student class turnout and accomplishment
TRANSCRIPT
Student class turnout and accomplishment.
James O. Osondu,
Department of Statistics and Econometrics,
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration,
Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski",
Block 3, No. 125 Boulevard Tsarigradsko Shose, 1113 Sofia.
Abstract: Student class turnout and student accomplishment has been a contemporary study by
various researchers in higher institutions of learning. Such studies were carried out in different
countries. This study was carried out to assess the gender difference, specialty and the language
group of students in a database practical module, in respect to turnout and accomplishment for
2nd year students in the faculty of Business Administration and Economics at "St. Kliment
Ohridski" University of Sofia, Bulgaria. A total of 190 students where taught the database
practical module for a period of 7 academic years in 2 semesters per academic year. The e-
Attendance system developed by the lecturer was the main tool used for data collection. The
methodology used to analyze the data was the Pearson product moment correlation. Five
hypothesis were raised for the study and tested using t-test at 0.05 level of significance. This
study found out that there is a strong, positive correlative relationship between student turnout
and student accomplishment.
Key words: Student attendance, Student achievement, e-Attendance database system.
Introduction:
The purpose of this study was to understand by measurement, the correlation between actual
student turnout in class and their final accomplishment (grades) for the practical classes in the
database module. It can be noted that one of the factors used to measure student involvement
in the education process in higher educational institutions is student turnout or student
attendance.
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Taking a viewpoint from the higher education production function, I identified tangible inputs
of higher education such as student class attendance and tangible outputs such as student grades,
(Hopkins, 1981). In this paper, student turnout represents student attendance in classes and
student accomplishment represents student achievement or performance in terms of grades for
a specific module. Student turnout is not the only factor that is used to measure student
involvement in the education process. Other factors exist in addition to turnout which can affect
student accomplishment and they have been used with various models to achieve different
results. Luca Stanca analyzed the effect of unobservable factors correlated with attendance,
such as ability, effort, and motivation (Luca Stanca, 2006) while other authors focused on
factors such as number of students per class, peers, and tutors (Pedro Martins, Ian Walker,
2006).
According to Andrew Thatcher, Peter Fridjhon and Kate Cockcroft (2007), the relationship
between lecture attendance and academic performance in an undergraduate class showed results
that suggest that the frequency of lecture attendance is significantly related to a better academic
performance and that attending lectures regularly is the best indicator of academic performance.
Their results showed that students who attended lectures regularly show statistically
significant academic performance advantages over students who do not attend lectures.
They used a methodology of correlation and their analysis showed statistically significant (but
moderate) correlations that were found between attendance and three academic
assessments (a test, an essay, and the examination) and the total/final mark. (All
correlations are significant at p < 0.01). Students who failed to submit an assignment or
attend a test/examination were not included in their analysis, which accounted for the
differences in student numbers per assessment.
According to Patrick Higgins and Wayne Read (2012), the data that they collected was
used to investigate the relationship between student attendance and assessment
performance. They investigated on the correlation between student attendance and the
students’ assessment results. The methodology they used was also a correlation model and
their results showed that the correlation between tutorial attendance and overall assessment
mark was R2 = 0.30, which implies that 30% of the variability of the overall marks obtained
can be explained by the number of tutorials attended. The data has a significance value of
p < 0.0005 which is highly significant and extremely unlikely to be the consequence of
chance. Analysing the data showed that there is a strong relationship between tutorial
attendance and assessment performance. They used a new tutorial structure for lecturing
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and their results implied a strong positive impact of the new tutorial structure on student
learning.
According to E. Burd B. Hodgson in his paper Attendance and Attainment: a five year
study (2004), they analysed the attendance and attainment statistics for all modules within
Level 2 using data collected on attendance and attainment over a five year period. Their
results showed show a strong correlation between attendance and attainment significant to
the 0.05 level. The methodology they used was also a correlation method and his results
showed a strong correlation between attendance and attainment.
