(213d) Relationship between Students’ Engineering Identity and Self-Efficacy and Participation in an Engineering Education Enrichment Program

The development of engineering skills through engagement in co-curricular learning strategies is an important contributing factor for preparing engineering students for the global workplace. There is also evidence linking engineering identity and self-efficacy to educational and professional achievements. While the effects of co-curricular and extracurricular activities and engineering identity on academic outcomes have been studied, direct measurements relating engineering identity and self-efficacy and choosing to participate in activities that prepare students for effective professional careers are not available.

The College of Engineering at New Mexico State University (NMSU) has developed an Engineering Education Enrichment (e3 Initiative) program funded by the National Science Foundation to help students to develop professional skills through industry-guided design projects, industry-recognized certifications, and entrepreneurship training. To examine whether students with higher engineering identity and self-efficacy are more likely to participate in the e3 Initiative, a survey was administered in Fall 2020 to NMSU undergraduate students from all engineering majors who were invited to participate in the e3 Initiative. Survey instruments had been developed and validated in previous research to measure identity based on three key constructs: self-beliefs of their interest, performance/competence, and recognition within engineering. Several items were also adopted from the literature to measure general and engineering self-efficacy. We expect to find that students who have high engineering identity and engineering self-efficacy will be more likely to participate in the e3 Initiative program. A better understanding of how engineering identity and self-efficacy are linked to co-curricular activities can help us to better support the academic success of all engineering students.