From PIE to APPLES The Evolution of a Survey Instrument to Explore Engineering Student Pathways. Research Brief

The Academic Pathways Study (APS) of the NSF-funded Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE) is a cross-university study that systematically examines how engineering students navigate their education, and how engineering skills and identity develop during their undergraduate careers. The APS has utilized a variety of methods including surveys, structured interviews, ethnographic methods, engineering design tasks, and academic transcripts to gain a broader and richer picture of students' undergraduate engineering experiences. Of this portfolio of methods, a key component has been the survey, and through the collective work of the APS, two instruments have emerged--the Persistence In Engineering (PIE) survey and the Academic Pathways of People Learning Engineering Survey (APPLES). Building upon the PIE survey and the findings from the other APS methods, APPLES was designed to look at academic and professional persistence in two different cross-sectional populations of American undergraduate engineering students. The main objective of APPLES was to corroborate earlier findings from the APS on a larger scale and in particular, to explore the generalizability of findings from the PIE survey to engineering students at a greater number of American higher education institutions. Although results of these analyses are ongoing, the integration of findings from both quantitative and qualitative APS methods represents a valuable contribution and a useful model for future research.