Building A Successful Fundamentals Of Engineering For Honors Program
Audeen Fentiman, John Demel, Richard Freuler
Abstract
In the early 1990s, Ohio State found that all incoming engineering students were being retained to graduation with a degree in engineering at a rate of about 38 percent. Honors students were being retained at approximately a 50 to 60 percent rate. In 1992, Ohio State joined with nine other engineering colleges to form the Gateway Engineering Education Coalition where one of the goals was to improve retention. Other goals were to develop modern curricula, to introduce technology into the classroom, to develop faculty to be better teachers, and to develop students to be better and life-long learners. The model for developing Ohio State's lower division programs was Drexel University's E4 program. This paper describes the development of the Fundamentals of Engineering for Honors Program at Ohio State, the resulting increase in retention, the building of community, the effect on recruiting good students, and the support of industry.