Course Interventions to Promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Engineering Curricula

Abstract Key Words: Engineering, Undergraduate, Race/Ethnicity, Gender Diverse representation on Engineering teams leads to more robust solutions to meet the needs of more people in society. This is recognized by the Accrediting Board of Engineering and Technology's Student Outcome 5 that requires Engineering programs to ensure students have "an ability to… create a collaborative and inclusive environment" upon graduation. As such, for the last three years Elon Engineering has explored an approach to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in engineering by educating students on 1) evidence of lacking diverse representation in engineering and science today, 2) the value of diverse representation on Engineering teams, and 3) inclusive practices individuals can adopt and how these actions promote diversity. Our aim was to ensure this approach introduced students to DEI, reinforced concepts in multiple engineering courses, and enabled us to assess their demonstration of inclusive practices. We started by making interventions in two courses: Grand Challenges in Engineering (first-year design course) and Statics (second-year mechanics course). The main aim for Challenges in Engineering was to introduce students to DEI in Engineering. In 2018 and 2019, the lesson was taught in a single class period. Students read the article "The Importance of Diversity in Engineering" by William Wolf, former President of the National Academy of Engineering, to recognize the need for diversity in Engineering before being guided through an exercise to identify inclusive practices they could establish to promote diversity. Students were also directed to DEI resources, such as demographic-specific professional engineering societies. In 2018, the discussion was broad, resulting in students having difficulty connecting the discussion to real-world design examples. In 2019, the module evolved to guide students through an exercise rooted more deeply in real-world examples. Students were tasked with identifying engineering projects that would benefit from a diverse perspective, then identifying the unique perspectives they bring to the table based on their lived experience, and finally identifying inclusive practices they could start now that would promote diversity. While there was evidence of improvement compared to 2018, it was clear from student feedback and survey scores that the single-day modules did not provide a meaningful introduction to DEI in Engineering. In 2020, after consultation with Elon's Center for Advancement in Teaching and Learning, the module was extended to a 3-day lesson. First, students discussed their personal value systems, which has been shown to improve performance among underrepresented groups in Engineering courses. Next, the importance of DEI in engineering was discussed with the Wolf article and real-world non-inclusive design examples. Finally, students reflected on ways their team members could make them feel included and were asked to reflect on their team's inclusive practices throughout the semester. The intervention was assessed in two ways; first as an extra credit midterm question where students defined inclusive practices and explained how they promote diversity (2018 and 2020), and second through surveys at the end of the semester (2018-2020). In 2020, student responses indicated a vast improvement in the reception of the intervention by students, and their perception of the importance of DEI in engineering. Additionally, nearly all students were able to at least partially define inclusive practices and how they relate to promoting diversity in 2020 compared to the majority of students that were unable to do this in previous years. In Statics, a project inviting students to articulate their own Statics story was developed with inspiration from "Story Corps." The first year, the assignment was introduced by asking students to conduct a quick content analysis of the textbook and simply asking them to create a problem that reflected who they are in the broadest sense. The assignment document included an example from an old edition of the textbook featuring a high-heeled shoe; which stood out because it offered a different perspective from other problems in the textbook. The next iteration of the project assignment included an example problem created by the instructor and students were encouraged to watch the TED talk "The Danger of a Single Story" by novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In the talk, Adichie explains that single stories about individuals most often lead to misrepresentation, misunderstanding, and missed opportunities. The third iteration of the project assignment included allowing time in class to watch excerpts of Adichie's TED talk, additional content to demonstrate the importance of diverse perspectives in engineering, demographic data about the engineering degrees awarded in 2020, and the project deliverable was changed to a photo plus a narrative about the Statics concept represented in the photo instead of the development of an actual Statics problem. Interventions were assessed by the quantitative results of a post-intervention survey and the quality of their project submissions. During the project lifespan, student project submissions have become increasingly connected to personal experiences and professional goals. In summary, Elon Engineering has developed curricular interventions to promote DEI from 2018-2020. Assessment of these interventions over the three years provides evidence of an improvement in student attitudes and knowledge of DEI in Engineering. It is important to acknowledge that these interventions did not occur in isolation. The 3-year span included a polarizing Presidential election, a developing civil rights movement, and a pandemic, all of which impacted the authors and may have impacted students who participated in these studies. Nonetheless, Elon Engineering is currently in the process of permanently integrating the approaches in the two courses they have been piloted in, so that all students benefit from the DEI lessons regardless of who teaches those courses. Moving forward, these evidence-based approaches will be integrated more fully into the curriculum with interventions in upper-level Engineering courses.