scholarly journals The Impact of Progress Testing of Students on their Results at Final Exam

2015 ◽  
Vol 174 ◽  
pp. 3702-3706
Author(s):  
Tomáš Moravec ◽  
Petr Štěpánek ◽  
Petr Valenta
2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nanette P. Napier ◽  
Sonal Dekhane ◽  
Stella Smith

This paper describes the conversion of an introductory computing course to the blended learning model at a small, public liberal arts college. Blended learning significantly reduces face-to-face instruction by incorporating rich, online learning experiences. To assess the impact of blended learning on students, survey data was collected at the midpoint and end of semester, and student performance on the final exam was compared in traditional and blended learning sections. To capture faculty perspectives on teaching blended learning courses, written reflections and discussions from faculty teaching blended learning sections were analyzed. Results indicate that student performance in the traditional and blended learning sections of the course were comparable and that students reported high levels of interaction with their instructor. Faculty teaching the course share insights on transitioning to the blended learning format.


2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 789-819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sohail Iqbal Malik ◽  
Jo Coldwell-Neilson

High failure and dropout rates are reported in introductory programming (IP) courses in different studies despite extensive research attempting to address the issue. In this study, we introduced an ADRI (Approach, Deployment, Result, Improvement) approach in the teaching and learning process of an IP course to improve learning and success rates. All three entities of the didactic triangle (student, instructor, and content) were involved in the research to better understand and execute the proposed approach. The IP course materials were redesigned based on the ADRI approach, and an editor was developed to promote the new approach and encourage students to complete the various stages required in the approach. Two surveys were conducted, and final exam grades over four semesters were compared with determine the impact of including the ADRI approach in the course. We concluded that the ADRI approach provides a positive impact on outcomes that the students achieved during the course. It engages students in practicing their programming skills and provides a new presentation style for examples and exercises which discourages students from taking programming shortcuts. It not only helps to reduce the failure and, significantly, the dropout rates from the IP course but also impacts positively on all students who passed the IP course.


Author(s):  
Huimei Delgado ◽  
Michael Delgado ◽  
John Hilton III

Open educational resources (OER), which are free and openly licensed educational materials, have been a widely discussed topic in response to high textbook costs, the need for more pedagogical flexibility, and inequality in access to educational materials. In this study we examine the efficacy of OER through a quantitative analysis of the impact of OER on student final exam performance in a large calculus course. Our dataset affords us a relatively large sample size, allows us to classify students in both treatment and control groups, and includes a variety of covariates that allow us to control for multiple correlated factors. We estimate causal treatment effects using several econometric approaches. Our study adds the following insights into the research on OER efficacy: (i) OER materials do not, in general, lead to any significant change in student final exam performance; and (ii) OER materials have a significantly positive impact on both international students and Pell Grant eligible students.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fahim Ullah ◽  
Samad Sepasgozer ◽  
Faham Tahmasebinia ◽  
Saleh Mohammad Ebrahimzadeh Sepasgozar ◽  
Steven Davis

The aim of this paper is to examine students’ performance in a computation-based course by evaluating the effects of key factors including sketching, visualization resources provided to them during the lectures, their attendance and tutors’ experience. A systematic review was conducted including 192 articles published during January 2010 to December 2019. Further, a case study has been conducted in which 633 students from non-engineering backgrounds were taught a core course of construction over three-yearly sessions from 2017 to 2019. The performance has been assessed through two quizzes of 10% weight each, assignment of 40% weight and a final exam with 30% weight in 2017-18 and 40% weight in 2019 were utilized with an attendance criterion of below 75% as low attendance. The statistical result highlights that a clear difference of 14% overall marks exist between the students with less than 75% attendance and the ones with 75% and above in 2017 and a 10% gap in 2018. Students with high marks in sketching secured higher overall marks as compared to others highlighting that the sketching skill is useful to construction students. The findings contribute to the body of education knowledge by evaluating key influential factors and provide a useful benchmark to other educators in the field. 


