Learning style based innovations to improve retention of female engineering students in the Synthesis Coalition

The paper describes the use of integrative multimedia courseware designed to scaffold student learning and accommodate learning style differences. Synthesis courseware aimed at improving the retention of under-represented engineers has been further designed to work effectively in a range of educational settings, including classroom, high-tech small study groups and self-paced individualized learning. As an example, the paper focuses on the spatial reasoning project aimed at improving the retention of female engineering students through scaffolding students in spatial reasoning. The courseware described can be found on the NEEDS (National Engineering Delivery System) database of engineering courseware.