Undergraduate Cohorts

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Project Proposal Undergrad Cohorts

Prepared for: Vytautas Malesh
Prepared by: Frederick Haggins

July 15, 2015

Proposal number: 1

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PROJECT PROPOSAL
TO INSTITUTE
UNDERGRADUATE
COHORTS
by Frederick Haggins
Wayne State University
Professor
Vytautas Malesh
July 15, 2015

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Contents
FIGURES

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Objective

Goals

Solution

Project Outline

Methods

Results and Discussion

Conclusion

10

BUDGET

11

Appendix

12

Works Cited

13

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Figures
Number

Page

Student interest chart

Questionnaire Percentage Results

Budget table

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
For university undergraduate students from all different circumstances there is a common bond that weaves
students together the need to belong to a community no matter the size or the related connection students may
share in common. Yet, often times Undergraduate students are divided among their colleagues yes, there are
groups and communities in abundance on campuses around the nation. Yet, could the institutions around the
country do more within the realm of their power to assure students have the skills and confidence to make it
through one of the most soul-searching times of their lives. Through extensive research the evidence says yes,
cohorts can help diversify student bodies, help students seek out mentorship, fuse divide lines between students
and instill confidence in graduates that will go on to represent their perspective university in their fields of study.

OBJECTIVE
For my research project I propose to address the topic of engineering students and the retention rate. I propose
that student be coupled with other students that share a common major of study or closely related major of study
to have a school initiated cohort. The cohort will help students of similar degree aspirations come together and
share their academic experiences, identify working methods that help propel their academic enrichment, become
a community of inspiration and companionship, and lastly, work together on projects that will enhance their
practical knowledge of their respective majors.

GOALS
The purpose of this research is to see if attaching like minded students together helps by increasing the success of
students pursuing a degree in the science, technology, engineering, and math realm. Pursuing degrees in these
fields take a good amount of adaption. Students are learning different techniques of thinking that are built upon
years of previous work that other prominent groups/individuals have tested and discovered to be highly probable

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and duplicated. Taking into account my own anecdotal evidence I have had conversations with student who have
either change majors within the college of engineering, dropped out of the college to pursue degrees in the other
colleges within the university, or have dropped out of school indefinitely. Would student cohorts change this?

SOLUTION
With the construction of a student cohort, students will have the opportunity to step out of their insulted bubbles
and realize that their problems aren't that unique and there are students their age give or take five to tens years
whom they could find comfort in and camaraderie in. Within that comfort and camaraderie they will find helpful
tutors, sound guidance, helpful tips, sharing of resources, and social insight that will change futures.

PROJECT OUTLINE
To investigate if having undergraduate university students group together after their arrival on campus be it via
straight to college from high school route, community college to university, work force veteran acquiring new skills,
or armed forces veteran to university route. The path that the students take to get to the university could be a
parameter for the sorting of the groups as well. Another parameter could be their aspiring major, or linking cohorts
via close relation and proximity to majors. For example an Information System Management major who belongs to
the College of Business, a Computer Science Major who belongs to the College of Engineering, a English Major
who belongs to the College of Liberal Arts, and a Career/Technical Education Major from the College of Education
could find themselves having a great deal in common over the course of the collegiate careers and maybe even
more. Using interviews of current students and using secondary research sources for my basing of my research I
will attempt to uncover if my proposed idea is a feasible one that could result in galvanize change in the university
structure.

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METHODS
Research was done by having sit down sessions, or email sessions with five other Wayne State University
students, two of whom are already in a cohort program that is supported by Focus:HOPE and WSU. The students
were queried with a series of questions that would gauge student interest or for the two student already in a cohort
the effectiveness of being in a cohort environment. Also, for secondary research purposes I will use the University
of Michigans Learning Communities as an example template of how to model an Undergrad cohort to. With an
additional article titled Building an online academic learning community among undergraduate students which
explains how at the University of New England created a online space for students seeking degrees in The
Bachelor of Arts and how this community became a success which then per mutated throughout the school an
eventually spread to other colleges.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results gauging interest in a WSU controlled cohort are show below:

Students

80

60

40

20

Most Interested

Interested

Undecided

Not Interested

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For the questionnaire answers students were asked the following with the percentage of the results being
represented in the right column. Note all the questionnaire questions are not fully represented in the table.
Questions

Answer Percentage

On a scale from 1-10 how was your experience

working in a group. 1 being terrible, and 10 being
great.

20% responded with a 10; 54% responded with a 9;

16% responded with a 8

On a scale from 1-10, how beneficial would it be to be

in a community of like-minded students

100% responded with a 10

On a scale from 1-10, how important is it if your cohort

has common interest i.e. majors, background

50% responded with a 10; 50% responded with a 8

On a scale from 1-10, a cohort experience is more

important in the former years of college.

60% responded with 10; 40% responded with a 7

On a scale from 1-10, a cohort experience is more

important in the latter years of college.

