Gender Differences in First-Year Engineering: Peer Connections in the time of COVID-19

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 online learning on students' social networks. This study sought to understand the factors that affect the connections students are making within a 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) 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, over 85% of students strongly agreed that they would have formed better connections with their peers had their classes been in person. 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 will include creating social network diagrams in order to visualize connections within each class. Future work should also collect additional responses and include follow-up interviews to better understand student perspectives on connections and virtual learning. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022