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Improving student success in difficult engineering education courses through Supplemental Instruction (SI) – what is the impact of the degree of SI attendance?

Malm, Joakim LU ; Bryngfors, Leif LU and Mörner, Lise-Lotte LU (2011) In Journal of Peer Learning 4(1). p.16-23
Abstract
The customary way to determine whether an adopted Supplemental Instruction (SI) program has been successful or not is by comparing course results for two groups, SI attendees and non-attendees. The division of SI attendees and non-attendees is generally done rather arbitrarily by prescribing a minimum number of SI sessions a student has to attend to be considered an SI attendee. Although the SI attendee vs. non-attendee concept is powerful in some respects, it tends to cloud the benefit of attending SI sessions. That a higher SI attendance leads to better course results is perhaps taken for granted, but in the few further studies that have been made, the picture of SI attendance rates vs. course results is not overly clear. The present... (More)
The customary way to determine whether an adopted Supplemental Instruction (SI) program has been successful or not is by comparing course results for two groups, SI attendees and non-attendees. The division of SI attendees and non-attendees is generally done rather arbitrarily by prescribing a minimum number of SI sessions a student has to attend to be considered an SI attendee. Although the SI attendee vs. non-attendee concept is powerful in some respects, it tends to cloud the benefit of attending SI sessions. That a higher SI attendance leads to better course results is perhaps taken for granted, but in the few further studies that have been made, the picture of SI attendance rates vs. course results is not overly clear. The present study aims to contribute to how the degree of SI attendance affects course results in an engineering context at a Swedish University. In the study we divide the students into four categories, those with high, average, low, and no SI attendance. In terms of student success in a course, it is found that there is a clear relation between the number of SI sessions attended and course success. Students with high SI attendance do best followed by students with average, low, and no SI attendance, respectively. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
categories
Higher Education
in
Journal of Peer Learning
volume
4
issue
1
pages
16 - 23
publisher
University of Wollongong
ISSN
2200-2359
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
a880695a-3245-4648-9c01-2a1683420cc2 (old id 5471930)
alternative location
http://ro.uow.edu.au/ajpl/vol4/iss1/4
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 14:17:44
date last changed
2018-11-21 20:25:21
@article{a880695a-3245-4648-9c01-2a1683420cc2,
  abstract     = {{The customary way to determine whether an adopted Supplemental Instruction (SI) program has been successful or not is by comparing course results for two groups, SI attendees and non-attendees. The division of SI attendees and non-attendees is generally done rather arbitrarily by prescribing a minimum number of SI sessions a student has to attend to be considered an SI attendee. Although the SI attendee vs. non-attendee concept is powerful in some respects, it tends to cloud the benefit of attending SI sessions. That a higher SI attendance leads to better course results is perhaps taken for granted, but in the few further studies that have been made, the picture of SI attendance rates vs. course results is not overly clear. The present study aims to contribute to how the degree of SI attendance affects course results in an engineering context at a Swedish University. In the study we divide the students into four categories, those with high, average, low, and no SI attendance. In terms of student success in a course, it is found that there is a clear relation between the number of SI sessions attended and course success. Students with high SI attendance do best followed by students with average, low, and no SI attendance, respectively.}},
  author       = {{Malm, Joakim and Bryngfors, Leif and Mörner, Lise-Lotte}},
  issn         = {{2200-2359}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{16--23}},
  publisher    = {{University of Wollongong}},
  series       = {{Journal of Peer Learning}},
  title        = {{Improving student success in difficult engineering education courses through Supplemental Instruction (SI) – what is the impact of the degree of SI attendance?}},
  url          = {{http://ro.uow.edu.au/ajpl/vol4/iss1/4}},
  volume       = {{4}},
  year         = {{2011}},
}