Retain Engineering Students with Faculty-Student Interaction
Quick Tips Instructors Can Use to Improve Interaction in Their Classes
Try some of these easy-to-use ideas to improve your students' participation, attitude, and learning.
- 20 Minutes to Student Engagement
- Boost Persistence with Encouragement: Faculty Feedback Influences Student Persistence
- Make Office Hours More Productive with Small Groups
- A "One-Minute Message" Engages All Students
- Grading Rubric: Engage Students & Save Time
- Inspire Student Curiosity! Help Students Engage by Inviting Their Questions!
- Keep Students Engaged with Small, Casual Interactions that Make Professors Approachable
- Talk to Me: Increase Faculty Approachability with Materials for Students on How to Engage with Professors
While many of these activities can be implemented relatively quickly, if you have more time, try telling your students a little about yourself as part of a Connections Class.
Share these tips with faculty colleagues so they can improve interaction in their classrooms, too!
Have more time? Try holding a Connections Class with Cookies!
The feeling of intimidation many students experience around faculty members can stop them from asking for help both during and after classroom hours. Something as simple as cookies in the classroom can start the conversation between faculty and students.
Learn more about Connections Classes (Cookies in the Classroom) and download the Connections Class toolkit so you can do this with your students!
Quick Tips Students Can Use to Make Meetings with Instructors More Productive and Less Stressful
Sometimes students have trouble interacting with instructors. Share these useful tips with students to make it easier for them approach you.
- Why and How to Talk with Your Professors
- What to Consider Before You Meet with Your Professor
- What to Say When You Meet with Your Professor
- What to Do if Things Don't Go Well
Send these tips to your students when reminding them of your office hours to help boost their confidence before you meet.
Resources to Help Groups of Students Better Communicate with Their Instructors
“Talk To Me” materials were designed to be used by Women in Engineering Program Directors and Student Affairs administrators—with 1st-year and 2nd-year women engineering students—to increase student-faculty interaction.
- Talk to Me: "Secrets of Success" Presentation - A slide deck designed to be used for presentations in group settings.
- Talk to Me: Facilitator's Toolkit & Student Handouts - For use in conjunction with the "Secrets of Success" presentation.
Each of these components was deliberately designed to be used “as is” or, to be customized. You can adapt the design and/or contents, to be relevant to students on your own campus. Feel free to add your own examples, modify graphics, change content, delete sections you feel won’t resonate with your students, etc. While conveying this material, interactivity with students is encouraged.
Additional Resources You Can Share
Below are additional share-able resources you can use to encourage other instructors at your institution to improve Faculty-Student Interaction in their classrooms.
Download: Taking Action Handouts: Productive and Time Effective Spoken Communication and Productive and Time Effective Written Communication and pass out printed copies or email links.
Host a faculty development session before the start of the new semester to screen these videos with your department. Email the videos as a follow-up so other faculty can watch them again or pass them on.