Performance In Course Research Articles

Educators’ and students’ perceptions of online distance education before and amid COVID-19: Key concerns and challenges

This paper aims to present Russian educators’ and students’ perceptions of online education before and during the pandemic. The author analyses the primary research data collected by the team of USUE authors via quantitate research methods, and secondary research data. Based on the empirical sociological data the author identifies the key challenges facing educators’ community – negative attitudes to online teaching and learning, lack of digital pedagogy skills and ineffective interaction practices. It is concluded that in the emergency situation teachers overall managed to fit rapid curriculum transformations. Yet, university leadership and educators should come up with solutions how to address the identified challenges in online distance teaching. These solutions can involve conducting in-depth research into digital pedagogy, disseminating knowledge about the specifics of online interactions and running professional development programs for the university teachers to enhance their performance in courses delivered online.

The Use of Game-Based Student Response Systems during Revision Class to Access Students Performance in Operating System Course

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the use of Game-Based Student Response Systems (GSRS) can increase students’ motivation and engagement to perform better in DFC10103 Operating System course in Polytechnic Ungku Omar. This study was conducted by using a quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test groups and survey method is used to obtain the data from the participants. The study group consists of 72 operating system course students (Control Group, 36; Treatment Group, 36). Pre-test was given to both groups in order to assess their current performance in this course. Then, revision was done using the GSRS (Kahoot!, Quizizz and Socrative) for the treatment group while a conventional paper-based revision method was carried out with the control group. A post-test was done after the revision class for both groups. After completing the post-test, questionnaire were distributed to the treatment group. Data is analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science software. The result for post-test shows the treatment group obtained increment in mean percentage as 22.31% compared to control group. The response given by the participants in the questionnaire shows that the application of GSRS during revision week helped them to stay motivated and engaged in their classroom. Therefore, the outcome shows that GSRS can be a promising and innovative tool for educators to engage with their students in creative learning and attractive competition.

Early prediction of undergraduate Student's academic performance in completely online learning: A five-year study

This decade, e-learning systems provide more interactivity to instructors and students than traditional systems and make possible a completely online (CO) education. However, instructors could not warn if a CO student is engaged or not in the course, and they could not predict his or her academic performance in courses. This work provides a collection of models (exploratory factor analysis, multiple linear regressions, cluster analysis, and correlation) to early predict the academic performance of students. These models are constructed using Moodle interaction data, characteristics, and grades of 802 undergraduate students from a CO university. The models result indicated that the major contribution to the prediction of the academic student performance is made by four factors: Access, Questionnaire, Task, and Age. Access factor is composed by variables related to accesses of students in Moodle, including visits to forums and glossaries. Questionnaire factor summarizes variables related to visits and attempts in questionnaires. Task factor is composed of variables related to consulted and submitted tasks. The Age factor contains the student age. Also, it is remarkable that Age was identified as a negative predictor of the performance of students, indicating that the student performance is inversely proportional to age. In addition, cluster analysis found five groups and sustained that number of interactions with Moodle are closely related to performance of students.

Assessing the Key Predicting Factor Towards Undergraduates’ Academic Performance in Management Course

This paper aims to investigate the key predicting factors namely religiosity commitment, study habits, self-study concept, perceived stress, teaching related aspect and school related aspect towards undergraduates’ academic performance on Fundamentals of Management course. A total of 243 respondents from Diploma in Accountancy UiTM Pahang Jengka Campus was participated in this study. A questionnaire survey was employed and descriptive analysis was conducted to analyze the data by using SPSS version 21. The association between key predicting factors towards academic performance were analysed using Spearman correlation coefficient since the assumption of linearity was violated. The study found that religiosity commitment and teaching related aspect have significant relationship with academic performance in this course with religiosity commitment denoted as the most significant factor that contribute to academic performance. This study is expected to give insight for the undergraduates to identify the important factors that can contribute to their academic excellent in order for them to prepare, cope and adapt with the new environment as well as to provide guideline for the lecturers to ensure the course will be delivered excellently. It is also expected to assist the university in providing the conducive learning environment which will lead to improved academic performance.