Author(s):  
Caroline Z. Muteti ◽  
Carolina Zarraga ◽  
Brooke I. Jacob ◽  
Tuli M. Mwarumba ◽  
Dorothy B. Nkhata ◽  
...  

Many students transitioning from high school to college are faced with challenges of getting acclimated to college life and managing their time and heavy course load that is cognitively demanding. Students planning to major in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs in the United States are mostly required to enroll in general chemistry courses as prerequisites. Unfortunately, these courses are among the STEM gateway courses in which many first-year students struggle to get through, or are weeded out. This is partly due to the use of ineffective study strategies that require more than rote memorization, a common learning approach in high schools. One way to prepare first-year college students for STEM trajectories is by teaching them metacognitive strategies early in their study programs to enable early adoption and sustainability of metacognition knowledge and metacognition regulation skills as they progress to the advanced courses. While a handful of studies have investigated study strategies among students in the general chemistry courses as well as the impact of metacognitive activities on student performance in chemistry, very few in-depth qualitative studies investigating the influence of explicit teaching of metacognition on students’ study strategies have been reported. Using open-ended questionnaires, this unique study investigated general chemistry students’ study strategies that they employed prior to a 50 minute metacognition lesson; strategies they reported to have gained from the instruction; and the influence of the metacognition instruction on students’ study strategies and performance in the final exam. Findings indicated more reported use of rote memorization over higher-order study strategies prior to the metacognition instruction, but more reported gains on higher-order study strategies and fewer strategies related to rote memorization immediately after the metacognition instruction. Furthermore, 67% reported a positive influence of the metacognition instruction on study strategies, with 7% lower DFs in the final exam compared to those who reported ‘no influence’. Findings revealed that most general chemistry students were unaware of effective study strategies; thus, there is a critical need to explicitly teach students in general chemistry courses metacognitive strategies.


2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (S2) ◽  
pp. 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo R. Alves ◽  
Maria C. Viegas ◽  
Maria A. Marques ◽  
Maria C. Costa-Lobo ◽  
Antonio A. Silva ◽  
...  

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Template>Normal</o:Template> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>208</o:Words> <o:Characters>1190</o:Characters> <o:Lines>9</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>2</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>1461</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>11.1282</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG /> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:DoNotShowRevisions /> <w:DoNotPrintRevisions /> <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:UseMarginsForDrawingGridOrigin /> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="Abstract" style="mso-pagination: none;">This work describes the impact of different teachers&rsquo; approaches in using Moodle, for supporting their courses, at the Polytechnic of Porto - School of Engineering. The study covers five different courses, from different degrees and different years, and includes a number of Moodle resources especially supporting laboratory classes. These and other active resources are particularly analyzed in order to evaluate students&rsquo; adherence to them. One particular course includes a number of remote experiments, made available through VISIR (Virtual Instrument Systems in Reality) and directly accessible through links included in the Moodle course page. The collected data have been correlated with students&rsquo; classifications in the lab component and in the exam, each one weighting 50% of their final marks. This analysis benefited from the existence of different teachers&rsquo; approaches, which resulted in a diversity of Moodle-supported environments. Conclusions point to the existence of a positive correlation factor between the number of Moodle accesses and the final exam grade, although the quality of the resources made available by the teachers seems to be preponderant over its quantity. In addition, different students perspectives were found regarding active resources: while some seem to encourage students to participate (for instance online quiz or online reports), others, more demanding, are unable to stimulate the majority of them.</p> <!--EndFragment-->


