Class attendance and performance of undergraduate electronic engineering students: exploring the effects of gender

Abstract

This study examines the effects of gender on class attendance, the performance in laboratory experiments and the overall course performance of undergraduate engineering students in an Electronic Fundamentals 1 course during semester 1 of 2018 at a public university in South Africa. Data was collected through documentation of: class attendance (for each student at each class lesson); the performance scores in four (4) laboratory experiments and a laboratory experiment test; and the overall course performance score. The overall course performance score constitutes of 50 % from a summative assessment and the other 50 % formed of formative components as follows: 25 % of class test 1, 40 % of class test 2 and 35 % of the overall laboratory experiment performance score. The independent samples t-test results revealed that there is no statistically significant effect of gender on: class attendance (t(174.46) = −0.958, p (= 0.339) > 0.05); overall laboratory experiments performance (t(229) = 0.565, p (= 0.573) > 0.05) and overall course performance (t(229) = −1.805, p (= 0.072) > 0.05).