1. A study into student’s perspective on attendance and personal study
Chaokai Zhang, Tingjie Pang, Yu Du, Tongping Qu, Joanna Sessford
The Sino-British College, USST

2. Contents Introduction Literature Review Methodology
Results of the survey
Conclusions
Recommendations

3. Introduction
Purpose
1.Investigate the factors leading to poor attendance
2.Improve students` study experience
Measure
1.Attendance at Class
2.Personal Study
3.Data Collection

4. Literature Review
Attendance has a positive correlation on students performance (Romer, 1993)
Lecture attendance varies depending on year of study (Jordaan, 2009)
Jordaan, Y. (2009). Influencing factors on lecture attendance at a tertiary institution. South African Journal of Higher Education, 23(1),
Romer, D. (1993). Do students go to class? Should they? The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 7(3),

5. Literature Review Continued
Reasons for missing lectures include:
Time management (Self, 2012 & Stripling, Roberts & Israel, 2013)
Lecture content too difficult or boring (Khong, Dunn, Lim & Yap, 2016)
Khong, R.W.L., Dunn, J.S., Lim, C.-M. & Yap, W.S.P. (2016). Why do students attend lectures? Exploring justifications for attendance among undergraduates from a British university in Asia. The Journal of Developing Areas, 50(5),
Self, S. (2012). Studying absenteeism in principles of macroeconomics: Do attendance policies make a difference. The Journal of Economic Education, 43(3),
Stripling, C.T., Roberts, T.G. & Israel, G.D. (2013). Class attendance: An investigation of why undergraduates choose to not attend class. North American Colleges & Teachers of Agricultures Journal, September,

6. Methodology Introduction
Survey (n=75)
Head count
Interviews (n=10)

7. Survey - Q1: What affects whether you attend lectures and tutorials?

8. Main Reasons
Time
Teacher
Coursework deadline

9. Survey – Q2: Which do you think are more important?
Lectures 18.7%
Tutorials 8%
Lectures and tutorials are equally important
73.3%

10. Survey – Q3: Why did you come to the conclusion that you came to in question 2?
Both
Lectures impart knowledge
Tutorials give students an opportunity to practice and develop skills

11. Tutorial doesn’t impart new knowledge
Lecture
Tutorial doesn’t impart new knowledge
Tutorial
consolidate learning with revision
Time to ask questions

12. Survey- Q4: Do you access Blackboard?
Options
Ratio
Yes 63
84% No 3 4%
Only before exams 9
12%
Students involved 75

13. Survey - Q5: How many hours do you spend studying outside class excluding completing coursework and studying exams?
10.67%
6.67%
38.7%
44%

14. Conclusions
Attendance is generally poor at 8.30am, this may be for biological reasons
Teachers affect attendance
Coursework deadlines affect attendance mainly due to poor student planning
Poor student performance may be linked to short extracurricular study time

15. Recommendations Consider starting lectures at 9.00am or 9.30am
Positive communication among lecturers on coursework deadlines, to aviod overlap.
Further investigate the impact of the teachers on attendance and personal study