Background: Graduation rates in engineering programs continue to be a concern in higher education. Prior research has documented an association between students' experiences in first-year mathematics courses and graduation rates, but the influences of the mathematics courses completed and the grades earned are not fully understood. Purpose: The…

Many interventions have been proposed to improve the retention and graduation rates of engineering students. One such intervention is to use study groups for first-year college students; such groups provide a structured environment in which the students can learn course material from each other outside of class and can provide the students with a…

This dissertation comprises a sequential explanatory mixed methods study seeking to understand persistence in engineering based on a student's initial mathematics course and the experience of a student who began in the lowest level mathematics course and completed an engineering degree despite struggling in mathematics courses. The first phase of…

This paper describes the development of a Peer-Led Guided Inquiry (PLGI) program for teaching calculus at the University of South Florida. This approach uses the POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) teaching strategy and the small group learning model PLTL (Peer-Led Team Learning). The developed materials used a learning cycle based on…