Conference Paper

Investigation of the empirical relation between student sketching, attendance and performance in construction education

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Abstract

Traditionally students' attendance and overall performance have been hypothesized to go hand in hand. In current study, 195 students from non-engineering background were taught a three credits core course of construction and their attendance vs performance results are empirically investigated. Further, the students' attendance and performance have also been assessed against tutors' experience to highlight students' performance in tutorials of fresh vs experienced tutors. The assessment criteria of two quizzes each 20% weight, 1 assignment of 20% weight and a mid-semester exam with 40% weight are utilized with an attendance criterion of below 75% as low attendance. The result highlights that a clear difference of 14% marks exist between the students with less than 75% attendance and the ones with 75% and above. The students with low attendance averaged at 53.35% in terms of overall marks obtained whereas the good attendance students secured 67.40% marks on average. Furthermore, in terms of fresh vs experienced tutors, students taught by fresh and less experienced tutors not only displayed better attendance but also out passed the experienced tutors' students by a difference of 4% marks in terms of overall marks. Additionally, students with high marks in sketches secured higher overall marks as compared to the ones with lower sketch marks validating the hypothesis that students with better sketches have better imagination and perceptions, a must to have skills for construction academics and architects. This study is useful for teaching professionals and encourages the use of sketches and visualisation in construction. This ongoing study will be aided by semi structured interviews with tutors and randomly selected students to highlight the underlying factors dictating this gap. The results are expected to lay foundation for better performance of students with non-engineering backgrounds in construction courses.

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