Supplemental instruction for improving first year results in engineering studies

Abstract

Many studies have been made on the impact of supplemental instruction in supported courses, with most showing significantly better examination results for students attending supplemental instruction in comparison to those who do not. However, remarkably little attention has been devoted to following up whether the benefits of supplemental instruction reach beyond the course it supports. The present study focuses on the influence of supplemental instruction on the overall academic performance during the first year, for undergraduate engineering students at a Swedish university. The results show that students with average and high supplemental instruction attendance do significantly better than students not attending in terms of overall first-year credit performance. Students with low, average and high prior academic achievement all benefit from attending supplemental instruction sessions. The data also suggests that the transferable effects of study strategies and skills to non-supplemental instruction courses are substantial for attendees, leading to better results in these courses.