self-report
more Good/Strong connections. These diagrams also suggest differences in social networks in the honors and standard offerings of the courses. Students in the standard sections seemed to self-report Good/Strong connections with distinct 4-5 person groups. Conversely, students in the Honors sections self=reported being generally connected with a majority of students in their class
and did not appear to have distinct groups. Because a majority of each class did not participate in the survey, the conclusions on gender and connections were limited to the students who responded. Future work should collect more complete responses from each class and include follow-up interviews with students to better understand student perspectives on connections and virtual learning.
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Keywords
women in engineering, COVID-19, peer support, social network analysis, zoom, first-year engineering