Short communication: Characteristics of student success in an undergraduate physiology and anatomy course

Abstract

Several factors affect the success of students in college classes. The objective of this research was to determine what factors affect success of undergraduate students in an anatomy and physiology class. Data were collected from 602 students enrolled in the Agriculture and Life Sciences (ALS) 2304 Animal Physiology and Anatomy course from 2005 through 2012. The data set included 476 females (79.1%) and 126 males (20.9%). Time to complete exams was recorded for each student. For statistical analyses, students’ majors were animal and poultry sciences (APSC), agricultural sciences, biochemistry, biological sciences, dairy science, and “other,” which combined all other majors. All analyses were completed using the GLIMMIX procedure of SAS (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). Gender, major, matriculation year, major by year interaction, gender by year interaction, and time to complete the exam affected final course grade. The significant gender effect was manifested in the final grade percentage of 75.9±0.4 for female students compared with 72.3±0.6 for male students. Junior males had final course grades comparable with those of females, but sophomore and senior males had lower final course grades than other combinations. Biology majors had a final grade of 82.4±0.6 and this grade was greater than all other majors. Students classified as “other” had a final score of 74.4±0.8, which was greater than agricultural science majors (69.5±0.9). The APSC grade (72.6±0.5) was higher than the agricultural science majors. Junior students had significantly greater final grades (76.1±0.5) than sophomores (73.3±0.6) and seniors (72.9±0.9). All biology students had greater final grades than all other majors, but biochemistry juniors had greater final course grades than APSC, agricultural science, and dairy science juniors. “Other” seniors had greater final course grades than agricultural science seniors. The regression for time to complete the exam was curvilinear and suggests that highest exam scores were at about 90-min completion time. It may be that some male students need better preparation for anatomy and physiology and their educational preparation should mimic that of female students more in terms of advance-placement biology in high school. These results suggest that biology majors might be better prepared for animal anatomy and physiology than other students.