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Remedial Courses Effectiveness on Timely Graduation Rates and Degree Progression within Construction Engineering Students

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Construction Engineering Division (CONST) Technical Session 4

Tagged Division

Construction Engineering Division (CONST)

Page Count

11

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44104

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/44104

Download Count

215

Paper Authors

biography

Carmen Paz Muñoz Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile

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Carmen Paz has a degree in Civil Construction from the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María and a master’s degree in Real Estate Development from the Universidad de Chile. She has over 22 years of experience in the areas of concrete construction, the cement industry, ready-mixed concrete, construction process consultancy, and concrete deterioration and durability. In addition, she has more than 16 years of experience in university and field-based teaching. She is the Director of the Construction Engineering program at the Universidad Andrés Bello in Santiago, Chile, and a permanent contributing columnist for the Negocio & Construcción magazine. Her areas of interest include improving academic management in the Construction Engineering degree program and seeking new ways to enhance the experience of students and teaching professionals at the university. She also focuses her efforts on recruiting and retaining students to the program and ensuring they can learn key concepts in the most meaningful manner possible.

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biography

Monica Quezada-Espinoza Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-0383-0179

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Monica Quezada-Espinoza is a professor and researcher at the School of Engineering at the Universidad Andres Bello in Santiago, Chile, where currently collaborates with the Educational and Academic Innovation Unit, UNIDA (for its acronym in Spanish), as an instructor in active learning methodologies. Her research interest topics involve university education in STEM areas, faculty and continuing professional development, research-based methodologies, community engagement projects, evaluation tools and technology, and gender issues in STEM education. https://orcid.org/0000- 0002-0383-0179

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Abstract

This research paper concerns the field of academic management that aims to determine the impact of intensive remedial courses undertaken during summer periods in subjects with low pass rates related to the discipline of structures and structural analysis. The literature reviewed for this research concurs that intensive remedial courses can help improve students' academic performance. Moreover, the impact of such remedial courses on indicators, such as degree progression or completion times, can facilitate informed decision-making through which effective alternatives can be established to enhance the progress of students with low-performance levels. The methodology used is based on analyzing the degree progression and graduation times of sample groups of students from a Construction Engineering program at a private Chilean university. Degree progression and graduation time results of the following groups are compared: 1) students who pass the intensive summer remedial courses, 2) students who do not take or who fail the intensive summer remedial courses, and 3) students who pass the related courses during regular semesters. The results show that graduation times are positively impacted when students have passed intensive remedial courses. However, no statistically significant differences are observed between groups in the degree progression indicator, even though the average progression of students who passed intensive courses is 9% higher than those who did not enroll in or did not pass the remedial courses. Moreover, the former group demonstrates a similar rate of progression to that of students who pass their structure of structures during regular teaching periods. Consequently, this study establishes that the impact of intensive remedial courses is positive, albeit modest. In turn, its findings lay the groundwork for evaluating the performance of students from intensive remedial courses regarding additional indicators, including dropout rates and perceptions via the use of cases of success and failure.

Muñoz, C. P., & Quezada-Espinoza, M. (2023, June), Remedial Courses Effectiveness on Timely Graduation Rates and Degree Progression within Construction Engineering Students Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44104

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