Visualization and Analysis of Student Enrollment Patterns in Foundational Engineering Courses.

The literature in engineering education and higher education has examined the implications of course-taking patterns on student development and success. However, little work has analyzed the trajectories of students who need to retake courses in the curriculum, especially those deemed to be fundamental to a student's program of study, or sequences of courses. Sequence analysis in R was used to leverage historical transcript data from institutional research at a large, public, Land- Grant university to visualize student trajectories within individual courses--with attention to those who re-enrolled in courses--and the pathways students took through a sequence of courses. This investigation considered students enrolled in introductory mechanics courses that are foundational for several engineering majors: Statics, Dynamics, and Strength of Materials (also called Mechanics of Deformable Bodies). This paper presents alluvial diagrams of the course-taking sequences and transition matrices for the different possible grades received upon subsequent attempts for the Mechanics core courses to demonstrate how visualizing students' paths through sequences of classes by leveraging institutional data can identify patterns that might warrant programs to reconsider their curricular policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]