(676d) Influence of Human Social Networks On Engineering Education

Here we elucidate the influence of special actors within class social networks on student academic performance and commitment to chemical engineering.  Every chemical engineering department desires to enhance student performance and student commitment, expending significant resources in this pursuit.  However, very little is understood about how extracurricular (non-virtual) networks affect engineering student performance and certainty of their major.  Here we use social network analysis to evaluate the influence of three types of special actors within extracirrcular student networks, the top students (>93.5%), connectors (>7 links to others in the class), and persuaders (identified by >2 peers as convincing), on student performance and certainty of major in our introductory chemical engineering course.  We find direct connectivity to these special actors to have a significant and positive influence on student performance as measured by final grades, particularly for women, working students (>7 h/wk), and entering freshmen.  Direct connections to the least connected (≤1 link) or students with the lowest grades has a dramatically negative influence on the grades of transfer students.  Students who work or have long commutes also report statistically significant commitment to the major.  We also highlight the influence of randomly assigned study buddies on student connectivity and specific strategies to enhance student performance based on these findings.