According to Mohammad Shahid Jamil, Khalid A. Ali, Mohamed Chabi (2014), their
article should be interesting to lecturers who want to use electronic attendance, control
performance in each step and follow up students at risk. Their research found that
attendance are highly correlated with the student overall academic performance and
retention of the student. The methodology they used for their study was statistical analysis.
Their study was conducted in the Mathematics and Computer Department courses of
Foundation Program, Qatar University. Student attendance and its relationship to student
attainment in Qatar University doing Mathematics and Computer courses was
reviewed by answering the main research question: Is there a significant, positive
relationship between student attendance and student performance? Their results showed a
strong, statistically significant correlation between learning event attendance and academic
attainment and Performance and retention. It was discovered that attendance is a direct
determinant of academic performance and attainment. It was also observed that a few
students were shown to have an excellent attendance record, yet scored poor results.
Not all authors agree fully that student attendance shows a positive correlation with their
performance in courses regarding marks or grades. According to Joan R. Rodgers (2002) in
his paper ‘Encouraging Tutorial Attendance at University did not Increase Performance’, he
used an incentive scheme that increased attendance of business and economics students in an
introductory statistics subject at a typical Australian university. And likewise other authors, he
found a strong positive association between attendance and academic performance, both in the
presence and absence of the scheme. Although students attended more classes they did not
perform better than students in the previous year’s class who had the same observable
characteristics and attendance levels but who were not exposed to the scheme, thus there is no
evidence that the incentive scheme caused student performance to improve. Therefore the
author states that there was a positive association between tutorial attendance and performance
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of students both in the year when the incentive scheme was used and in the previous year when
the incentive scheme was not in force. He argues that attendance per se does not ensure that
learning takes place and that there are no “easy fixes” in dealing with absenteeism but they do
not rule out the possibility that other types of incentives may be effective in increasing both
attendance and performance. So Joan R. Rodgers suggests that more information is needed on
why students skip classes and how they utilize the time so gained.
According to Moldabayev, D., Menicucci, J. A., Al-Zubaidy, S. & Abdulaziz, N. (2013), they
investigated the relationship between attendance and overall academic performance of students
at a newly established research focused university located in Central Asia. They also had
variables for gender. Their analysis shows that correlation coefficients of attendance data and
final marks are positive for thirteen out of a total of fourteen modules. It was observed that
attendance data and the students GPAs had a better correlation in the fall semester than in the
spring semester. On correlation between attendance and GPA, they observed that correlation
for male students is lower than that of correlation for female students. The model they used was
a correlation model and statistical hypothesis test t-test. They concluded that as a result from
their analysis of data from the first year of the School of Engineering at Nazarbayev University
has indicated a strong positive correlation between overall semester GPA and overall student
attendance.
In their paper titled Angels and Ghosts: The Demographics of Lecture (Non-) Attendance, Mike
Clifford, Liz Willis and Carol Eastwick, (2011) investigated on lecture attendance and its
impact on academic achievement, for a cohort of 1st year undergraduate engineering
students at a UK Russell Group university. They suggested that student gender and living
arrangements are shown to have a statistically significant effect on lecture attendance, with
female students attending more regularly than male students. The methodology they used to
collect data from the students was with the help of a questionnaire and a correlation model.
They found out that those students who choose to attend more lectures achieved higher grades
than those who choose not to attend. They also suggest that living off campus requires students
to make extra effort to come to lectures, but there may be another factor involved. They also
noted that gender clearly plays a part in determining lecture attendance, particularly in a cohort
with a low percentage of females. The higher than cohort average of females as “angels” in
their study is consistent with previous studies on attendance such as one by Jordaan (2009)
which shows that females are more likely to attend taught sessions than males.
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In Summary, all the authors above have shown that there is a positive correlation between
student attendance in classes and their final grades or performance. Most of their studies were
carried out in their higher institutions classroom environments of core courses for underground
students. Although various authors used various variables to analyse their results, their results
were almost identical and show proof that there is a positive relationship between student
turnout in classes and their final grades or accomplishments.
Research Hypothesis:
Here is a list of assumptions based on the study regarding student turnout and the impact that
this has on grades. The assumptions are as follows:
1. Does a strong correlation exist between student turnout in classes and student
accomplishment?