Goal Orientation in Political Science Research Instruction

In recent years, scholar-educators have examined a variety of new approaches for teaching research in political science. Many of these inquiries begin with the observation that research activities cause some students to experience trepidation and aversion. The result is often poor performance in courses which assign research. In this project, I review and assess an approach to student research which focuses upon goal-orientation as a determinant of engagement. In doing so, I introduce three strategies for reconsidering goal orientation in the political science classroom. These include client consulting, low-cost survey deployment, and exit polling. These project-based courses are designed to reorient student attitudes toward the research process thanks to the identification of an external audience. Based on a pilot study of a goal-oriented learning experience, results provide suggestive evidence for the benefits of this approach in the undergraduate research setting.

Attitudes towards Online Learning: What Do Brazilian Students Think About?

The purpose of this study was twofold. First, it aimed to determine whether there are differences in Brazilian students’ attitudes towards online learning compared to their purpose in seeking for this modality and the localization of the pole where they received face-to-face support. Second, it aimed to identify if Brazilian students’ attitudes towards online learning predict their self-perception of performance in the course. A correlational and explanatory quantitative approach was taken through a survey. Data was collected from 593 undergraduate students enrolled in the online public administration course offered by different Brazilian universities. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, group comparison (ANOVA) and multiple linear regression were employed for data analysis. Findings revealed that there are differences between students’ attitudes compared to their purpose in seeking for online courses and compared to the localization of the pole where they received face-to-face support. Statistically significant differences were found for Favorable personnel and dispositional aspects (PDA), Negative affects (NA) and Internalization and habituation of use (IHU) attitude dimensions. Furthermore, the study identified predictors of students’ self-perception of performance in online courses corresponding to how much students perceive they are accustomed to and capable of taking an online course, represented by the attitude dimension IHU. Results showed significant positive relationship between two attitude dimensions (PDA and PC) and the dimension IHU. In addition, significant negative relationship was found between the biographical variable family income and the dimension IHU. The model explains 40% of the variance of IHU in which PDA represents the strongest predictor.

Student Algebraic Reasoning to Solve Quadratic Equation Problem

The reasoning is closely related to students’ mathematical abilities. Reasoning becomes a key element in mathematics learning. The student’s reasoning habits need to be developed. Competence in algebra is important. Algebra is one branch of mathematics that an essentials role in mathematics education. Algebra was prerequisite for higher studies mathematics and science courses, and a lack of algebra skills have a chance results in poor performance in courses The purpose of this research is to describe students’ algebraic reasoning in solving quadratic equation problem. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative. Research subjects were three students of class X. The results in the study showed that students use a different strategy in solving the problem of quadratic equations. This can make a description of the existing schema. There are also students who misunderstand the concept of understanding operations in algebra so that this can affect their reasoning process and makes their answer incorrect.

Flipped classroom as an effective approach in enhancing student learning of a pharmacy course with a historically low student pass rate

Background and purposeThe flipped classroom has not been fully exploited to improve tertiary education in Malaysia. A transformation in pharmacy education using flipped classrooms will be pivotal to resolve poor academic performance in certain courses. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the flipped classroom in improving student learning and academic performance in a course with a historically low pass rate. Educational activity and settingA quasi-experimental pre- and posttest control group design was employed. The experimental group experienced the flipped classroom for selected topics while the control group learned in a traditional classroom. Analysis of covariance was utilized to compare the performance on the final exam using the grade point of a pre-requisite course as the covariate. Students' perceptions of their experience in the flipped classroom were gauged through a web-based survey. FindingsStudent performance on the final exam was significantly higher in the flipped classroom group. The lowest-scoring students benefitted the most in terms of academic performance. More than two-thirds of students responded positively to the use of the flipped classroom and felt more confident while participating in classes and tests. SummaryThe flipped classroom is academically beneficial in a challenging course with a historically low pass rate; it was also effective in stimulating learning interest. The current study identified that for the flipped classroom to be successful, the role of educators, the feasibility of the approach, and the acceptance of students were important.

Performance-Assisted Learning: A Proposal

Speech as a performance activity is accepted by English teachers and administrators, and speech performances are done in classes as well as at contests. Formal debate is accepted by teachers, but not taught so often in classes because of a perception that it requires special expertise on the part of the teacher, and that it is too complex and difficult a task for most students. Other performance activities, such as drama, dance, and music, receive less acceptance and support for a variety of reasons. This paper discusses the acceptance of performance in courses, explains the concept of Performance-Assisted Learning (PAL), and gives examples of what PAL would look like.

