Jorge Luis Restrepo Ochoa

Improving student results in a statics course using a computer-based training and assessment system

One of the main causes of desertion in engineering programs is the poor student academic performance in basic courses. One of these courses is Statics, which is taught at the undergraduate level. Between 2009 and 2011 about 30% of students did not get a satisfactory grade to pass the course and a high percentage of these students deserted from their engineering program at EAFIT University.

Student acceptance and performance of a virtual platform for training and evaluation of Statics course

Due to the poor performance of students in the Statics course in engineering between 2006 and 2011, whose approval rating was 48.8%, the Engineering School of EAFIT University has developed a virtual platform for students to train and for teachers to evaluate the learning of the subject with a series of exercises implemented in a dynamic system that generates a different version of the exercises for each attempt, the teacher can apply exams with confidence that the answers will not be copied and memorized, and the students have a self-evaluating tool which allows to know their level of learning in relation to the course goals. With the operation of the platform it has been achieved a decrease in dropout rates, and an increase in the approvals rates of the course and it has also generated a positive attitude and motivation in students towards the course. The dropouts have decreased by 21% and the approval of the course has increased by 17.2% according to official records in enrollment and students grades of the course for the period between 2011-2 and 2015 - 2. Regarding to the acceptance of the platform a survey of 10 questions were conducted on different aspects of the platform to 513 students who completed the course during the semesters 2014-2, 2015-1 and 2015-2. In the literature, there are cases of implementation of virtual environments for teaching and evaluation of Statics course in engineering, but studies on the acceptance of virtual tools from students for their classes are not included, and that is the reason why this approach is included in this article. To analyze the data two types of questions are distinguished: discriminative and approving questions. The discriminative type filters the students under what career they are enrolled, the number of semesters they spend to approve the Statics course, the number of hours per week they dedicate to study this course, the preferences and places from where they access to the virtual platform. The approving questions inquire about their experience in the training process, their adaptation taking the quizzes in the platform and their opinion about the implementation of this kind of tool in other courses. This paper presents the analysis of the collected data and draws conclusions in order to improve this platform for teaching and learning process in Statics course in engineering.