Engineering Student Attendance at Lectures: Effect on Examination Performance

Abstract

This study had two principal objectives: to establish the levels of attendance at lectures by civil engineering students at University College Dublin and to ascertain whether lecture attendance influenced the examination performance of these students. Lecture attendance for two classes of engineering students was monitored and analysed. The average lecture attendance rate for these students was found to be 68%, which is in line with attendance rates in US studies, but higher than comparable Irish studies in other disciplines. A linear regression analysis of the data showed a strong correlation between lecture attendance and examination performance. Each 10% increase in student attendance at lectures improved examination performance by about 3%, which is again in line with that found by other studies.