Concerning one method of final grade giving to undergraduate students

Academic institutions adopt different advising tools for various objectives. Past research used both numeric and text data to predict students’ performance. Moreover, numerous research projects have been conducted to find different learning strategies and profiles of students. Those strategies of learning together with academic profiles assisted in the advising process. This research proposes an approach to supplement these activities by text mining students’ essays to better understand different students’ profiles across different courses (subjects). Text analysis was performed on 99 essays written by undergraduate students in three different courses. The essays and terms were projected in a 20-dimensional vector space. The 20 dimensions were used as independent variables in a regression analysis to predict a student’s final grade in a course. Further analyses were performed on the dimensions found statistically significant. This study is a preliminary analysis to demonstrate a novel approach of extracting meaningful information by text mining essays written by students to develop an advising tool that can be used by educators.

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Likes attract: Students self-sort in a classroom by gender, demography, and academic characteristics

Active Learning in Higher Education ◽

10.1177/1469787417707614 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

pp. 115-126 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Scott Freeman ◽

Roddy Theobald ◽

Alison J Crowe ◽

Mary Pat Wenderoth

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Academic Characteristics ◽

Final Grade ◽

Logistic Regression Models ◽

Informal Group ◽

Academic History ◽

Working Together ◽

And Gender ◽

Almost All ◽

Ethnicity And Gender

Although a growing literature has documented the effectiveness of informal group work during class sessions, virtually no data exist on which students are collaborating. As a result, instructors rarely know whether students are self-sorting in ways that maximize learning. This article explores which undergraduate students worked together on each of five exercises scheduled throughout the term, in a large-enrollment course for majors that emphasized intensive peer interaction. Pairwise logistic regression models were used to assess the likelihood that students collaborated based on shared demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, and academic performance. In almost all cases, students self-sorted by ethnicity and gender. In addition, students who were predicted to do well in the course, based on their academic history, worked together initially; students who actually did well in the course, based on their final grade, were working together at the end; and students who were predicted to struggle in the course began collaborating late in the term.

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A Semi-Supervised Regression Algorithm for Grade Prediction of Students in Distance Learning Courses

International Journal of Artificial Intelligence Tools ◽

10.1142/s0218213019400013 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 28 (04) ◽

pp. 1940001 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Georgios Kostopoulos ◽

Sotiris Kotsiantis ◽

Nikos Fazakis ◽

Giannis Koutsonikos ◽

Christos Pierrakeas

Keyword(s):

Data Mining ◽

Academic Performance ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Educational Data Mining ◽

Predictive Performance ◽

Educational Process ◽

Training Set ◽

Final Grade ◽

Future Outcomes ◽

Educational Field

Applying data mining methods in the educational field has gained a lot of attention among researchers in recent years. Educational Data Mining has turned into an effective tool for uncovering hidden relationships in educational data and predicting students’ learning outcomes. Several supervised methods have been successfully applied with the purpose of identifying students at risk of failing or of predicting their academic performance. Recently, the implementation of Semi-Supervised Learning (SSL) methods in the educational process indicated their superiority over the supervised ones. SSL is an emerging subfield of machine learning seeking to effectively exploit a small pool of labeled examples together with a large pool of unlabeled ones. On this basis, a small number of students’ data from previous years may be used as the training set of a learning model to predict future outcomes of current students. A number of rewarding studies deal with the implementation of classification methods in the educational field in contrast to regression, which is deemed to be a slightly touched task. In this paper, a novel semi-supervised regression (SSR) algorithm is presented for predicting the final grade of undergraduate students in a distance online course. To the best of our knowledge there is no study dealing with the implementation of SSR methods in the educational field. A plethora of attributes related to students’ characteristics, academic performance and interaction within the course online platform form the training set, while several experiments were carried out confirming the superiority of the proposed algorithm over familiar regression methods. The experiment results show that the predictive performance of the proposed algorithm is increasing significantly over time, achieving a MAE value of less than 1.2358 before the middle of the academic year, which provides the advantage of early warnings and interventions.

