Student Success in 4-D (SS4D): Toward a Holistic Understanding of Engineering Student Success in Motivation, Curricular Attainment and Experiential Opportunities across Educational Stages

This WIP paper will present our results to date in conducting a multimethod single case study, which is appropriate for deeply understanding multiple stakeholder perspectives within a bounded environment, in our case, the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. The in-progress goal of our team in Mechanical Engineering at this large, research-focused institution, is to reconceptualize student success that enfolds four dimensions. These dimensions have been previously siloed in engineering education literature, though even within these groupings, engineering education researchers typically focus on one phenomenon at a time: motivation; attainment; experiential opportunities; and success across career stages. This project is underway and, in this work-in-progress paper, we share preliminary findings from our qualitative investigation of thriving in online Master of Science Mechanical Engineering students.