Impact of evidence-based flipped or active-engagement non-flipped courses on student performance in introductory physics

We describe the impact of physics education research-based pedagogical techniques in flipped and active-engagement non-flipped courses on student performance on validated conceptual surveys. We compare student performance in courses that make significant use of evidence-based active engagement (EBAE) strategies with courses that primarily use lecture-based (LB) instruction. All courses had large enrollment and often had 100–200 students. The analysis of data for validated conceptual surveys presented here includes data from large numbers of students from two-semester sequences of introductory algebra-based and calculus-based introductory physics courses. The conceptual surveys used to assess student learning in the first and second semester courses were the Force Concept Inventory and the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism, respectively. In the research discussed here, the performance of students in EBAE courses at a particular level is compared with LB courses in two situations: (i) the same instructor taught two courses, one of which was a flipped course involving EBAE methods and the other an LB course, while the homework, recitations, and final exams were kept the same; (ii) student performance in all of the EBAE courses taught by different instructors was averaged and compared with LB courses of the same type also averaged over different instructors. In all cases, we find that students in courses that make significant use of active-engagement strategies, on average, outperformed students in courses using primarily LB instruction of the same type on conceptual surveys even though there was no statistically significant difference on the pretest before instruction. We also discuss correlation between the performance on the validated conceptual surveys and the final exam, which typically placed a heavy weight on quantitative problem solving.

Assessing the Impact of Technology Learning and Assessment Method on Academic Performance: Review Paper

Technology enhancement learning is a process that leads to deep point of learning and adds knowledge of technologies. Various studies shed light on technology development and its effect in educational sector. The aim of this integrative review is to examine the current evidence of the impact of technology learning on student learning and academic performance in courses requiring collaborative or activities. The authors searched electronic databases for relevant articles, with different learning techniques. 24 articles met the requirement of paper, it’s collected from (2011-2017). Three themes of techniques used for student learning outcomes, includes technology enhanced learning, assessment method and faculty experience on academic performance in universities with technology use. The final results of this paper show the relationship between what has been done and the factors used by the authors. Also the future work needs more use of technologies in different phases of learning process.

Factors influencing academic performance in Basic Business Statistics course at Polytechnic of Namibia

The Polytechnic of Namibia offers the Basic Business Statistics course for all its undergraduate registered students for the Bachelor of Technology degrees in Business Administration, Public Administration ,Marketing, Human Resources Management and Economics programmes as part of their curriculum requirements, on full-time, part-time and distance education (open learning) basis. Academic performance in this course is generally poor, leaving a lot of students with the Basic Business Statistics Course outstanding even after their final year of study, thus delaying their graduation.This paper seeks to the determinants of the students' performance in this course by fitting a binary logistic regression based on the population of distance students who enrolled for the course in the first semester of 2012. The dependent variable is the performance or final result (Pass or Fail} for the Basic Business Statistics course. The independent variables include gender of student, Matric Score (Moths, English), home language, and degree programme.

Do evidence-based active-engagement courses reduce the gender gap in introductory physics?

Prior research suggests that using evidence-based pedagogies can not only improve learning for all students, it can also reduce the gender gap. We describe the impact of physics education research-based pedagogical techniques in flipped and active-engagement non-flipped courses on the gender gap observed with validated conceptual surveys. We compare male and female students’ performance in courses which make significant use of evidence-based active-engagement (EBAE) strategies with courses that primarily use lecture-based (LB) instruction. All courses had large enrolment and often had more than 100 students. The analysis of data for validated conceptual surveys presented here includes data from two-semester sequences of algebra-based and calculus-based introductory physics courses. The conceptual surveys used to assess student learning in the first and second semester courses were the force concept inventory and the conceptual survey of electricity and magnetism, respectively. In the research discussed here, the performance of male and female students in EBAE courses at a particular level is compared with LB courses in two situations: (I) the same instructor taught two courses, one of which was an EBAE course and the other an LB course, while the homework, recitations and final exams were kept the same; (II) student performance in all of the EBAE courses taught by different instructors was averaged and compared with LB courses of the same type also averaged over different instructors. In all cases, on conceptual surveys we find that students in courses which make significant use of active-engagement strategies, on average, outperformed students in courses of the same type using primarily lecture-based instruction even though there was no statistically significant difference on the pre-test before instruction. However, the gender gap persisted even in courses using EBAE methods. We also discuss correlations between the performance of male and female students on the validated conceptual surveys and the final exam, which had a heavy weight on quantitative problem solving.

