Accelerating Engagement of First-Year Students in Academics: Use of Ideas from Quality Literature

This paper discusses three ideas that stem from concepts in the literature of Quality that combine to promote a more rapid transition of first year engineering students from the high school environment to the academic environment of college.These three ideas are:1) The student is the primary employee in the academic process, 2) Grade distribution interpreted in the context of control charts provides significant feedback that allows primary employees to evaluate their own process, and 3) The only way to improve the output of a process is to change it, ergo, "If you do not like your grade, change your process."These three ideas paint a realistic picture of the college enterprise, and provide the students with context that allows them to evaluate their own progress and to make decisions directed toward improvement.