Targeting undergraduate students for surveys: Lessons from the Academic Pathways Of People Learning Engineering Survey (APPLES)

The academic pathways of people learning engineering survey (APPLES) was deployed in April 2007 targeting cross-sectional populations from four American universities. The goal of APPLES is to validate earlier findings from the academic pathways study on factors that correlate with persistence in engineering. There is minimal literature detailing the practical process and methodology for engineering education researchers to undertake thorough, statistically-sound survey research, particularly as it relates to reaching specific student groups within the undergraduate engineering population. We outline the APPLES development methodology, and specifically the lessons learned in deploying a multi-site, medium-scale survey. This paper details our process for constructing the sampling plan and the resulting design for the APPLE survey, and addresses issues relating to working with campus liaisons, subject recruitment and deployment. Finally, we share preliminary response rates and feedback from respondents to inform a model for conducting survey design and research for engineering education researchers.