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The two roads of passionate goal pursuit: links with appraisal, coping, and academic achievement

10.31234/osf.io/8baxp ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin J. I. Schellenberg ◽

Daniel Seth Bailis

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Goal Attainment ◽

Cognitive Appraisals ◽

Final Grade ◽

Coping Responses ◽

Obsessive Passion ◽

Coping Processes ◽

Harmonious And Obsessive Passion ◽

And Coping

Background and Objectives: In this research, we testing the role of cognitive appraisals in explaining why harmonious and obsessive passion dimensions are related to distinct forms of coping, and explored if performance was impacted by these appraisal and coping processes.Design: Undergraduate students (N = 489) participated in a longitudinal study and completed three surveys throughout the course of an academic year.Methods: Participants completed assessments of both passion dimensions (Time 1), reported how they were appraising and coping with the mid-year exam period (Time 2), and provided consent to obtain their final grade in Introductory Psychology (Time 3). The hypothesised model was tested using structural equation modeling.Results: Harmonious and obsessive passion dimensions were linked with approach and avoidant coping responses, respectively. Cognitive appraisals, particularly appraisals of challenge and uncontrollability, played an indirect role in these relationships. In addition, both appraisals and coping responses had an indirect effect in the relationship between passion dimensions and final grade. Conclusions: These results identify cognitive appraisal as a reason why passion dimensions are linked with distinct coping tendencies, and demonstrate the role appraisal and coping processes in the journey toward passionate goal attainment.

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STUDENTS' OPINION ON THE IMPORTANCE OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES IN GERMAN LANGUAGE TEACHING FROM THE ASPECT OF DIGITAL MEDIA

Folia linguistica et litteraria ◽

10.31902/fll.35.2021.17 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol XII (35) ◽

pp. 329-354

Author(s):

Mirela Müller ◽

Silvija Ugrina

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Digital Media ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Language Teaching ◽

Digital Tools ◽

German Language ◽

Final Grade ◽

Humanities And Social Sciences ◽

The Impact ◽

Academic Year

The research in this paper aims to determine different approaches in teaching German, the influence of digital tools and to determine the differences between first and second-year undergraduate students at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split and Osijek; to identify links between the impact of the teaching approach, and metalanguage awareness, and the final grade at the end of the semester or academic year; to determine the connection between the influence of different digital tools as auxiliary tools and easier mastering of student obligations, understanding, and finally to determine the connection between teachers and/or lecturers and mastering the German language during studies. The research was conducted on N = 106 students of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split and Osijek. It was conducted during the summer semester of the academic year 2019/2020 in February. The results of the research will provide an overview of the importance of different approaches to teaching German, the importance of the type of metalanguage awareness, the importance of the influence of certain digital media, and the importance of the role of teachers/lecturers as factors influencing the learning and teaching of German as a foreign language. The scientific contribution of this paper is in understanding the new methodology of studying the German language. The research could be an example for the development of new educational paradigms in teacher education, and in particular, it can serve as an example for strengthening the impact of those approaches in language teaching at undergraduate and graduate level as well as more meaningful use of digital tools as e-mentors in order to improve the methodology of foreign languages in higher education institutions.

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Externalising Success: A Performance-Limiting Attribution

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.1998.82.2.570 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 82 (2) ◽

pp. 570-570

Author(s):

Mary Morris ◽

Marika Tiggemann

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Common Factor ◽

External Factors ◽

Final Grade ◽

Examination Performance ◽

Limiting Behaviour ◽

A Performance

14 undergraduate students who attributed success in a mid-year examination to external factors performed more poorly on the end-of-year examination and received a lower final grade than 169 students who internalised their successful examination performance. This is congruent with Thompson's 1997 suggestion that externalising success is a common factor in performance-limiting behaviour.

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Read, Understand, Learn, & Excel: Development and Testing of an Automated Reading Strategy Detection Algorithm for Postsecondary Students

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology ◽

10.1044/2019_ajslp-18-0181 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 1257-1267 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Priya Kucheria ◽

McKay Moore Sohlberg ◽

Jason Prideaux ◽

Stephen Fickas

Keyword(s):

Academic Success ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Expository Text ◽

