The Relationship between Class Attendance and Performance of Industrial Engineering Students Enrolled for a Statistics Subject at the University of Technology

Authors: Tshaudi Motsima

Abstract:

Class attendance is key at all levels of education. At tertiary level many students develop a tendency of not attending all classes without being aware of the repercussions of not attending all classes. It is important for all students to attend all classes as they can receive first-hand information and they can benefit more. The student who attends classes is likely to perform better academically than the student who does not. The aim of this paper is to assess the relationship between class attendance and academic performance of industrial engineering students. The data for this study were collected through the attendance register of students and the other data were accessed from the Integrated Tertiary Software and the Higher Education Data Analyzer Portal. Data analysis was conducted on a sample of 93 students. The results revealed that students with medium predicate scores (OR = 3.8; p = 0.027) and students with low predicate scores (OR = 21.4, p < 0.001) were significantly likely to attend less than 80% of the classes as compared to students with high predicate scores. Students with examination performance of less than 50% were likely to attend less than 80% of classes than students with examination performance of 50% and above, but the differences were not statistically significant (OR = 1.3; p = 0.750).

Keywords: Class attendance, examination performance, final outcome, logistic regression.

References:

[1] R.N. Cortright, H.L. Lujan, J.H. Cox, and S.E. DiCarlo, “Does sex (female versus male) influence the impact of class attendance on examination performance?,” The American Physiological Society., vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 416-420, Sep. 2011.
[2] A. Lukkarinen, P. Koivukangas, and T. Seppälä, “Relationship between class attendance and student performance,” Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences., vol. 228, pp. 341-347. Jun. 2016.
[3] E.P. Oghuvbu, “Attendance and academic performance of students in secondary schools: A correlational approach,” Studies on Home and Community Science., vol. 4, no. 1, pp.21-25.
[4] M. Landin, and J. Pérez, “Class attendance and academic achievement of pharmacy students in a European University,” ScienceDirect., vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 78-83, 2015.
[5] V. Alexander, and V.A. Hicks, “Does class attendance predict academic performance in first year psychology tutorials?,” International Journal of Psychological Studies., vol. 8, no. 1, 2016.
[6] D. Romer, “Do students go to class? Should they?,” Journal of Economic Perspectives., vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 167-174, 1993.
[7] L. Stanca, “The effects of attendance on academic performance: Panel data evidence for Introductory Microeconomics,” The Journal of Economic Education., vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 251-266, 2006.
[8] Tshwane University of Technology, “Integrated Tertiary Software. Internal document and software,” unpublished, 2017.
[9] Tshwane University of Technology, “Higher Education Data Analyzer. Internal document and software,” unpublished, 2018.
[10] Tshwane University of Technology, “Qualitative Techniques I: QTQ101T class register,” unpublished, 2017.
[11] Tshwane University of Technology, “Student Course Guide: Qualitative Techniques I: QTQ101T,” unpublished, 2017.
[12] M. Maleka, T. Motsima, R. Matang and P. Lekgothoane, “Comparing residents’ perceptions in townships and suburbs regarding service delivery by municipality under administration,” Problems and Perspectives in Management., vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 137-144, Dec, 2016.
[13] D.G. Kleinbaum, and M. Klein, Logistic Regression: A self-learning text. New York: Springer, 2010.
[14] T. Motsima, “The risk factors associated with under-five mortality in Lesotho using Lesotho Demographic and Health Survey,” International Journal of Medical, Health, Biomedical, Bioengineering and Pharmaceutical Engineering., vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 43-51, 2016.
[15] M.M. Mothomoholo, “TUT Research Ethics Committee – Motsima T (Non-degree project),” May, 2018.
[16] R. Kgosana, “Tshwane taxi drivers and commuters fired up,” The Citizen., Feb. 2018.