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
M Yustien

The objective of this research is to study the impact of motivation on students� achievement in studying English of Faculty of Science and Technology. The reason of carrying out the research is the low scores of the majority students of Computer Information System (SI) and Technology Information (IF) Study Program of Faculty of Science and Technology. The research was conducted at the Computer Information System Study Program and Technology Information Study Program of Faculty of Science and Technology, Musi Charitas Catholic University, Palembang. There were 30 students taken as the samples of the research by using non-probabilities technique. The respondents� profile is based on the gender and the study program. Most of the repondents are male. The number of the students from the Technology Information Program are more than those who come from the Computer Information Study Program. The method used in the research was a survey. The technique of collecting data was using questionnaire for motivation, and for the data of learning achievement is taken from the cumulative scores of the average scores of the daily tests and the final exam. The data was analysed using descriptive statistical method and simple regression analysis. To test the statistics is used the t test. Most of the students have average and low motivation and they also have average and low learning-achievement in studying English. The data analysis and interpretation showed that there is no significant effect of motivation on the students� achievement in studying English.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hassan M. Kassem

This study explored the relative effect of student- and teacher-centered instruction on EFL freshmen&rsquo;s affect (anxiety, motivation, attitude, autonomy, self-efficacy and beliefs about English and its learning) and achievement. Two classes of English department freshmen at Shaqra University, KSA participated in the study. Students in the two classes completed a questionnaire probing the target affective variables. An independent t-test proved that the two classes were homogenous in affective variables before the treatment. The treatment class was taught according to student-centered instruction for an academic year. The control class was taught the same courses according to the conventional teacher-centered instruction. The students completed the questionnaire probing their affect. A composite mark of final exam marks of three courses was used as an index of achievement. Analyses of independent sample t-test proved that the treatment class outperformed the control class in all affective variables (except for instrumental motivation) and achievement.


Author(s):  
Nadia Singh

The flipped classroom is gaining prominence as an active learning pedagogy to engage a new generation of students. However, all courses do not lend themselves to a fully flipped design and instructors are often reluctant to flip lectures. In this study, I experimented with a &ldquo;partial&rdquo; flipped classroom design in a first-year undergraduate economics course. In this partial flipped format, traditional lectures were substituted with micro-lectures and the remaining class time was devoted to activities like quizzes, group work and student presentations. The full lectures were panopto recorded and put up on the e-learning site, Blackboard. This format enabled me to combine the benefits of a traditional lecture with a flipped classroom design. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the partial flipped classroom format, I compared the final exam scores of students in the partial flipped classroom with those in the control group, which followed a traditional lecture-based approach. The key results from the analysis revealed that students in the partial flipped classroom performed better in the final exams vis-&agrave;-vis students in the traditional classroom format. Furthermore, the partial flipped classroom format was associated with lower odds of students failing in the module. This format also resulted in better student engagement, more flexibility and enhanced student-tutor interaction within the classroom.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0243560
Author(s):  
Nadia N. Abuelezam ◽  
Andrés Castro Samayoa ◽  
Alana Dinelli ◽  
Brenna Fitzgerald

Objective The discussion of racism within undergraduate public health classrooms can be highly influenced by local and national conversations about race. We explored the impact of local and national events on students’ ability to name racism on a public health exam highlighting the impact of racism on maternal and infant health disparities for Black mothers. Methods We undertook this research within the context of an undergraduate introductory public health course at a primarily white institution in the Northeastern part of the United States. A qualitative content analysis of undergraduate student responses to a final exam question soliciting the importance of racism to health outcomes among Black mothers in the United States was undertaken. ANOVA tests were run to assess differences on naming racism, using semantic alternatives, and providing alternative explanations during three main time periods: prior to the election of the 45th president of the United States (pre-Trump), after the election (post-Trump), and after a nationally recognized racist campus incident. Results Between the pre- and post-Trump periods we see no differences in naming racism or providing alternative explanations. We do see a reduction in the proportion of students providing semantic alternatives for racism in the post-Trump period (32.2 vs. 25.2%, p = 0.034). After the racist campus incident, we see increases in the proportion of students naming race (53.6 vs. 73.8%, p = 0.021) and decreases in the proportion providing an alternative explanation (43.1 vs. 12.9%, p = 0.004), but no differences in the proportion of students who used semantic alternatives. Discussion This work lends itself to our understanding of how local climate affects public health teaching and may also influence students’ learning about important social and structural determinants of health. National and local climate should frame and guide public health teaching.


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