EMBER: Bridging academic, social, and personal skills of students in transition to university

Entering university from high school is a critical transition. Identity formation is at stake (Berzonsky & Kuk, 2016) and the process can negatively impact wellbeing (Fisher & Hood, 1987). Research calls universities to create relevant programs to support first-year undergraduate students' transition to the university (Levitz, Noel, & Richter, 1999). In return, several universities have introduced proactive programs like developing first-year students' metacognition skills within an integrated first-year engineering curriculum (Ostafichuk, Nesbit, Ellis, & Tembrevilla, 2020) or introducing pedagogical scaffolding approaches like faculty-student-industry engagements (Bolstad, Wallin, Lundheim, Larsen, & Tybell, 2020). Rutar and Mason (2005) introduced the excitement of university engineering design to high school students with first-year undergraduate students. In this paper, we introduced the Engineering Mentorship & Bridging Education Resources (EMBER), a bridging program to help first-year engineering students a month before the start of their course which was converted into a full online scheme due to the pandemic. Briefly, EMBER had asynchronous and synchronous offerings. There were three asynchronous online streams for Math, Physics, and Chemistry learning modules, interactive summative tests, and discussion boards. There was a 2-week synchronous online tutorial mentored by former first-year students who are called Learning Resource Assistants (LRAs). The sessions were interspersed between academic contents, clubs and teams orientation, and services in the faculty. This paper investigated how the EMBER program facilitated first-year engineering students' transition to the engineering community academically, socially, and personally. Data were gathered through an anonymous survey collected at the end of the program in combination of data from students' online engagement. The survey and online engagement data examined student-participants' academic preparedness, engagement with the modules, and interaction with fellow students and LRAs. Overall, 942 first-year students registered for EMBER, representing over 86% of the incoming class. Some 600 students accessed the online modules, around 550 students attended at least one live tutorial, and approximately 250 students actively engaged in the live tutorials throughout the two weeks. From the 125 survey responses collected, 96% of the students felt more prepared for first year, agreed that the modules were engaging, and would recommend EMBER to incoming first-year students. LRAs' roles were crucial as 94% of the students emphasized their appreciation of how LRAs made them feel welcomed. Daily online presentations and interactions with fellow students and LRAs during live tutorials made EMBER a platform to connect students to the engineering community. One student commented that "all of the upper year students teaching the tutorials were extremely helpful and open about their own experiences in engineering which made me feel like I was entering a supportive community…". Another student expressed that "I loved being able to interact with my peers and with upper-year students during the live tutorials, talking about everything from academics, to work-life balancing tips…" EMBER introduced a relevant experience when first-year students badly needed one under the threat of the pandemic. It allowed students to interact, lowered the degree of social separation and anxiety within the course, and developed a sense of belonging to a community within a program (Furlong & Cartmel, 2009). We argue that EMBER, as a bridging program, blends engineering and socialization. As a disciplinary socialization, it creates stronger connections among the students, engineering program, and community rather than stand-alone virtual social activities that are disconnected from the program (Bolstad et al., 2020; Porter & Fuller, 1998). Next year, we will investigate student-participants' specific learning experience with EMBER across cohort's demographics. We will conduct a nested case study to trace how student-participants' experience in academic, curricular, and extra-curricular programs in their respective high school of origins could be further connected with EMBER's offerings and through EMBER, a more successful academic, social, and personal transition into first-year engineering.