Developing learning communities of new students to increase retention

The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Kansas State University introduced New Student Assembly for freshman and transfer students in fall 2005 as part of a department level reform (DLR) planning project funded by the National Science Foundation. The main goal of this two-semester course is to provide a friendly atmosphere to students to ease their transition into college life, learn about the department, and make friends with peers and seniors within the department. The ultimate objective is to provide better connection with the department to the new students to increase retention. The department head and nine upper-class students, who perform the role of mentors for the new students, facilitate the assembly, which is held once a month during each semester. The mentors also met twice in a semester outside the class with students in their assigned group for a fun activity of their choice, such as bowling, pool, or ice cream social. This activity provides time for further interactions in a relaxed atmosphere. During the assembly several icebreaking interactive activities and discussions on learning styles and myths and realities of being an engineering student are conducted. Other activities include short presentations by student groups and selected industry representatives. The students are also given an on-line questionnaire about the department and a group exercise of meeting their advisor. Teams of students build a robot to perform certain specified tasks from the "Lego Mindstormstrade" kit during the second semester. These teams compete with each other during the all university open house in April. Details of all the activities conducted, feedback received from students, and retention data showing effectiveness of the assembly are presented in this paper.