The Effect of Additional Statics Class Time on At-Risk Student Performance

The academic performance of at-risk engineering students in the core classes statics and dynamics was studied to determine if an additional hour of class time in statics improved outcomes. This was possible because two version of the same statics course was offered. A standard version of the statics course met three hours per week over the course of a fifteen-week semester while a second version met four hours per week. Students identified as at-risk using an informal screening procedure populated the four-hour statics course. For comparison with this group, using the same enrollment data, a second group of at-risk students were identified from the three-hour statics class using a more formal logistic regression based screening procedure. A performance comparison between the two groups showed that the extra contact hour in statics had a minor, statistically insignificant effect on student final exam and final course grades in both statics and dynamics.