FLEXIBLE AND SUSTAINABLE INTERVENTIONS FOR MATHEMATICS SUPPORT OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS

In responding to the need to improve retention in the first year of engineering, many institutions have developed a range of academic support programs, including learning communities, peer mentoring, summer bridge programs, tutorial services and supplemental instructional workshops(1,2,3,4,5). Student participation in these programs is intended to engage students more actively in their own learning processes, thus leading to improved learning outcomes, increased student motivation and, ultimately, retention(6,7). In this paper, we describe the re-design of a traditional mathematics support program focusing on engineering and computer science students in their first-year of a four-year degree in the LC Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science at Syracuse University. We will present data that assesses student perceptions and performance in both the traditional and re-designed support programs and will make recommendations for future work in this area.