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Class attendance, peer similarity, and academic performance in a large field study.

ABSTRACT: Identifying the factors that determine academic performance is an essential part of educational research. Existing research indicates that class attendance is a useful predictor of subsequent course achievements. The majority of the literature is, however, based on surveys and self-reports, methods which have well-known systematic biases that lead to limitations on conclusions and generalizability as well as being costly to implement. Here we propose a novel method for measuring class attendance that overcomes these limitations by using location and bluetooth data collected from smartphone sensors. Based on measured attendance data of nearly 1,000 undergraduate students, we demonstrate that early and consistent class attendance strongly correlates with academic performance. In addition, our novel dataset allows us to determine that attendance among social peers was substantially correlated (>0.5), suggesting either an important peer effect or homophily with respect to attendance.

SUBMITTER: Kassarnig V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5678706 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Class attendance, peer similarity, and academic performance in a large field study.

Kassarnig Valentin V Bjerre-Nielsen Andreas A Mones Enys E Lehmann Sune S Lassen David Dreyer DD

PloS one 20171108 11

Identifying the factors that determine academic performance is an essential part of educational research. Existing research indicates that class attendance is a useful predictor of subsequent course achievements. The majority of the literature is, however, based on surveys and self-reports, methods which have well-known systematic biases that lead to limitations on conclusions and generalizability as well as being costly to implement. Here we propose a novel method for measuring class attendance ...[more]

PMID: 29117190

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Project description:BackgroundThe current study aimed to evaluate the previously unexplored correlation between undergraduate medical students' attendance during their surgical clerkship and their academic performance. It also aimed to explore any difference in the attendance rate between male and female students and whether this difference, if present, affects the academic performance.MethodsA retrospective descriptive cross-sectional study has been conducted on 331 undergraduate medical students during their surgical clerkships at the College of Medicine and Medical Sciences (CMMS) at Arabian Gulf University (AGU), Bahrain from September 2018 to June 2020.ResultsThere was a positive statistically significant correlation between students' attendance during surgical clerkship and academic performance (r = 0.360, P < 0.01). Mean attendance rate was greater in each increasing category of academic performance: 47.95% in the weak category (less than 65%, n = 42), 57.62% in the good performance category (65% to less than 75%, n = 108), 67.82% in the very good performance category (75% to less than 85%, n = 126), 83.16% in the excellent performance category (85% and above, n = 55). The mean attendance rate of male students was 59.76% (SD = 25.73), compared to 66.92% (SD = 24.30) in the female students. T-test indicated that the difference between the mean attendance of the two groups of the students (male, female) was statistically significant (t = 2.483, p < 0.05). On the other hand, the difference between the mean academic performance for the two groups of students, male & female, (t = 0.284, p = 0.777) was not statistically significant.ConclusionsOur study showed a significant relationship between undergraduate medical students' attendance during their surgical clerkship and their academic performance. Further studies are needed to stratify this correlation according to clinical and theoretical teaching activities. No significant difference was observed in academic performance between female and male students.

Dataset Information

Class attendance, peer similarity, and academic performance in a large field study.

Publications

Class attendance, peer similarity, and academic performance in a large field study.

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