Developing A Consensus Model Of Engineering Thriving Using A Delphi Process

A large number of engineering educators, researchers, administrators, staff, and advisors have advocated to shift the narrative on engineering students from "surviving" to "thriving." In this study, we developed a model of engineering student thriving based upon input from 47 experts participating in a Delphi process. The research question for this study is, "To what extent do experts agree on the completeness, conciseness, clarity, accuracy, and utility of the model on engineering student thriving?" The experts included engineering administrators, professors, staff, and advisers who had considerable experience in teaching, supporting, advising, mentoring, or working directly with undergraduate engineering students. Each round of the Delphi process provided opportunities for the experts to identify the most important components of engineering student thriving, the relationships among these components, and the assumptions (often tacit) regarding engineering thriving. After three rounds, our experts reached consensus on a model of engineering thriving that they considered complete, accurate, concise, clear, and useful. Findings from this study revealed three key components of engineering thriving: Internal thriving competencies, external thriving outcomes, and the engineering culture, systemic factors, resources, context and situation. First, undergraduate engineering students have direct and immediate control over only their internal thriving competencies, and our experts overwhelmingly agreed that engineering student thriving should focus more on non-cognitive competencies and non-academic outcomes. Second, the experts identified external thriving outcomes that include characteristics of well-functioning engineering students within the context and structures of the engineering system. However, these outcomes should not be used to determine whether an individual student is thriving, as they are not directly malleable. Third, the engineering culture, systemic factors, resources, context and situation is most directly influenced by the engineering program or institution. The experts agreed that this bridging component between internal competencies and external outcomes represents key concerns for engineering programs. We present highlights from each round of the Delphi process followed by applications of the model for engineering students, staff, administrators, programs, and institutions. These findings build upon prior research by broadening perspectives on engineering student thriving and can inform efforts to support holistic engineering student development.