"Folio Thinking" a new tool in retaining engineering students

Almost half of Stanford students who take the freshman engineering seminar decide not to pursue that field of study, a fact that has led Professor Larry Leifer and his research team to ponder ways to stop the exodus.

Now, with a $74,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Leifer plans to implement electronic learning portfolios or e-folios to engage the students in his freshman engineering seminar. The project will leverage work already in progress by SCIL's Helen Chen , who is exploring Folio Thinking as a means to deepen and improve learning inside and outside the classroom.

The goal of the project is to develop and evaluate a new instructional strategy for Engineering Education designed to increase student self-confidence, and in the long term, to increase the number of freshman engineering students who graduate and work in their field.

One important cause of the engineering student drain is students' expressed lack of confidence in their ability to practice engineering. Leifer's project, "Designing the Human Experience: Folio Thinking in Theory and Practice within a Freshman Engineering Seminar," will test whether the use of e-folios can improve student experience in three realms:

•  Students can experience their own thinking in engineering activities;
•  Students can create and see tangible evidence that they have formulated and solved interesting engineering problems;
•  Students will be guided to maximize the benefits of their experiences.

Folio Thinking is a unique teaching approach that is based on supporting students who are creating their own electronic learning portfolios with opportunities to reflect on the experience through coaching and other techniques. The use of e-folios in this study will include experimenting with weblogs or "blogs" to encourage students to capture their thoughts in an informal and personal manner while linking their reflections with digital photos, documents, websites, sketches, and other electronic artifacts.

Findings from the study, along with tools and materials that may serve as models for future such programs, will be shared at its conclusion.

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