Student perspectives on attendance and instructional methods in a combined lecture and laboratory course

Kara Bocan; Gaoxiang Zhou

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Conference: 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Publication Date: June 22, 2025
Start Date: June 22, 2025
End Date: August 15, 2025
Conference Session: ERM Technical Session: Equity & Accessibility in Engineering Education
Tagged Division: Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM)
Page Count: 11
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/57692
Download Count: 2

Paper Authors

biography

Kara Bocan University of Pittsburgh

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Kara Bocan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 2017, and her BSE in Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 2012. She currently teaches courses on data structures and algorithms, introductory programming, software architecture, and simulation and modeling. Her engineering education research interests include instructional scaffolding and gameful learning to increase student engagement and accessibility.

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Gaoxiang Zhou University of Pittsburgh

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Abstract

Paper Category: Empirical Research, Length: Full Paper

Most instructors who require attendance do so with the goal of improving student learning. However, attendance does not guarantee engagement. Although attendance has been found to be positively correlated with academic performance, studies of attendance suggest a complex relationship among student motivation, attendance, and learning outcomes. Providing incentives for attendance without considering student perspectives and psychological needs may indeed have counterproductive effects on student motivation. Self-determination theory posits that individuals are more likely to be intrinsically motivated when psychological needs are met, specifically needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This suggests that class sessions can be designed to encourage attendance by supporting these psychological needs, and presumably that is preferable to extrinsic reinforcement through punishing lack of attendance with grade penalties, or even positively reinforcing attendance with grade-based rewards.

While there are many prior studies of attendance and motivation in engineering courses, there is a relative lack of studies comparing student motivation with a variety of instructional methods (e.g., different modes of active learning), especially in engineering courses. The purpose of this study is to compare student motivations to attend two different types of class session in a digital systems course: lecture sessions that are primarily instructor-led with active learning in the form of guided problem solving, versus laboratory (lab) sessions that are primarily hands-on and student-led with instructors and teaching assistants available to answer questions. Attendance is not required or graded for lecture or lab sessions, both sessions cover similar class material each week, and most students are able to complete lab work outside of the classroom. Therefore, our goals in the current work are: to identify reasons that students choose to attend class sessions in the absence of attendance requirements, to determine whether and how these reasons differ for lecture versus lab, and to analyze how these reasons may change over time. Additionally, we investigate whether students prefer the combination of lecture and lab sessions, versus only lecture or only lab.

This paper discusses the results of two surveys conducted on the same population of students, with the first survey near the midpoint of the semester and the second survey near the semester end. In each survey students were asked to describe what motivates them to attend lecture and lab sessions, and to share their preferences for lecture, lab, or both. Responses to open-ended questions were analyzed using inductive content analysis to determine whether student motivations differ based on instructional methods, and whether motivations change over the course of the semester.

Keywords: Motivation, Instructional methods, Self-determination theory, Content analysis

Citation
Format

Bocan, K., & Zhou, G. (2025, June), Student perspectives on attendance and instructional methods in a combined lecture and laboratory course Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/57692

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Paper Category: Empirical Research, Length: Full Paper

Most instructors who require attendance do so with the goal of improving student learning. However, attendance does not guarantee engagement. Although attendance has been found to be positively correlated with academic performance, studies of attendance suggest a complex relationship among student motivation, attendance, and learning outcomes. Providing incentives for attendance without considering student perspectives and psychological needs may indeed have counterproductive effects on student motivation. Self-determination theory posits that individuals are more likely to be intrinsically motivated when psychological needs are met, specifically needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This suggests that class sessions can be designed to encourage attendance by supporting these psychological needs, and presumably that is preferable to extrinsic reinforcement through punishing lack of attendance with grade penalties, or even positively reinforcing attendance with grade-based rewards.

While there are many prior studies of attendance and motivation in engineering courses, there is a relative lack of studies comparing student motivation with a variety of instructional methods (e.g., different modes of active learning), especially in engineering courses. The purpose of this study is to compare student motivations to attend two different types of class session in a digital systems course: lecture sessions that are primarily instructor-led with active learning in the form of guided problem solving, versus laboratory (lab) sessions that are primarily hands-on and student-led with instructors and teaching assistants available to answer questions. Attendance is not required or graded for lecture or lab sessions, both sessions cover similar class material each week, and most students are able to complete lab work outside of the classroom. Therefore, our goals in the current work are: to identify reasons that students choose to attend class sessions in the absence of attendance requirements, to determine whether and how these reasons differ for lecture versus lab, and to analyze how these reasons may change over time. Additionally, we investigate whether students prefer the combination of lecture and lab sessions, versus only lecture or only lab.

This paper discusses the results of two surveys conducted on the same population of students, with the first survey near the midpoint of the semester and the second survey near the semester end. In each survey students were asked to describe what motivates them to attend lecture and lab sessions, and to share their preferences for lecture, lab, or both. Responses to open-ended questions were analyzed using inductive content analysis to determine whether student motivations differ based on instructional methods, and whether motivations change over the course of the semester.

Keywords: Motivation, Instructional methods, Self-determination theory, Content analysis
AU  - Kara Bocan
AU  - Gaoxiang Zhou
CY  - Montreal, Quebec, Canada 
DA  - 2025/06/22
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Student perspectives on attendance and instructional methods in a combined lecture and laboratory course
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/57692
ER  -