LINKING TEACHING METHODS TO THE SATISFACTION AND SUCCESS OF STUDENTS IN ONLINE STUDY MODE

The purpose of our article is to link teaching methods to the satisfaction and success of students in online education. The creative courses, especially in the fully online education process, is challenging innovation in teaching. The specificity of an online study with one-month performance of courses is to force the lecturer to become more effective, and students in a compact learning effort. We have found that teaching using creative methods increases the effectiveness of students' study and performance; although not equally to all, but even the less successful students did not feel "losers". Among the creative methods we have taken into consideration are the fun theory, the introduction of icons/references with the possibility of student identification, teaching with examples of good practices, cooperation with the economy in solving practical challenges and virtual mobility of students from various educational institutions and countries. The article presents and analyzes data from student evaluations and questionnaires in six courses, especially from the point of view of how the creative methods described in the article when innovating, such as virtual student mobility and work in international mixed online teams and cooperation with the economy, influence both the the general satisfaction of students with the subject as well as the acquisition of planned subject specific and general competence of subjects. In conclusion, we find that on-line studies require a very precise and targeted lecture. If students want to acquire the required competences, the relationship between theory and practice is about 30 : 70. Our recommendation is that students fully conquer a smaller amount of content than superficially transform the larger one. We believe that our findings will help lecturers in the field of creative subjects, in addition to creative communication and advertising, as well as subjects in the field of public relations, in introducing creative methods of teaching in everyday lectures and, consequently, with more successful outcomes of the subject.

English

Data analysis techniques can be used to analyze the pattern of data in different fields. Based on the analysis’ results, it is recommended that suggestions be provided to decision making authorities. The data mining techniques can be used in educational domain to improve the outcome of the educational sectors. The authors carried out this research study by devising a mathematical model and tool to determine effective course conduction strategy, for teaching the students regression analysis and goodness of fit test. This helps the faculty to take necessary remedial actions to improve performance in courses by selecting effective course conduction based on the students’ performance. The accuracy of prediction in this research is more as it is measured by using Rsquare value which is near to one. Key words: Data mining, educational data analysis, course conduction strategy, outcome based education.

Implementation of a Learning Assistant Program Improves Student Performance on Higher-Order Assessments.

Learning assistant (LA) programs have been implemented at a range of institutions, usually as part of a comprehensive curricular transformation accompanied by a pedagogical switch to active learning. While this shift in pedagogy has led to increased student learning gains, the positive effect of LAs has not yet been distinguished from that of active learning. To determine the effect that LAs would have beyond a student-centered instructional modality that integrated active learning, we introduced an LA program into a large-enrollment introductory molecular biology course that had already undergone a pedagogical transformation to a highly structured, flipped (HSF) format. We used questions from a concept test (CT) and exams to compare student performance in LA-supported HSF courses with student performance in courses without LAs. Students in the LA-supported course did perform better on exam questions common to both HSF course modalities but not on the CT. In particular, LA-supported students' scores were higher on common exam questions requiring higher-order cognitive skills, which LAs were trained to foster. Additionally, underrepresented minority (URM) students particularly benefited from LA implementation. These findings suggest that LAs may provide additional learning benefits to students beyond the use of active learning, especially for URM students.

Gender, Math Confidence, and Grit: Relationships with Quantitative Skills and Performance in an Undergraduate Biology Course.

In a world filled with big data, mathematical models, and statistics, the development of strong quantitative skills is becoming increasingly critical for modern biologists. Teachers in this field must understand how students acquire quantitative skills and explore barriers experienced by students when developing these skills. In this study, we examine the interrelationships among gender, grit, and math confidence for student performance on a pre-post quantitative skills assessment and overall performance in an undergraduate biology course. Here, we show that females significantly underperformed relative to males on a quantitative skills assessment at the start of term. However, females showed significantly higher gains over the semester, such that the gender gap in performance was nearly eliminated by the end of the semester. Math confidence plays an important role in the performance on both the pre and post quantitative skills assessments and overall performance in the course. The effect of grit on student performance, however, is mediated by a student's math confidence; as math confidence increases, the positive effect of grit decreases. Consequently, the positive impact of a student's grittiness is observed most strongly for those students with low math confidence. We also found grit to be positively associated with the midterm score and the final grade in the course. Given the relationships established in this study among gender, grit, and math confidence, we provide "instructor actions" from the literature that can be applied in the classroom to promote the development of quantitative skills in light of our findings.

