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Influence of a Compressed Semester on Student Performance in a Construction Science Course

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Conference

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Columbus, Ohio

Publication Date

June 24, 2017

Start Date

June 24, 2017

End Date

June 28, 2017

Conference Session

Construction 4: Construction Education Curriculum and Assessment

Tagged Division

Construction

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

8

DOI

10.18260/1-2--28525

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/28525

Download Count

1824

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Paper Authors

biography

Ifte Choudhury Texas A&M University

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Ifte Choudhury is an Associate Professor in the Department of Construction Science at Texas A&M University and has extensive experience as a consulting architect working on projects funded by the World Bank. His areas of emphasis include housing, alternative technology, issues related to international construction, and construction education. He is also a Fulbright scholar.

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Abstract

Compressed semesters, also known as minimesters, are offered in some educational institutions in the United States. It is offered during the two-week break period between a regular semester (Spring or Fall) and summer. A minimester makes it possible for a student to complete a course on a shorter schedule. The author offered a course on Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing Systems at a state university in Texas at the end of Spring semesters, both in 2015 and 2016. He offered the same course in Spring semesters, 2015 and 2016.

The purpose this study is to find out whether there is difference in performance in the course between students taking the course in a regular semester and those taking it in a minimester. Total number of students enrolled for the course was 225 in Spring semesters and 50 in the minimesters. An analysis of the data, using Chi-square statistic, indicates that students in minimesters performed significantly better than those who took the course in Spring semesters.

Keywords: Academic, Chi-square, Minimester, MEP, Student Performance

Choudhury, I. (2017, June), Influence of a Compressed Semester on Student Performance in a Construction Science Course Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28525

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