Reading Strategy ◽

Detection Algorithm ◽

Expository Texts ◽

Human Observer ◽

Behavioral Strategies ◽

Periodic Review ◽

Wide Range

PurposeAn important predictor of postsecondary academic success is an individual's reading comprehension skills. Postsecondary readers apply a wide range of behavioral strategies to process text for learning purposes. Currently, no tools exist to detect a reader's use of strategies. The primary aim of this study was to develop Read, Understand, Learn, & Excel, an automated tool designed to detect reading strategy use and explore its accuracy in detecting strategies when students read digital, expository text.MethodAn iterative design was used to develop the computer algorithm for detecting 9 reading strategies. Twelve undergraduate students read 2 expository texts that were equated for length and complexity. A human observer documented the strategies employed by each reader, whereas the computer used digital sequences to detect the same strategies. Data were then coded and analyzed to determine agreement between the 2 sources of strategy detection (i.e., the computer and the observer).ResultsAgreement between the computer- and human-coded strategies was 75% or higher for 6 out of the 9 strategies. Only 3 out of the 9 strategies–previewing content, evaluating amount of remaining text, and periodic review and/or iterative summarizing–had less than 60% agreement.ConclusionRead, Understand, Learn, & Excel provides proof of concept that a reader's approach to engaging with academic text can be objectively and automatically captured. Clinical implications and suggestions to improve the sensitivity of the code are discussed.Supplemental Materialhttps://doi.org/10.23641/asha.8204786

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Does a Graduate Course in Fluency Disorders Make a Difference?

Perspectives on Fluency and Fluency Disorders ◽

10.1044/ffd20.1.10 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 10-14 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Evelyn R. Klein ◽

Barbara J. Amster

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Graduate Programs ◽

The United States ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Sectional Study ◽

Graduate Course ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Fluency Disorders ◽

Introductory Course ◽

Communicative Disorders

Abstract A study by Yaruss and Quesal (2002), based on responses from 134 of 239 ASHA accredited graduate programs, indicated that approximately 25% of graduate programs in the United States allow students to earn their degree without having coursework in fluency disorders and 66% of programs allow students to graduate without clinical experience treating people who stutter (PWS). It is not surprising that many clinicians report discomfort in treating PWS. This cross-sectional study compares differences in beliefs about the cause of stuttering between freshman undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory course in communicative disorders and graduate students enrolled and in the final weeks of a graduate course in fluency disorders.

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The Impact of TimeSlips on Undergraduate Students in Service Learning With Older Adults

Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups ◽

10.1044/2020_persp-20-00171 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Sabine Heuer

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Service Learning ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Attitude Scale ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Attitudes Toward Older Adults ◽

Students Attitudes ◽

Attitude Shift ◽

The Impact ◽

Journal Entries

Purpose Future speech-language pathologists are often unprepared in their academic training to serve the communicative and cognitive needs of older adults with dementia. While negative attitudes toward older adults are prevalent among undergraduate students, service learning has been shown to positively affect students' attitudes toward older adults. TimeSlips is an evidence-based approach that has been shown to improve health care students' attitudes toward older adults. The purpose of this study is to explore the change in attitudes in speech-language pathology students toward older adults using TimeSlips in service learning. Method Fifty-one students participated in TimeSlips service learning with older adults and completed the Dementia Attitude Scale (DAS) before and after service learning. In addition, students completed a reflection journal. The DAS data were analyzed using nonparametric statistics, and journal entries were analyzed using a qualitative analysis approach. Results The service learners exhibited a significant increase in positive attitude as indexed on the DAS. The reflective journal entries supported the positive change in attitudes. Conclusions A noticeable attitude shift was indexed in reflective journals and on the DAS. TimeSlips is an evidence-based, patient-centered approach well suited to address challenges in the preparation of Communication Sciences and Disorders students to work with the growing population of older adults.

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Engaging Undergraduate Students in Child Language Research

Perspectives on Issues in Higher Education ◽

10.1044/aihe17.1.4 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 4-16

Author(s):

Jade H. Coston ◽

Corine Myers-Jennings

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Student Growth ◽

Process Data ◽

Research Knowledge ◽

Research Dissemination ◽

Language Sampling ◽

Language Research ◽

Language Sample Analysis ◽

Turn Taking ◽

Assessment Techniques

To better prepare the professionals and scholars of tomorrow in the field of communication sciences and disorders (CSD), a research project in which undergraduate students collected and analyzed language samples of child-parent dyads is presented. Student researchers gained broad and discipline-specific inquiry skills related to the ethical conduct of research, the literature review process, data collection using language assessment techniques, language sample analysis, and research dissemination. Undergraduate students majoring in CSD developed clinical research knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for future graduate level study and professional employment. In addition to the benefits of student growth and development, language samples collected through this project are helping to answer research questions regarding communicative turn-taking opportunities within the everyday routines of young children, the effects of turn-taking interactions on language development, and the construct validity of language sampling analysis techniques.

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