This research paper describes a qualitative analysis of open-ended responses to a survey administered during COVID-19. In April of 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, an anonymous survey was administered in the engineering colleges at California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly, SLO), both part of the California State University (CSU) system. The survey collected quantitative and qualitative responses to track student, staff, and faculty wellbeing. A previous paper examined the quantitative responses of students [1] and found profound differences between the two schools. This paper will use qualitative methods to look more deeply at the responses to the two open-ended questions. The two schools have very different contexts; one is urban and primarily Hispanic, while the other is rural, primarily white, and selective in admissions. Qualitative analysis with inductive coding was used to develop themes and insights from the data. The analysis was conducted through a lens of structural inequities and power. The contrasting demographics and contexts of each university illustrates the systems that emphasize equality instead of equity. Both the individual situations of the people in the system and the structural support systems produce much different outcomes. These can be seen in the narrative responses. In addition to the contrasts related to race and economic resources, the systems of privilege and power are also clear in the narratives. Staff and students had a different experience than faculty. We also experimented with generative AI (ChatGPT-4) to develop themes in the data. A short discussion on the usefulness and potential negative impact of this new technology will be briefly explored. It is our hope that understanding the impact of the themes during the COVID-19 pandemic on the survey of participants and the characteristics of each university can inform more effective interventions and support measures for educational institutions to consider the unique needs of a diverse campus. In addition, we argue that it will be important to consider equity in all interventions.

This research, full paper examines the impact of introducing asset-based perspectives on faculty mental models of teaching and learning through participation in a Community of Practice. Ongoing research at California State University, Los Angeles is exploring how faculty perspectives are affected after participating in a community of practice intended to promote asset-based thinking towards students. This research challenges the factory-based framing of engineering education and advocates for an ecosystem model, where all participants-students, faculty, and staff-recognize their interdependence and embrace authenticity. This paper is based on qualitative data from minute papers, or participant reflections. Through inductive qualitative coding of this data, the research team has developed a code book with themes around Insights into Mindsets and Critical Points regarding understanding asset-based perspectives. Our results, contribute to the conversation about changing mental models, by tracing the journey of different faculty as they learn about asset-based perspective, process their learning through discussion and application, and how introducing this different framework affects faculty perspectives on students. This conversation is particularly important as we continue to create more inclusive classrooms, especially when faculty and students have differing experiences, based on different social identities (e.g. different racial/ethnic identities, socioeconomic status, gender identity). The contributions will also include implications for practice as we understand how faculty consider asset-based perspectives.

This research-to-practice pre-conference workshop brings insights and approaches to equitable syllabus development to college-level instructors. The organizers synthesize their experiences and research on the structures, culture, and equity initiatives of US engineering education. The first half of the workshop presents participants with frameworks for thinking about equitable engineering syllabi and a technique for actualizing those values (i.e., the organizers' syllabus toolkit). In the second half, participants apply and reflect upon their insights and techniques with a sample syllabus and then participants' own instructional materials. Participants will leave the two-and-a-half-hour workshop with skills and methods for evaluating their syllabi in addition to concrete revisions of their own materials.

The General Engineering Program at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, is non-ABET accredited and must participate in a university level Program Review every seven years. As part of this process a self-study is produced, followed by a visit from several external reviewers, which results in action planning for program improvement. This mirrors the ABET accreditation process and is typical for reviews of this type. This General Engineering program was launched in 1972 which of course was preceded by several years of development, review, and planning. The period of the program's development (1968–1972) was also one of great social, political, and cultural upheaval: the end of the Vietnam War, the tumultuous Civil Rights movement, and the counterculture efforts rejecting many social norms. It is the thesis of this work that this cultural context, and the identity of those who developed it, influenced the program at inception and may be influencing it still. To explore these foundations, the program director engaged an undergraduate history student to research and write a historical narrative. Original documents from the period including newspaper articles, press releases, and founding documents were used along with recognition of the social political landscape to reveal the important context at inception. This paper will include the relevant portions of the historical narrative and the methods used to do this in the review.

This Innovative Practice Work in Progress presents a step toward using virtual reality technology in the undergraduate electrical engineering classroom to offer remote students and students with disabilities access to ‘hands-on’ engineering labs. In this paper, we describe the VR pilot labs created for our freshman-level electronic circuits course and present initial feedback from students concerning the effectiveness of the VR environment for learning their way around a basic electronic circuits laboratory.

This is a work-in-progress in the Research category investigating transfer student participation in co-curricular activities. Transfer students at 4-year universities are often considered as secondary-priority students. In this paper, we investigate engineering transfer student participation in co-curricular activities at a predominantly undergraduate polytechnic university. Survey results from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, a primarily undergraduate institution on participation in co-curricular activities is presented. We discuss the impact of the COVID pandemic on the survey results, showing that the pandemic has severely decreased participation in co-curricular activities for all students. Survey results also demonstrate a correlation between students to participate in significant co-curricular activities are greater than 20% more likely to attain major-related summer internships than students who do not. Finally, we discuss barriers to co-curricular participation for transfer students, and how the COVID pandemic has impacted this group of students differently than first-time-first-year students.