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Abstract Engineering outreach programs aimed at students in higher education play a key role in providing pathways for students to access studies and careers in engineering. Marginalized and non-traditional students may not have the resources to represent their skills, goals and fit in the parlance and format that best matches program requirements and expectations, particularly during recruitment and admissions. This lack of knowledge of this 'hidden curriculum' can result in barriers to accessing and participating in outreach programs, despite the programs being designed to serve and actively seeking these underserved student populations. This paper presents a literature review that identifies good practices for the equitable design and implementation of outreach programs in engineering higher education that help lower these barriers and increase access. The paper also thematically analyzes two case studies of outreach programs that create pathways into engineering in the United States, and that have been designed to address these barriers, to describe good practices for recruitment strategies, equitable admissions & selection processes, and program design. The two case studies consist of an online program designed for computer science and engineering students, and an in-person program designed for aerospace students at community colleges. Insights will be gained by qualitatively analyzing program materials and staff perspectives for the purpose of improving program quality. The paper uses the literature research and the insights gained from the case studies, to extract a set of practices that would be of interest to designers of similar engineering outreach programs that serve marginalized and non-traditional students in higher education.
Travaglini et al. (Sun,) studied this question.