Open AccessGRADE PREDICTORS IN A SECONDARY SUMMER COURSE OFFERING: AN INVESTIGATION OF PRIOR FAILURES AND EMPLOYMENT
Author(s) -
Julie Vale,
Ryan Clemmer
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
proceedings of the ... ceea conference
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2371-5243
DOI - 10.24908/pceea.vi0.13797
Subject(s) - attendance , workload , medical education , mathematics education , psychology , work (physics) , term (time) , academic institution , computer science , engineering , medicine , library science , political science , mechanical engineering , physics , quantum mechanics , law , operating system
A second year electrical circuits course at the author’s home institution was historically delivered in the winter term to one section of approximately 400 students. The department observed that approximately 70-100 students were losing a year of school due to the combined high fail rates and single offerings of this course and its prerequisite. To allow these students to remain on track in their programs, additional offerings of both courses were created. The secondary offering of the circuits course was offered in the summer term.
This paper presents a statistical analysis of data obtained over two years of the summer offering of the circuits course. After correcting for GPA and attendance, prior failures in both courses and having a job (co-op or otherwise) are shown to have no statistical significance.
These results indicate that concerns around employment workload and sufficient time to study appear to be unfounded and that the fact that a student has failed in the past does not predict their future grades.
This preliminary work is part of a larger research project investigating the impact of an online, blended delivery approach on attendance, student perception of learning, and impact on grades.