60% responded with 10; 40% responded with a 7

From the generated data there is evidence that students would be vey interested in joining a cohort. Whether they
place their importance in believing that a learning cohort would be more beneficial in the beginning years of college
or would be more beneficial in the later years is at an even still stand. Yet, this insight could tell us a lot of would is
going on in the trajectory of a student. We can see that the beginning is a rough adjustment for students and
maybe having a community backing could help clear up some of the initial confusion students might go through.
Further, examination could say that the upperclassmen years are where a cohort could help student solidify their
last semesters. With the increase of difficult with classes, the increase in tuition, and the mounting pressure to
finally finish could all be remedy by way of the community cohorts. Grouping of the cohort is something that is
very important for students especially dealing with a mass amount of differences that a diverse student body
attributes. There are students who live on campus, some who dont. There are local students, national students,

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and international students. There are Business, Pre-Medical, Engineering, Liberal Arts etc. Majors. Lastly, there are
many age groups represented within the student body. With the results split between a 10 which shows very much
importances and a 8 which shows its above the middle ground for importance, yet two ticks away from very
important. Coupling of the students would be very important to assure group success. Looking at how the
participants view and think about groups we can see that for the most part students are receptive to working with
others in a group setting.
Now, lets look at how the University of Michigan constructed what they call learning communities. These
communities are based on the facts that being a student is relatively the biggest requirement, although students
are required to submit an application to some of the subset communities. First year students are encouraged to
join one or more groups. These groups are centered around breaking the mold of what is looked at as a typical
college student traversal path through college. In the learning groups student get the chance to interact with the
faculty where they have opportunities to speak with faculty one-on-one, seeking counsel on future goals, and
insight. Students are encouraged to take classes together to reinforce the feeling of familiarity, and to instituted
study groups. Students are encourage to group with students from different background and disciplines, i.e. oncampus to off-campus, local to international etc. Students bond by way of working on research projects, and by
traveling on field trips and staying in the same dorms. U of M believes that these communities help students
throughout their personal transitions from high school to college, or college to college. U of M has recorded that
students who participate in the learning communities are more connected with their school settings, transition to
university life more gradually, and maintain there connects made within the community after graduation has came
and went.
University of Michigan wasn't the only school to see the benefits of coupling like-minded students together. The
University of New England decided to build a web portal for all of their Bachelor of Arts students which is
composed of roughly two-thousand students. At this portal students would be able to track their progress towards
their degrees with the assistance of other students who are going or have gone through the process before. The

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dubbed this portal The Lounge they were hoping that the lounge would emulate the interactive places may find
themselves in throughout the day i.e. lunch rooms, hallways, and high traffic areas. Here is where the student
would make a high velocity of interactions, it was observed that even off-campus students found it interesting to
stop into the lounge and chat with their fellow colleagues. Also, it was observed that the U of NE student body
composed of students who lived locally and outside of the immediate geo-location. This I believe runs parallel with
Wayne State University which is traditionally known as a commuter school if this portal could help connect the
students of U of NE imagine what it could do for WSU. At any rate, U of NE portal in the first year experience over
40,000 hits the most popular sections remained the Lounge area and the News and Announcements threads.
Students even had sessions where they would meet up with the students they were interacting online with, and it
was reported back how familiar they felt with one another, and how students were making valuable connection
online. The portal surprisedly became a beacon for feedback on changes that would go on throughout the school
year that student would have otherwise been a vocal minority about instead there feedback became tangible and
visible within the portal. Along with the other proof positives the incoming freshmen found and vital information that
would help steer them into the right major for them and valuable knowledge of what was to come down the road
for them academically. The portal also became a place where past alumni could come and share their experience
and current students could see the actual people who have achieved what they were aspiring to do. All in all, the
online portal was an overwhelming success for the U of NE and they found that bringing their student body
together helped blur the lines that divide. Off-campus students found the connection that often times on-campus
feel experience. Otherwise shy students found peer mentorship in portal users. There are still questions the
University wants to ask and answer like how to connect with the students who are not using the portal and how
do they satisfy their need to connect the university.

CONCLUSION

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We as humans are a species who thrive as a community. From grade school to high school students are grouped
together by some random factor and through that process we go on to make memorable relationships with our
peers and teachers. For those student who decide to further their education the next logical step is college where
students are now on there own, dropped off in the wilderness. Only if you make it out of the wild are you
reacquainted with those ole familiar group settings in graduate school or in your professional field of employment.
So, the question is why the stop gap at undergrad which is known to be one of the more difficult stages of
education become of the breadth of topics that students tend to cover. The evidence in this paper is transparent
enough to let us know that the infrastructure of undergrad education needs to be refactor. If colleges and
university around the nation want to achieve one of the main feats that they are set out to do, transform incoming
student for the better.

BUDGET
If using the templates that the U of M and U of NE have use WSU should be able to build a website as an access
point for all undergraduate students and ask the faculty and staff members if they would like to counsel and help
student cohorts form and keep organize.

Description

Quantity

Unit Price

Cost

Domain Sevices

1 $

100 $

100

Website Maintenance

1 $

500 $

500

10 $

25,000 $

250,000

250,600

Grants

Total

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APPENDIX
Questionnaire
QUESTION
What is your academic standing?
What is your major of study?
What was your route to WSU (HS to Uni, CC to
Uni, Work force to Uni)?
How do you feel about groups?
Do you feel the community aspect really helps?
Cohorts are academic groups that fuse together
over a common bond, so interested?
On a scale from 1-10 how was your experience
working in a group. 1 being terrible, and 10 being
great.
On a scale from 1-10, how beneficial would it be
to be in a community of like-minded students
On a scale from 1-10, how important is it if your
cohort has common interest i.e. majors,
background
On a scale from 1-10, a cohort experience is more
important in the former years of college.
On a scale from 1-10, a cohort experience is more
important in the latter years of college.

ANSWER

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WORKS CITED
Nye, A. (2015). Building an online academic learning community among undergraduate students. Distance
Education, 115-128.

Welcome to the MLC. (n.d.). Retrieved July 29, 2015.

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