Body weight concerns: Cross-national study and identification of factors related to eating disorders.

BackgroundBody weight concerns are common among individuals with eating disorders, and this construct can be assessed using psychometric instruments. The Weight Concerns Scale (WCS) is commonly used to assess body weight concerns.AimsTo evaluate the psychometric properties of the WCS with Brazilian, Portuguese, and Mozambican female college students; to estimate body weight concerns; and to identify factors related to eating disorders.MethodsConfirmatory factor analysis was performed. Factorial, convergent, concurrent, and divergent validity, as well as reliability, were assessed. Cross-national invariance was tested by means of multigroup analysis. Structural models were tested using the WCS as the dependent variable, while demographic and academic variables and body mass index were used as independent variables. Logistic models were tested to estimate the likelihood of eating disorders being developed in specific groups.ResultsParticipants were 2,068 female students. The psychometric properties of the WCS were adequate for the Portuguese sample; however, for the Brazilian and Mozambican samples, it was necessary to correlate the errors of two items to improve model fit. The WCS did not show cross-national invariance. The variables “thoughts about dropping out of college,” “medication use because of studies,” “medication and supplements use for body change,” “body mass index,” “socioeconomic status,” “age,” and “performance in course” were significant predictors of body weight concerns. Overall, 24.4% (95% confidence interval = 22.9–26.7) of the students were likely to develop eating disorders. Students under 21 years old, who use medication and supplements for body change, and who were classified as overweight/obese have increased likelihood of developing eating disorders.ConclusionThe WCS showed good psychometric properties with Brazilian, Portuguese, and Mozambican students; however, it did not show cross-national invariance. We identified important aspects for investigating body weight concerns and factors related to eating disorders.

Empirical study on the effect of using synthetic attributes on classification algorithms

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present an empirical study on the effect of two synthetic attributes to popular classification algorithms on data originating from student transcripts. The attributes represent past performance achievements in a course, which are defined as global performance (GP) and local performance (LP). GP of a course is an aggregated performance achieved by all students who have taken this course, and LP of a course is an aggregated performance achieved in the prerequisite courses by the student taking the course.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses Educational Data Mining techniques to predict student performance in courses, where it identifies the relevant attributes that are the most key influencers for predicting the final grade (performance) and reports the effect of the two suggested attributes on the classification algorithms. As a research paradigm, the paper follows Cross-Industry Standard Process for Data Mining using RapidMiner Studio software tool. Six classification algorithms are experimented: C4.5 and CART Decision Trees, Naive Bayes, k-neighboring, rule-based induction and support vector machines.FindingsThe outcomes of the paper show that the synthetic attributes have positively improved the performance of the classification algorithms, and also they have been highly ranked according to their influence to the target variable.Originality/valueThis paper proposes two synthetic attributes that are integrated into real data set. The key motivation is to improve the quality of the data and make classification algorithms perform better. The paper also presents empirical results showing the effect of these attributes on selected classification algorithms.

Orientação estratégica como fonte de desempenho acadêmico: a análise de uma IFES

A busca pela eficácia nas tomadas de decisões estimula cientistas da área de estratégia no desenvolvimento de pesquisas em diferentes segmentos empresariais. Neste contexto, as Instituições Federais de Ensino Superior, em especial as coordenações de curso, emergem como fonte de inquietação e motivação para pesquisas por conta da necessidade de tomadas de decisões ágeis, ao mesmo tempo em que as gestões são atreladas a um processo burocrático e, por vezes, moroso. O objetivo da presente pesquisa é verificar a associação entre a orientação estratégica dos coordenadores de curso com o desempenho acadêmico dos cursos em uma instituição federal de ensino superior. O método utilizado na pesquisa foi a pesquisa quantitativa, via survey, onde os dados foram coletados junto a 46 coordenadores de curso, sendo analisados via estatísticas de Shapiro-Wilk e Kruskal-Wallis. Através dos resultados foi possível perceber que a orientação analista predomina em termos de desempenho (ENADE, DOCENTE, EGRESSO). Por outro prisma verificou-se que o comportamento defensor destaque-se em função do desempenho do conceito de curso. Com relação ao projeto pedagógico de curso não foi possível identificar qual o comportamento é predominante em termos de desempenho. Desta maneira, a orientação analista, recebe maior destaque no desempenho acadêmico.