• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.18-31
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• 2019

In addition to technical skills and competencies, communication competence has been identified to be important to engineering students who will be drivers of innovation in a rapidly changing society. Drawing on the previous studies, this research examines the results of an empirical exploration of engineering students' perception of speaking ability and their communicative competence. To date, there has been most of the research conducted on 'writing' (e.g., its educational process, class designs, ability, etc.) for engineering students. However, relatively little attention has been paid to engineering students' speaking ability perception and their competence diagnosis. This study relies on quantitative data obtained from one survey questionnaire and one test conducted respectively. The sample consists of 386 engineering students as well as 481 non-engineering students for the 1st survey. And to measure communicative competence, 150 engineering students as well as 136 non-engineering students participated in the test. Our findings show that firstly, there were significant differences in perception of speaking ability by majors and gender. Whereas there was no difference in the same survey by grade. Secondly, there was a close and significant relationship between sub-factors of speaking ability. Thirdly, there were significant differences in communicative competence by majors. Whereas there was no difference by gender and grade. Fourthly, there was a close and significant relationship between sub-factors of communicative competence. These findings are expected to provide an explanation for the improvement on engineering students' speaking ability and to encourage the participation in extra-curricular activities and programs in engineering school.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.69-78
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• 2013

This study investigated various attributes that contributed to successful employment in order to develop employment support programs, especially for female engineering students. We surveyed engineering students who graduated between 2006 and 2011. The 401 employed graduates participated in an online survey. The surveys inquired about their attachment towards their major, participation in various academic and non-academic activities, and their participation's contribution to their successful employment. In regards to their majors, women, in general, had lower levels of satisfaction, confidence, attachment, and motivation to succeed in their fields when compared to their male counterparts. These results show that engineering colleges still need to work on empowering female engineering students to gain confidence in their engineering major and attachment. The graduate school experience was highly rated by both men and women, whereas double majors exhibited somewhat lower scores. Among academic activities, part-time work experience and major-related internships were rated as the most helpful, and among extracurricular activities, study-abroad for language training and participation in student council or clubs received high scores. There was little difference between men and women in study-abroad participation, and women participated more actively in student councils. However, women had much less major-related work experience, reaffirming that colleges need to expand internship and field experience programs for female students.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.56-65
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• 2018

This research aims to explore the relationships between academic writing ability and 'thinking styles' (capable of representing individual differences and diversity) in engineering freshmen in Korea, and to draw educational implications for the development of instructional strategies. (Academic) Writing is not just about conveying an idea or content, it is also about the representation of writer's self. In this perspective, there has been some research conducted on writing (process) and personality. However, to date, little attention has been paid to writing ability of engineering students and its relationships with thinking styles. This study was conducted with 127 engineering freshmen as well as 67 non-engineering freshmen at H University, and students' writing ability as well as their thinking styles have been measured before and after writing class for 15 weeks. Our findings show that firstly, there was a significant difference of writing ability by majors. Second, there were significant differences in freshmen's thinking styles by majors. Third, there was significant differences of writing ability according to thinking styles. Freshmen's internal, legislative and hierarchical styles scored significantly higher in writing ability than the others. And as for the engineering freshmen, internal, external and global styles scored significantly higher in writing ability than the others. Finally, there was a weak but significant relationship between writing ability and thinking styles(hierarchical & internal). These findings are expected to provide an explanation for the development of instructional strategies of writing (related) courses in engineering school.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.26-39
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to compare and analyze the employment rate of engineering graduates in the last eight years (2011-2018) by gender and majors. Using the statistical yearbook for employment of higher education graduates provided by the Korea Educational Development Institute (KEDI), the employment rate and retained employment rate of engineering graduates were investigated. As results, first, the employment rate has been decreasing since 2011, and the gender employment rate gap has not narrowed and women have always been lower than men. Second, most of the engineering graduates were workers with employee health insurance. On the other hand, women were higher than men in works with self-employee health insurance. Third, from 2016 to 2018, the retained employment rate of engineering graduates was similar, and as the survey progressed, the retained employment rate decreased. In particular, women had lower retained employment rate than men. The study is meaningful in that it suggested ways to bridge the gap between gender and majors employment rates of engineering graduates.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.195-206
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• 2019

