Consortium on Quality Education Campus Statements

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

A. Campus description

Size

• 2,701 full-time undergraduates
• 424 full-time graduate students
• 396 part-time graduate students
• 219 full-time, tenure-track faculty

• Structure · WPI undergraduates are "traditional" four-year university students, ages 18-22, with strong interests and competencies in mathematics and sciences. Median SAT's: 1270.

  Undergraduate demographics:

• 23% women
• 1% Black
• 2% Hispanic
• 7% Asian
• 5% non-resident alien

  Graduate demographics:

• 24% women
• 1% Hispanic
• 3% Asian
• 36% non-resident alien

• Most undergraduates major in engineering (54%), computer science (21%), mathematics or the sciences (17%), or management (5%).

  Freshman to sophomore retention rate - 91%

  Five year graduation rate or completion

• WPI's graduation rate after 4.5 years is 62% and after 6 years is 76%. We do not compile data on 5-year rates.

  Where students go after leaving your campus

• In recent years, roughly 90% of students go directly into entry-level professional work and 10% directly to graduate school. These figures shift with the economy, with more students deferring entry-level work and beginning graduate study when jobs are harder to get. At least a third of graduates typically go on to graduate work within several years of completing their BS degrees.

  Information on student movement (into, out of, and within your institution)

• Surveys of incoming students indicate they are attracted to WPI because of its approach to providing an undergraduate education preparing students effectively for entry-level professional practice. As indicated by our graduation rate, most students who matriculate at WPI graduate from WPI. Roughly half change their major while on campus. However, many of these changes are not as dramatic as the 50% figure may suggest-a change from mechanical engineering to civil engineering, for example, could be a refining of a major rather than a dramatic change in interest. In addition, the absence at WPI of official prerequisites or of a set of specific courses required for graduation lessens the usual penalties of changing majors. Of the students who do not graduate from WPI, anecdotal evidence suggests they leave for three roughly equal reasons-a change of interest to a major not offered at WPI or which comparatively few students pursue here; a desire for a different social environment; or a lack of interest in or ability to succeed in a course of studies with a strong core in mathematics and science.

B. Innovative practices related to Greater Expectation

The WPI Plan
In the early 1970s, WPI eliminated the requirement that students pass a set of courses prescribed for each major, and established project requirements through which students would demonstrate their ability to learn independently, to address open-ended problems, to work in teams, to communicate effectively in written and oral form, to research, to synthesize, and to understand the connections between technology and society. These projects, facilitated by a unique academic calendar structure and a non-punitive grading system, form the heart of the WPI Plan. Each WPI graduate must complete the following three projects in order to earn the degree of Bachelor of Science:

• The "Sufficiency" in the humanities or arts--All students complete a 3 credit-hour project on a theme they identify as running through five or more previous courses they have elected to take in some area. This project most often takes the form of an original research paper or creative work. The intent is to provide students with sufficient familiarity with an area of the humanities or arts as to promote a lifelong interest.

• The "Interactive Qualifying Project" (IQP)--All students complete a project in which they address a topic relating science and/or technology to society. The intent is for students to understand, as professionals and as citizens, how work in science and technology affects, and is shaped by, social structures and values.
• The "Major Qualifying Project" (MQP)--All students complete a project in their major at a level appropriate to a beginning graduate student or entry-level professional. The intent is for students to demonstrate that they can apply the appropriate facts, theories, methodologies, and analytic skills of their major area to frame and solve a problem. Depending on the discipline, the focus may be on design, synthesis, experimentation, or theoretical investigation.

  Both the IQP and MQP are equivalent to 9 credit hours, done in small teams under the guidance of faculty advisors, and often done for external organizations. Both result in a formal written report and oral presentation of results, in addition to whatever product, system, or recommendations are pertinent to attainment of the project goals.

  More Recent Innovations
  The Global Perspective Program--Over 60% of all WPI students complete at least one of their degree required projects in a fulltime immersion at one of 15 "WPI Project Centers" located around the world. In 1998-99, WPI ranked second among all doctoral universities in percentage of students sent abroad, and sent by far the largest percentage of engineering students abroad of any US university. Project Center locations now include Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Australia in addition to European, Latin American, and North American sites. The students do not participate in exchanges or internships; they work under the guidance of residential WPI faculty members on real-world projects for local agencies and organizations. In addition to the educational outcomes inherent in the projects, students develop a broader perspective, gain confidence and self-knowledge, and learn to cope with change, ambiguity, and cultural differences.

