Attendance in Large Engineering Classes and Its Effect on Student Performance

In large engineering classes one of the more practical methods of delivering the material to students is through the use of a traditional lecture style class. However, in such a setting, keeping a large class engaged in the material can present quite a challenge. This challenge can be partly met through the use of technology, student response devices, and/or carefully crafted lectures. Even so, some students will remain unengaged due to other factors like physical/mental exhaustion or the many distractions a large room full of over 300 students can present. This becomes an even larger challenge in the case of a first-year introductory engineering course due to the varied backgrounds of the students; some of whom have completed high-school engineering programs and might have experienced similar subject matter previously. This paper presents the culmination of a two-year study of an alternative for freshman engineering students to attending a large lecture in their introductory engineering course 1 . During the course of this study, in the fall semester, students were required to be physically present in lecture. Following this, in the spring semester, students were given the choice of either: (1) being physically present, when the lecture was given, or (2) viewing the recorded lecture. The student’s in-class attendance was recorded via the iClickerTM classroom response system. Students who chose to not attend lecture could access the video recording via the BlackboardTM course management system during the same week the lecture was given. This paper consists of several parts. First a description of the freshman engineering program, as well as the methods used to track student progress is provided. Then, a comparison of student performance on exams, administered during each semester is presented. Finally, this paper includes a discussion of the effect that lecture attendance has on student learning. It is concluded that providing students with the option of either attending lecture or viewing a video recording of the lecture does not negatively affect student performance. In fact this option may even improve the performance of some students.