scholarly journals Unsupervised Characterization and Visualization of Students’ Academic Performance Features

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Udoinyang G. Inyang ◽  
Uduak A. Umoh ◽  
Ifeoma C. Nnaemeka ◽  
Samuel A. Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Educational Data Mining ◽  
First Year ◽  
Self Organizing Map ◽  
Cluster Validity ◽  
Validity Assessment ◽  
Scatter Plots ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
The Impact

The large nature of students’ dataset has made it difficult to find patterns associated with students’ academic performance (AP) using conventional methods. This has increased the rate of drop-outs, graduands with weak class of degree (CoD) and students that spend more than the minimum stipulated duration of studies. It is necessary to determine students’ AP using educational data mining (EDM) tools in order to know students who are likely to perform poorly at an early stage of their studies. This paper explores k-means and self-organizing map (SOM) in mining pieces of knowledge relating to the natural number of clusters in students’ dataset and the association of the input features using selected demographic, pre-admission and first year performance. Matlab 2015a was the programming environment and the dataset consists of nine sets of computer science graduands. Cluster validity assessment with k-means discovered four (4) clusters with correlation metric yielding the highest mean silhouette value of 0.5912.  SOM provided an hexagonal grid visual of feature component planes and scatter plots of each significant input attribute. The result shows that the significant attributes were highly correlated with each other except entry mode (EM), indicating that the impact of EM on CoD varies with students irrespective of mode of admission. Also, four distinct clusters were also discovered in the dataset by SOM —7.7% belonging to cluster 1 (first class), and 25% for cluster 2 (2nd class Upper) while Clusters 3 and 4 had 35% proportion each. This validates the results of k-means and further confirms the importance of early detection of students’ AP and confirms the effectiveness of SOM as a cluster validity tool. As further work, the labels from SOM will be associated with records in the dataset for association rule mining, supervised learning and prediction of students’ AP.

scholarly journals The impact of maths support tutorials on mathematics confidence and academic performance in a cohort of HE Animal Science students

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nieky van Veggel ◽  
Jonathan Amory
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Student Experiences ◽  
First Year ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Animal Science ◽  
Mathematics Confidence ◽  
Management Students ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Insight Into

Students embarking on a bioscience degree course, such as Animal Science, often do not have sufficient experience in mathematics. However, mathematics form an essential and integral part of any bioscience degree and are essential to enhance employability. This paper presents the findings of a project looking at the effect of mathematics tutorials on a cohort of first year animal science and management students. The results of a questionnaire, focus group discussions and academic performance analysis indicate that small group tutorials enhance students’ confidence in maths and improve students’ academic performance. Furthermore, student feedback on the tutorial programme provides a deeper insight into student experiences and the value students assign to the tutorials.

scholarly journals The impact of maths support tutorials on mathematics confidence and academic performance in a cohort of HE Animal Science students

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nieky van Veggel ◽  
Jonathan Amory
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Student Experiences ◽  
First Year ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Animal Science ◽  
Mathematics Confidence ◽  
Management Students ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Insight Into

Students embarking on a bioscience degree course, such as Animal Science, often do not have sufficient experience in mathematics. However, mathematics form an essential and integral part of any bioscience degree and are essential to enhance employability. This paper presents the findings of a project looking at the effect of mathematics tutorials on a cohort of first year animal science and management students. The results of a questionnaire, focus group discussions and academic performance analysis indicate that small group tutorials enhance students’ confidence in maths and improve students’ academic performance. Furthermore, student feedback on the tutorial programme provides a deeper insight into student experiences and the value students assign to the tutorials.

scholarly journals The Impact of Students’ Proficiency in English on Science Courses in a Foundation Year Program

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
pp. 55-67
Author(s):  
Mohammed Siddique Kadwa ◽  
Hamza Alshenqeeti
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
English Language ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Saudi Arabian ◽  
Placement Test ◽  
First Year ◽  
Science Courses ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Learning ◽  
Scatter Plots ◽  
The Impact

English plays a crucial role in determining a student’s academic success and career path in Saudi Arabia. This is one of the reasons why all Saudi Arabian universities offer mandatory foundation year programs to university entrants. The assumption is that if a student has high proficiency levels in the English language, the student will be able to meet the challenges and demands of other science courses that are taught in the English language in the first-year program as well as the subsequent bachelor's programs. In order to prepare students for academic success, the trend at Saudi Arabian universities is to use US or UK publishers to provide the resources for its curriculum which is based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). This study investigates the relationship between Saudi Arabian university students’ English language levels and their performance in science courses in a foundation year program. Using Oxford University’s Q: Skills Placement Test, quantitative data is used to establish the students’ language levels according to the internationally accepted CEFR scales. The scores were then correlated with students’ overall averages in the science courses.  Data was gathered over a period of five academic years and statistical analyses were conducted using Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient formula and scatter plots. The findings and conclusions have serious implications for curriculum designers at Saudi Arabian universities as well as institutions of higher learning in the Middle East and the Arab world.  