The study aims to find a way to guarantee high school students choose science subjects by exploring its necessity as a prerequisite for admission to university science and engineering major courses. For this purpose, a survey was administered to 516 science & engineering college students to investigate their cognition and completion of the prerequisite science subjects related to their major, department adjustment, and influence on their major of study. Among nine major clusters, Physics was identified as a science domain with a high relevance to majors in five major clusters, and Chemistry in three. The students who completed both science I and II subjects related to their majors responded most positively to the usefulness of prerequisite subjects to their studies. Suggestions include conditions for the opening of science II subjects, strengthening the connection between science subjects and IT, promotion of linkage between the prerequisite subject and major studies to assert students' choice of science subjects in high school.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.37-51
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• 2020

This study examined the differential effects of High-Impact Practices(HIPs) on the career aspiration of STEM college students by gender. Through the theoretical lens of Social Cognitive Career Theory(SCCT), a two-level model analysis was conducted. A sample of 2,101 third- and fourth-year undergraduate students majoring in STEM at 38 universities, which had been collected from the National Survey on College Student Experiences and Learning Outcomes funded by the Korea Research Foundation, was used. This study found that the three HIP domains(learning with peers, faculty support, content relevancy) had different influences depending on gender. These findings suggest that HIPs can benefit the development of female students' career aspiration and have gender-differential effects on students in STEM majors. Based on those findings, this study also deduced implications about the roles of faculty members and higher-education institutions that might foster the retention of women in STEM.

• Journal of Multimedia Information System
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.191-196
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• 2021

Computational thinking refers to the process and method of solving everyday problems using computers. When teaching a computational thinking class for computer majors and non-majors at university, the easiest example to deliver the concept of computational thinking is sorting. Sorting is the concept of arranging given data in order. In this work, we have implemented four visualized sorting algorithms that anyone can easily use. In particular, it helps to understand the difference between the algorithms by showing the number of comparisons and exchanges between elements, which are the criteria for evaluating the performance of the sorting algorithm in real time. It was confirmed that the practice of using the sorting visualization app developed in this research contributed to the improvement of students' understanding of computational thinking.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.501-512
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to improve the academic achievement of H/W majors. Firstly, this paper proposes the educational case study that develops the learner's ability, increases the interest in the unfavorable programming fields for the H/W majors, and plans to raise employment rate of programming. Secondly, this paper presents the future teaching method on programming driving improvement for the employment rate on the basis of the department's special characteristics and the actual circumstances in the field of the H/W. Lastly, this paper suggests the promising pedagogical method for educating programming by using a survey and the case studies.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.41-48
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• 2007

Yonsei University College of Medicine is about to adopt a new admission system in 2009 for postgraduate medical school. in which 4-year college graduates apply to it, instead of applying of high school graduates to undergraduate medical school. For preparing the new system, now, an admission policy is being intensively investigated. In the present admission system in Yonsei College of Medicine, college or university graduates with diverse majors such as pharmacy, biochemistry, engineering, social science and so on other than a medical major can be transferred into the undergraduate medical course when vacancy for enrollment is available. This study was performed to analyze the academic achievement of the transferred students for establishing a new admission system. In this study, the GPAs of 94 medical students transferred for 1998 to 2006 years were analyzed regarding academic and personal background, and compared with those of untrans- ferred medical students. The results showed some features. Particularly, the GPAs of transferred students with t he majors of art and social sciences were not lower than those with the major of natural sciences while transferred students with majors of pharmacy. veterinary science, nursing science, and biotechnology had their high academic achievements during the undergraduate medical courses.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.77-86
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• 2024

As the significance of knowledge convergence continues to grow, universities are making efforts to develop methods that promote multidisciplinary learning. To address this educational challenge, our paper applies network theory and text mining techniques to analyze university curricula and introduces a graphical syllabus rendering method. Visualizing the course curriculum provides a macro and structured perspective for individuals seeking alternative educational pathways within the existing system. By visualizing the relationships among courses, students can explore different combinations of courses with comprehensive search support. To illustrate our approach, we conduct a detailed demonstration using the syllabus database of Yonsei University. Through the application of our methods, we create visual course networks that reveal the underlying structure of the university curriculum. Our results yield insights into the interconnectedness of courses across various academic majors at Yonsei University. We present both macro visualizations, covering 18 academic majors, and visualizations for a few selected majors. Our analysis using Yonsei University's database not only showcases the value of our methodology but also serves as a practical example of how our approach can facilitate multidisciplinary learning.