  The Massachusetts Academy for Mathematics and Science--WPI established and hosts the state's only specialized high school for students gifted in mathematics and the sciences. The Academy is supported directly by the state; Academy students take WPI courses in their final year. The Academy also provides outreach programs for secondary school teachers. Additionally, WPI has a teacher preparation program in further support of its interests in K-12 educational reform.

  The Center for Educational Development, Technology, and Assessment--Providing support for the enhancement and assessment of teaching and learning at WPI, this campus resource center offers direct support to faculty that includes workshops, lunchtime discussions, a film series, a resource library, group training of teaching assistants, a new faculty mentoring program, a student observer program and individual consultation aimed at assisting established and new faculty to work effectively in an outcomes-based educational system.

  Peer-Assisted Cooperative Learning--In a project supported by the Davis Educational Foundation from 1993 until 1997 and sustained by the institution since then, undergraduate peer learning assistants facilitate cooperative learning in large introductory courses in seven disciplines. Outcomes include better course grades, better grades in later courses, improved retention and graduation rates, and better use of faculty time.

  Current Initiatives

  Innovations in the Freshman Year-In a second project supported by the Davis Educational Foundation, we are developing and pilot testing three approaches to overcoming the sense of academic and personal disconnection that often afflicts entering students. Insight students are clustered in small groups that both experience freshman orientation and are housed together, and have residence-based programming on personal development and academic skills. Students enrolled in Calculus-Physics Bridge courses see explicit connections between two disciplines that are fundamental to their majors, by such means as adoption of common terminology and notation, assigning of homework out of each other's textbooks, and the use of physics examples in the calculus courses. A small group of Tutorial students and faculty work together in an intensively inquiry-based project setting that supplement and even substitute for their traditional courses in calculus, physics, and humanities. Extensive assessment of 13 expected outcomes across all three experimental groups, along with selected control groups is underway, in a project that involves about half of the current freshman class. Student Portfolios-Faculty are experimenting with the use of course-based student portfolios as a vehicle for both improving student learning and collecting outcomes assessment data. Faculty who teach key courses assign portfolio entries in lieu of other homework; the entries are graded by course staff for a course grade, and will then be reviewed by academic advisors during annual advising meeting with students as a way of engaging the conversation about learning and career objectives.

C. Institutional learning goals and a brief description of the process followed to determine them

From The Goals of WPI, as endorsed by the WPI Faculty on March 5, 1987, and by the Board of Trustees on October 16, 1987: "The goals of the undergraduate program are to lead students:

• to develop an excellent grasp of fundamental concepts in their principal areas of study;
• to lay a foundation for life-long renewal of knowledge;
• to gain a mature understanding of themselves;
• and, most importantly, to form a deep appreciation of the interrelationships among basic knowledge, technological advance, and human need."

• The attainment of these goals is determined through a system of evaluation and assessment, with components at the institutional level and at the departmental level.

  At the institutional level, each WPI student must complete an interdisciplinary project (the IQP) equivalent in credit to three courses. These projects are evaluated by faculty advisors, and the reports are separately assessed by faculty reviewers in an annual review of all IQPs. Each student must also complete a six-course equivalent thematic series in some area of the Humanities and Arts (the Sufficiency); this requirement is overseen by a faculty member under whose guidance the student completes an integrative project experience as the final piece of the series. These projects are also the subject of annual faculty review in addition to being evaluated by the advisor. Students also complete campuswide requirements in the social sciences and in physical education.

  Within the students' major departments, each student must complete a major project (the MQP) equivalent in credit to three courses. Again, this project is evaluated and certified by a faculty advisor, and project reports are also subjected to faculty review. Each student must complete distribution requirements specific to the major, which include mathematics, physical sciences, and other coursework as appropriate to the major. Finally, each department performs educational outcomes assessment (typically validated by ABET or another external accrediting organization) specific to the educational outcomes articulated by that department for its student majors. Such assessment typically includes, but is not limited to, measurement of specific educational outcomes associated with the goals of key courses; peer review of course materials; and surveys of alumni.