2. Is German language class student’s turnout higher than students in other language
classes and thus perform better?
3. Do male students have higher grades than females?
4. Does the ratio of student to PC affect student turnover?
5. Is student turnout in the 1st semester (winter) higher than student turnout in the 2nd
semester (summer)?
Data collection:
The data collected was with the use of an Access 2013 desktop database developed by me for
the purpose of monitoring and managing student attendance in my classes. Attendance was
manually collected on pieces of paper by me over the previous academic years, so I decided to
design a relational database system to store the attendance data. eAttendance is a Microsoft
Access desktop database which could store my student attendance data (Osondu, 2013). Recent
data collection is filled on preformatted Microsoft excel sheets which are than imported into
the database by the help of a button. This system is adapted to suit the realistic needs of lecturers
in the faculty of Business Administration and Economics at Sofia University in Bulgaria.
The module studied was a second year practical class in Databases. The module in Databases
is a core-requisite course in both specialties (business administration and economics) for 2nd
year students. It consists of both lectures and practical classes. The data collected for student
attendance was from the practical classes only and it was for a period of 7 academic years. Each
academic year consists of 2 semesters therefore results for student attendance was averaged
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between the 2 semesters. Classes are held for 15 weeks but due an official break and at least 1
unofficial break per semester, 13 weeks of classes per semester for student attendance was used
in this study. The academic years covered in the study are from 2006/2007 to 2012/2013 which
is a 7 year period. Full module work assessment is 50 % for lectures and 50% for practical
classes. The practical classes consist of using and mastering a relational database application
software in relation to the students’ specialty. An average grade is formulated for each student
for the 2 semesters and the final grade in the practical classes is sent to the main lecturer. The
final average grade result for each student for the practical classes was used in this study. The
sample of students sampled for this study covering the 7 academic years period is 648.
The data collection was 100 % correct for the grades as all students who went through the
practical classes had marks and grades, but not all marks were recorded in the database so
student marks was not used as a variable. Attendance for students who attended practical classes
is 99%. The reason for the 99 % is because a weekly manual attendance sheet administered to
students may have got missing for all these years although, I made sure all weekly manual
attendance sheets for all previous academic years were intact.
Conclusively, data used was from 7 academic years and 120 hours of practical classes in
databases. Students with both no final grades and no attendance data were eliminated from the
study.
Method:
This is essentially a correlation design, which measures the strength of the relationship between
student class attendance and examination achievement. Attendance at tutorials was not included
in the study as the significant additional workload involved in data collection and analysis was
deemed to be too burdensome. A Pearson product-moment correlation was applied to the data
which reflects the degree to which two variables are related. Data was analysed at the end of
each semester and at the end of the academic year where the average grade of the student was
calculated. Attendance data was collected at the end of each class. The lecturer attended all
practical classes for the 7 year period.
Data collection shortcomings: Students with no grades and attendance of less than 2 times
per class were also eliminated from the study. This was so because the aim of this study
was to probe the correlation between student class turnout and student achievement as
shown by the grades.
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RESULTS:
The hypothesis in the research question and hypothesis section above will now be appraised
and analysed.
1. Does a strong correlation exist between student turnout in classes and student
accomplishment?
There is a very clear correlation between the student class turnout and the grades of the
students for each of the 7 year period. Correlation is almost constant to approximately 0.6
Module
Academic year Type
2006/2007
2007/2008
2008/2009
2009/2010
2010/2011
2011/2012
2012/2013
Database II
practicals/laboratory 0.64 0.62 0.6 0.61 0.59 0.61 0.6
2. Is German language class student’s turnout higher than students in other language
classes and thus perform better?
Figure 1
On the average, the groups with German language tend to have a higher attendance rate
than the groups with French or German languages. The groups with French language
usually have the lowest attendance rate except for the 5th class which is sometimes a
44.8083333348.22333333
57.015 55.94553.28333333
60.2142857162.00333333
39.44333333
62.735
50.995
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
1-ва 2-ра 3А 3-та 3-та 4-та 5-та 4-та 5-та 6-та
Английски Немски Френски
Student attendance by language groups - English, German,French
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combined class of both specialties. It can be seen from fig. 2 that the higher the average
attendance rate for the groups with German language, the higher the average grades for
that group. But this is not always the case because the group with the highest average grade
of 4.9 (group 2 with English language) does not have the highest average attendance rate.