Examining the Relationships and Differences of Early College High School Models

2020 ◽  
pp. 33-46
Author(s):  
Briana Hagelgans
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Early College High School ◽  
Early College ◽  
First Year ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Impact

This study examined the impact of the early college model on first-year academic performance. The researcher surveyed students from a small-sized university who graduated high school between 2015-2018, lived off-campus, and were over the age of 18. The study found a moderate positive relationship, which was significant, between academic performance at the end of the early college program and students' academic performance at the end of the first year in college. However, the study did not find a significant difference in academic performance among the different early college models and did not find a significant difference between the academic performance of students who graduated from an early college program and those who did not. The results led the researcher to recommend further research that explore the difference between the different models of early college.

scholarly journals The Impact of Enquiry-Based Learning on Academic Performance and Student Engagement

1969 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alastair Summerlee ◽  
Jacqueline Murray
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Control Group ◽  
First Year ◽  
Access Information ◽  
The Impact ◽  
First Year Seminar

Previously, we reported qualitative findings showing that students who experienced a problem- or enquiry-based course (EBL) in a first-year seminar program had greater confidence in their academic abilities, were more engaged, and were better prepared for upper-year courses. In the current paper, we provide quantitative data to substantiate the students’ qualitative conclusions. We present results to show that these students do perform at a significantly higher level compared with members of the control group who did not experience an EBL course. Using survey data, we show that the EBL students shift the way they access information compared with peers: they preferentially use more sophisticated resources for research. At the same time, students report greater engagement in the community, and student engagement is known to contribute to increased academic performance.  

scholarly journals The impact of timetable on student’s absences and performance

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. e0253256
Author(s):  
Souad Larabi-Marie-Sainte ◽  
Roohi Jan ◽  
Ali Al-Matouq ◽  
Sara Alabduhadi
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Educational Data Mining ◽  
Prediction Performance ◽  
University Timetabling ◽  
Point Of Interest ◽  
High Prediction ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Automated Timetabling ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Design Factors

Student’s academic performance is the point of interest for both the student and the academic institution in higher education. This performance can be affected by several factors and one of them is student absences. This is mainly due to the missed lectures and other class activities. Studies related to university timetabling investigate the different techniques and algorithms to design course timetables without analyzing the relationship between student attendance behavior and timetable design. This article first aimed at demonstrating the impact of absences and timetabling design on student’s academic performance. Secondly, this study showed that the number of absences can be caused by three main timetable design factors: namely, (1) the number of courses per semester, (2) the average number of lectures per day and (3) the average number of free timeslots per day. This was demonstrated using Educational Data Mining on a large dataset collected from Prince Sultan University. The results showed a high prediction performance reaching 92% when predicting student’s GPA based on absences and the factors related to timetabling design. High prediction performance reaching 87% was also obtained when predicting student absences based on the three timetable factors mentioned above. The results demonstrated the importance of designing course timetables in view of student absence behavior. Some suggestions were reported such as limiting the number of enrolled courses based on student’s GPA, avoiding busy and almost free days and using automated timetabling to minimize the number of predicted absences. This in turn will help in generating balanced student timetables, and thus improving student academic performance.

scholarly journals COVID-19 Beliefs, Self-Efficacy and Academic Performance in First-year University Students: Cohort Comparison and Mediation Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Talsma ◽  
Kayleigh Robertson ◽  
Cleo Thomas ◽  
Kimberley Norris
Keyword(s):  
Academic Performance ◽  
Mediation Analysis ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Psychology Students ◽  
Efficacy Beliefs ◽  
Performance Outcomes ◽  
First Year ◽  
Cohort Differences ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Academic Self Efficacy

Students’ learning contexts can influence their learning beliefs and academic performance outcomes; as such, students studying during the COVID-19 outbreak may be at risk of negative impacts on their academic self-efficacy and subject grades compared to other cohorts. They may also have specific beliefs about the impact of COVID-19-related changes on their capacity to perform, with potential consequences for self-efficacy and academic performance. Two weeks after the COVID-19-related transition to online-only learning, 89 first-year psychology students completed a measure of academic self-efficacy and indicated how they thought COVID-19-related changes would impact their capacity to perform in a psychology subject. At the end of the semester, subject grades were obtained from institutional records. Contrary to expectations, neither the self-efficacy beliefs nor the subject grades of the 2020 cohort were significantly different from those of a sample of 2019 first-year psychology students (n = 85). On average, 2020 students believed that COVID-19-related changes to their learning environment had a negative impact on their capacity to perform well. A mediation analysis indicated that students’ beliefs about the impact of COVID-19 on their capacity did not directly, or indirectly (via self-efficacy), predict grades. The only significant association in the model was between self-efficacy and grades. Although students reported believing that COVID-19-related changes would negatively impact their capacity to perform, there is little evidence that these beliefs influenced their academic self-efficacy or academic performance or that studying during the COVID-19 outbreak disadvantaged students in comparison with the previous years. A follow-up analysis indicated that self-efficacy was a stronger predictor of grades in the 2020 cohort than in the 2019 cohort. While there may be several unmeasured reasons for cohort differences, one potential interpretation is that, in the context of uncertainty associated with COVID-19, self-efficacy beliefs assumed relatively greater importance in terms of mobilising the resources required to perform well.

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