Communicating Academic Success: Shaping an Inclusive Learning Environment to Promote Student Engagement in Engineering Education

Classroom environments that involve and encourage active student participation have demonstrated positive impact on student learning, engagement, and overall academic success.Studies reveal that healthy learning environments may further be established by incorporating effective channels of communication which eliminate certain barriers and address factors that limit student participation such as student motivation, self-esteem, and issues relating to student-faculty relationships.This is especially vital for diverse students and those from underserved and underrepresented communities, who often find it difficult to participate and engage in classroom interactions due to feelings of intimidation.In this study, two communication strategies from the recently established pedagogical model ECNQ (acronym for Engage, Communicate, Names, and Questions) were implemented in an effort to address contemporary learning challenges in engineering education.Specifically, encouraging student participation and inquiring questions were the [model] strategies recurringly implemented when solving step-by-step example problems during lecture sessions.Collective learning and active participation during the process of solving problems were targeted amongst students to stimulate a healthy environment and promote diverse modes of inquiry.In this regard, a total of 70 students enrolled in an Engineering Dynamics course participated in a self-developed survey.Results indicate that 98% of the students felt the instructor created a friendly environment conducive to learning, while more than 85% of the participants felt encouraged to participate when solving example problems.Based on the open-ended responses, students gained different perspectives on engineering problems when challenged outside the norm, and thus forced to think outside the box.