Detecting At-Risk Students in an Animal Science Module with Performance Data (Test 1 and 2) from Two Different Cohorts in a Rural-Based University

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-006-0_3How to use a DOI?

Keywords

At-risk; student performance; Test; predictor

Abstract

Students’ dropout which is often reflected as at-risk students remains a major problem in Higher Education worldwide not excluding South Africa. Numerous factors have been associated with student’s dropout such as first-generation student pressure, choosing the wrong institution and course, social status at the institution, academic readiness, financial and family commitments and poor academic support. A couple of researchers have also established that early identification of at-risk students with mitigation strategies can decrease dropout. Test-1 (T1) has often been used for quick identification, but this study investigated the potential of adding Test 2 (T2) early to improve exam failure prediction. The study reflected on the role of T1 and T2 in predicting at-risk students (exam failure) in a small class (Applied Animal Nutrition module at a rural-based University). A total of 51 students belonging to cohort-1 (23) and cohort-2 (28) participated in the study for 14 weeks. A hybrid mode of lecture (half online and half face-to-face) was adopted after the relieved of COVID-19 pandemic. A double blinded study was used to avoid biasing the study. T1 and T2 predicted that 19.6% and 35.3% of students were at-risk of failing their exams, respectively. However, the exam failure rate showed that T1 and T2 were able to predict only 15.7% and 29.4%, respectively. T2 was 15.5% more accurate in predicting at-risk students than T1. It was also noticed that cohor-1 performed better than cohort-2 hence need for further investigation.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - F. Nde Fon
AU  - M. Sibanda
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/02/07
TI  - Detecting At-Risk Students in an Animal Science Module with Performance Data (Test 1 and 2) from Two Different Cohorts in a Rural-Based University
BT  - Proceedings of The Focus Conference (TFC 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 18
EP  - 26
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-006-0_3
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-006-0_3
ID  - NdeFon2023
ER  -