This is so because the reading materials are in English language thus this group may have
a better understanding of the subject matter.
Figure 2
Figure 3
1-ва 2-ра 3А 3-та 3-та 4-та 5-та 4-та 5-та 6-таАнглийски Немски Френски
Average of Attendance% 44.8083333348.22333333 57.015 55.945 53.2833333360.2142857162.0033333339.44333333 62.735 50.995
Average of Avg_grades_fin4.5166666674.966666667 4.6 4.7 4.6583333334.721428571 4.35 4 4.425 4.233333333
44.8083333348.22333333
57.015 55.94553.28333333
60.2142857162.00333333
39.44333333
62.735
50.995
4.5166666674.966666667 4.6 4.7 4.6583333334.721428571 4.35 4 4.425 4.233333333
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Student attendance and grades by language groups - (English, German and French)
AverageofAttendance%
AverageofAvg_grades_fin
Икономика Стопанско Управление
Стопанско Управление Икономика Стопанско
УправлениеАнглийски Немски Френски
Average of Attendance% 43.525 52.296 57.950625 39.44333333 55.691
Average of Avg_grades_fin 4.866666667 4.63 4.628125 4 4.31
43.525
52.296
57.950625
39.44333333
55.691
4.866666667 4.63 4.628125 4 4.31
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Student attendance and grades by language groups- (English, German and French) and Speciality
Average ofAttendance%
Average ofAvg_grades_fin
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In fig 3 above, the students from the specialty of Business administration have a higher
average attendance rate than the students from the specialty of Economics. The group with
German language has the highest average attendance rate of 57.9 and an average grade of
4.6. This is contrasted by the highest average grade of 4.86 for the English language group
which is in the specialty of Economics but has an average attendance rate of 43.52.
From the above analysis it can be concluded that groups with German language have a
higher average turnout rate and an exceptionally high average grade but a specific group
in the specialty of economics have the highest average grade rate. Nevertheless groups with
German language perform better in respect of their class turnout.
3. Do male students have higher grades than female students?
Figure 4
In fig. 4, it can be seen that there are twice as much registered female students than male
students and this shown for the whole 7 year period of the study. In fig.5, female student
usually have a higher grades than male students and this may be because they are twice as
much as the male students. Due to the high rate of female to male ratio, female students
tend to do their assignments and are usually more attentive than the male students. There
also may be an intimidation factor as the size of the class is largely female.
2006 / 2007 2007 / 2008 2008 / 2009 2009 / 2010 2010 / 2011 2011 / 2012 2012 / 2013F 61 66 69 77 58 49 40M 40 28 34 31 35 34 20
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
% o
f stu
dent
att
enda
nce
Average attendance per semester for each academic year by male and female students
F
M
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Figure 5
From the above analysis, it can be seen that female students have a higher number count
of specific grades than that of male students. This may be explained by the higher number
of female student who register for the course. Another reason may be that the female
students have a higher average attendance rate than most of the male students. Nonetheless,
female students may be a little more studious than male student and these is shown by their
higher number count of specific grades.
F M F M F M F M F M F M F M2006 / 2007 2007 / 2008 2008 / 2009 2009 / 2010 2010 / 2011 2011 / 2012 2012 / 2013
2 4 9 7 5 5 2 1 5 3 4 4 12 2 33 3 8 3 1 3 6 4 2 1 1 3 2 3 24 17 9 23 8 19 7 16 11 15 6 12 6 12 45 20 11 23 10 23 6 46 11 23 18 14 10 15 86 17 3 10 4 19 13 10 2 16 6 16 4 8 3
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
% o
f stu
dent
att
enda
nce
Average attendance per semester for each academic year by male and female students
2
3
4
5
6
10
4. Does the ratio of student to Personal computer (PC) affect student
turnover?
