Student Performance Analysis in Various Electrical Engineering Concepts

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-521-8_14How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Frequency Distributions; Failure Rate; Correlation; Practical Marks; Theory Marks; Mean

Abstract

The need for engineers is growing globally; however, the number of engineering graduates is not increasing at the same rate. This gap is worsened by the high dropout rates in engineering programs compared to other disciplines, with most of the dropouts being in the first year. Higher learning institutions are more reactive rather than proactive with interventions to support students and this leads to the interventions being ineffective. This study aims to analyze student performance in an Electrical Engineering module at Vaal University of Technology to identify difficult topics and concepts. The study analysed results of a test from the 2024 second-semester module to determine which topics students struggled with the most and which topics they mastered. Frequency distributions in the various concepts were analyzed where it was found that students performed differently. In some instances, the students were proficient whereas in other instances, they performed poorly. The measure of the mean with respect to the standard deviation turned out to be a useful instrument in identifying the concepts that required intervention. For example, in instances where the standard deviation was zero, no intervention was required whereas in instances where the standard deviation was greater than zero intervention were recommended. The other comparison that was measured was the difference between the mean the total marks for a particular concept, which also turned out to be useful instrument in assessing the risk of failure in the module. The study recommends corrective steps in a short term and preventative steps in a long run. Early detection and targeted interventions can help improve academic performance and support student success in engineering education.

Copyright

© 2025 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  - Natacia Mnguni
AU  - Hendrick Musawenkosi Langa
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/29
TI  - Student Performance Analysis in Various Electrical Engineering Concepts
BT  - Proceedings of The Focus Conference (TFC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 211
EP  - 225
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-521-8_14
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-521-8_14
ID  - Mnguni2025
ER  -