Technical educations often exhibit poor student performance and consequently high rates of attrition. Providing students with early feedback on their learning progress can assist them in self-study activities or in their decision-making process regarding a change in educational direction. In this paper, we present a set of instruments designed to identify at-risk undergraduate students in a Problem-based Learning (PBL) university, using an introductory programming course as a case study. Collectively, these instruments form the basis of a proposed learning ecosystem designed to identify struggling students by predicting their final exam grades in this course. We implemented this ecosystem and analyzed how well the obtained data predicted the final exam scores. Best-subset-regression and lasso regressions yielded several significant predictors. Apart from relevant predictors known from the literature on exam scores and drop-out factors such as midterm exam results and student retention factors, data from self-assessment quizzes, peer reviewing activities, and interactive online exercises helped predict exam performance and identified struggling students.
Technical educations often experience poor student performance and consequently high rates of attrition. Providing students with early feedback on their learning progress can assist students in self-study activities or in their decision-making process regarding a change in educational direction. In this paper, we present a set of instruments designed to identify at-risk undergraduate students in a Problem-based Learning (PBL) university, using an introductory programming course between two campus locations as a case study. Collectively, these instruments form the basis of a proposed learning ecosystem designed to identify struggling students by predicting their final exam grades in this course. We implemented this ecosystem at one of the two campus locations and analyzed how well the obtained data predicted the final exam grades compared to the other campus, where midterm exam grades alone were used in the prediction model. Results of a multiple linear regression model found several significant assessment predictors related to how often students attempted self-guided course assignments and their self-reported programming experience, among others.
The tool created here is an instructional video that demonstrates how to create models of the heavy and light chains of an antibody using pipe cleaners, and how the process of V, D, and J gene recombination functions, using the model as a visual aide. The video was created by undergraduate students, with the intended audience being other undergraduates. This type of direct peer teaching aids in education because the “teachers” in this situation greatly enhance their own knowledge through instruction, and their imparting of knowledge is often more helpful to that of another student because they are more aware of comprehension gaps within their peer groups. As such, the supplementary goal of the model is to have students follow along with the video by creating and using their own models, thereby gaining a deeper knowledge of the process with a more thorough interaction
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