Figure 6
From the above analysis it can be seen that the average ratio of student/pc for groups with
English, German and French languages in the specialty of Business Administration is 1
student to a pc thus these students tend to have higher attendance rates, as opposed to lower
attendance rates for the groups with English and French in the specialty of Economics.
These lower attendance rates may be explained as a result of having a little bit more
registered students in a group than the actual number of pc’s in the classroom. Students
usually sit in 2’s on a PC. The average grades for students in the specialty of Business
Administration is a little higher than that of the students in the specialty if Economics.
Although the average grade for the group with English language in the specialty of
Economics is the highest, attendance rate for students in the specialty of Economics is
generally lower.
Английски Френски Английс
ки Немски Френски
Икономика Стопанско УправлениеAverage of student/pc 0.766666667 0.7 1.16 1.190625 1.095Average of Avg_grades_fin4.866666667 4 4.63 4.628125 4.31Average of Attendance% 43.525 39.44333333 52.296 57.950625 55.691
0.766666667 0.7 1.16 1.190625 1.0954.866666667 4 4.63 4.628125 4.31
43.52539.44333333
52.29657.950625 55.691
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Student attendance by Student/pc and grades
Average of student/pc
Average of Avg_grades_fin
Average of Attendance%
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5. Is student turnout in the 1st semester (winter) higher than student turnout in the 2nd
semester (summer)?
Figure 7
In figure 7 above, it can be seen that the average attendance rate of students for the winter
semester is higher than the average attendance rate of students in the summer semester.
This may be explained as due to the cold weather during winter, almost all students partake
in less activities and prefer to be together in one place. Average attendance is less during
the summer semester because the weather is warm and some students tend to partake in
other activities such as sports, doing a summer job, travelling for exchange student
programs.
0.613749485
0.4711617980.483656863
0.552828302
0.5032301080.5108421690.5141254240.488891667
0.406738202
0.480952041
0.515098113
0.4696617980.465050.437040741
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
2006 /2007
2007 /2008
2008 /2009
2009 /2010
2010 /2011
2011 /2012
2012 /2013
% o
f stu
dent
att
enda
nce
Average attendance per semester for each academic year
Average of % attendance winter sem
Average of % attendance summersem
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Conclusion
With the implementation of a relation database system application it was easier to collect
data for student turnover and accomplishment. The 5 proposed research questions based
on the study regarding student turnout and the impact that this had on student
accomplishment where analysed as follows.
Does a strong correlation exist between student turn out in classes and student
accomplishment? Yes, a strong correlation exist between student turn out in classes and
student accomplishment.
Do German language class student’s turnout is higher than students in other language
classes and thus perform better? Yes, German language class student’s turnout is higher
and thus they perform better however the class with English language in the specialty of
Economics has the highest average grade amongst all other groups but a lower average
turnover.
Do male students have a higher grades than females? No, male students do not have higher
grades than females students. This may be explained by the higher number of female
students than male students, and that female students have a higher average class turnover
than male students.
Does the ratio of student to PC affect student turnover? Yes, the ratio of student to PC
affect student turnover. The study shows that students with student/pc rate 1:1 have a higher
average attendance rate than students with a lower rate (0.5: 1).
Does student turnout in the 1st semester (winter) is higher than student turnout in the 2nd
semester (summer).Yes, student turnout in the 1st semester (winter) is higher due to the
fact that students do not partake or participate I other activities and pay more attention to
their studies and classes.
The importance of this study is that it has e new variables for groups with languages
distributed in different specialities and the semesters. Most of the variable like gender and
student/pc ratio have been used in other studies. Analysis of the data shows that there is a
strong positive correlation between student turnover and accomplishment. Finally, I can
say that it is the personal motivation of the student that makes him or her attend lectures
and practical classes and it is their duty to study and learn if they want to make an excellent
result and grade. This article may help lectures to analyse and increase motivation of
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students when noticeable lower levels of student turnout and student accomplishment in
grades is observed.
Acknowledgement: The author thanks Ralitsa Simeonova-Ganeva for her critical review of this paper.
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