Resource usage and usefulness: academic help-seeking behaviours of undergraduate engineering students

ABSTRACT

Help-seeking behaviours (HSB) are central to the learning process and have a profound impact on academic success. We explore the HSB of students enrolled in a Mechanical Engineering programme at a large research-intensive university in the U.S. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, we examine ten resources available to assist students, the frequency with which students use these resources, the perceived usefulness of these resources and students’ stated rationale in seeking help from specific resources. Results indicate that students use the available resources at different frequencies, but the frequency with which a student uses a resource is not always related to how useful the student perceives the resource to be. Using Exploratory Factor Analysis, resources were divided into two main groups based on frequency of use, which we classify as ‘anchored’ or ‘detached’ based on temporal and spatial accessibility. Patterns emerge in student HSB showing that students access resources in a progression from more detached to more anchored resources. The primary explanatory variable to student HSB is convenience, defined by temporal and spatial accessibility. The more convenient a resource is perceived to be, the more likely a student is to use that resource.

KEYWORDS:

• Help-seeking behaviour
• higher education
• study habits
• engineering education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under [Grant No. EEC-1519412]. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth Wirtz

Elizabeth Wirtz is a postdoctoral research fellow in the school of Engineering Education at Purdue University. A cultural anthropologist, her research centers on: refugees/forced migration, reproductive/maternal health, fertility, sexual and gender-based violence, structural violence, humanitarianism in development/relief, organizational anthropology, human centered design in technology and engineering, and STEM higher education. She serves as a co-chair of the Gender Based Violence Topical Interest Group of the Society for Applied Anthropology and as the Special Interest Group Membership Coordinator for the Society for Medical Anthropology.

Amy Dunford

Amy K. Dunford is a graduate student and research assistant at Purdue University pursuing her Ph.D. in Engineering Education. Her education research focuses on assessment and pedagogical methods that promote conceptual understanding of engineering science content. Amy completed her B.S. in mechanical and aerospace engineering and her M.S. specializing in thermal systems. She spent one year as a graduate teaching assistant for first-year engineering courses then two years as an instructor and curriculum developer before joining Purdue Engineering Education.

Edward Berger

Edward Berger is an Associate Professor of Engineering Education and Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, joining Purdue in August 2014. He has been teaching mechanics for over 20 years, and has worked extensively on the integration and assessment of specific technology interventions in mechanics classes. He was one of the co-leaders in 2013-2014 of the ASEE Virtual Community of Practice (VCP) for mechanics educators across the country. His current research focuses on student problem-solving processes and use of worked examples, change models and evidence-based teaching practices in engineering curricula, and the role of non-cognitive and affective factors in student academic outcomes and overall success.

Elizabeth Briody

Elizabeth K. Briody, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist and founder of Cultural Keys LLC, consulting practice that helps organizations understand and transform their culture. She is working on a 5-year NSF RED grant (Revolutionizing Engineering Departments) with Purdue. Her recent books include Cultural Change from a Business Anthropology Perspective, 2018, with Maryann McCabe, and The Cultural Dimension of Global Business, 8^thed., 2017, with Gary Ferraro.

Gireesh Guruprasad

Gireesh Guruprasad is a product design and development engineer at American Mitsuba Corporation. He earned his Master’s degree in Aerospace, Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at Purdue University. He is passionate about the application of computational analyses to solve any problem. Being proficient in using commercial software packages for CFD and FEA, coding for CFD - fluid and thermal analyses, he likes to challenge himself to perform FEA and CFD analysis on various product designs.

Ryan Senkpeil

Ryan Senkpeil is the Director of Program Effectiveness at Project Lead the Way, a PreK-12 education non-profit. In this position Ryan leads product testing initiatives for new developments and monitors the health of existing courses. He also performs qualitative and quantitative analyses of student and teacher feedback to allow for evidence-based and data-driven improvements to the curricula and professional development offered by Project Lead the Way. Prior to this position, Ryan was a student at Purdue University where he earned a Ph.D. in Engineering Education. His primary research interests were statistically modelling the impact of first year engineers’ non-cognitive factors academic performance, and the developing interventions aimed at improving the non-cognitive factors of engineering students.