1. How classroom seating might affect marks
Where you sit matters
How classroom seating might affect marks
David Insa
Technical University of Valencia
(ITICSE’2016)

2. Contents Motivation Preliminary Questions Initial Hypothesis
The Experiment
The Sample
Collected Data
Results
Analysis
Answers
Conclusions and Future Work

3. Motivation Preliminary Questions
Do the best students sit together? And the less diligent ones?
When do the students give up the courses?
Where do the students who give up the course sit?
Do students who sit alone get better marks than those who sit in pairs?
Do the students who regularly attend to class get better marks?
Do students always try to sit on the same chairs?
How much does the distance between the students and the professor affect the students’ marks?

4. Motivation Initial Hypothesis
Students who sit close to the professor get the best marks.
Students who sit in the last rows get the worst marks.
Birds of a feather flock together.

5. Contents Motivation Preliminary Questions Initial Hypothesis
The Experiment
The Sample
Collected Data
Results
Analysis
Answers
Conclusions and Future Work

6. The Experiment Sample Initial Date: Sep 29, 2013
Final Date: Jan 22, 2015
Sample Size: 255 students (2160 attendances)
Place: Technical University of Valencia.
Degrees:
Bachelor in Industrial Design Engineering (IDE)
Master in Computer Science Engineering (MCE)
Associate degree in Computer Engineering (ACE)
Bachelor in Computer Engineering (BCE), and
Master of Software Engineering, Formal Methods, and Information Systems (MSEFMIS).
Subjects:
Development of Reliable and Quality Software (DRQS)
Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA)
Advanced Tools for Software Development (ATSD)
Graphical User Interfaces (GUI)
Applied Computing (AC), and
Programming (PRG)

7. The Experiment Collected Data To collect the data we used AWAD
It allows for automatic data collection and processing
It stores the row and column where each student is sat when logged in
In those lecture halls without computers, the row and column were taken manually
At least one official exam was registered for each course
AWAD provides:
The average mark of a chair
Times a chair was used
Times a chair was used by students who gave up the course

8. The Experiment The average mark of a chair
Average marks of each seat considering the marks of all the students who sat there

9. The Experiment Times a chair was used
Times a chair was used ignoring the fact that a seat can be used several times by the same student

10. The Experiment
Times a chair was used by students who gave up the course
Times a chair was used ignoring the fact that a seat can be used several times by the same student

11. The Experiment We processed the data to obtain global results
Step 0: We divided the 11 groups into 2 main groups
Lectures
Practicals

12. The Experiment We processed the data to obtain global results
Step 1: We asign a score out of 10
1st row
5,97
4,75
5,18
8,08 -
2nd row
5,85
5,5
6,57
5,63
7,61 6
7,37
3rd row
5,74
5,03
4,06
4,17
6,67
5,78
6,89
4th row
6,34
4,25
7,33
5th row
1st row
7,39
5,88
6,41
10,00 -
2nd row
7,24
6,81
8,13
6,97
9,42
7,43
9,12
3rd row
7,10
6,23
5,02
5,16
8,25
7,15
8,53
4th row
7,85
5,26
9,07
5th row

13. The Experiment We processed the data to obtain global results
Step 1: We asign a score out of 10
Step 2: We make the groups comparable
1st row
7,39
5,88
6,41
10,00 -
2nd row
7,24
6,81
8,13
6,97
9,42
7,43
9,12
3rd row
7,10
6,23
5,02
5,16
8,25
7,15
8,53
4th row
7,85
5,26
9,07
5th row *
1st row 3 1 6 5 -
2nd row 8 7 4
3rd row
4th row 2
5th row
1st row
1,35
0,36
2,34
1,79
0,61 -
1,07
2nd row
3,52
1,24
3,46
2,96
1,72
0,45
2,22
3rd row
3,02
1,13
2,44
1,88
1,50
1,30
3,01
1,55
4th row
1,22
0,95
0,32
0,55
5th row
0,90

14. The Experiment We processed the data to obtain global results
Step 1: We asign a score out of 10
Step 2: We make the groups comparable
Step 3: We obtain the mean of each row among all groups
1st row
1,35
0,36
2,34
1,79
0,61 -
1,07
2nd row
3,52
1,24
3,46
2,96
1,72
0,45
2,22
3rd row
3,02
1,13
2,44
1,88
1,50
1,30
3,01
1,55
4th row
1,22
0,95
0,32
0,55
5th row
0,90
Lectures
Practicals

15. Contents Motivation Preliminary Questions Initial Hypothesis
The Experiment
The Sample
Collected Data
Results
Analysis
Answers
Conclusions and Future Work

16. Results Results for lectures
The distance from the teacher does influence the mark

17. Results Results for practicals
The distance from the teacher does influence the mark

18. Results
Answers
Do the best students sit together? And the less diligent ones?
It seems so (a difference of marks lower than one tenth)
When do the students give up the courses?
In the first third of the academic year
Where do the students who give up the course sit?
In the last two rows
Do students who sit alone get better marks than those who sit in pairs?
Yes, from 13% to 16% higher marks
Do the students who regularly attend to class get better marks?
Yes, 13.43% higher vs 26.17% lower than the average
Do students always try to sit on the same chairs?
Half of them yes
How much does the distance between the students and the professor affect the students’ marks?
The closer, the better

19. Contents Motivation Preliminary Questions Initial Hypothesis
The Experiment
The Sample
Collected Data
Results
Analysis
Answers
Conclusions and Future Work

20. Conclusions and future work
We have presented the results of an experiment performed in an engineering school.
The analysis of the results has provided several interesting conclusions and ideas that would be very interesting to share with other professors and colleagues.
Visit:
Main contributions:
-> New method to treat the data based on chairs (instead of students)
-> Experimental data publicly available
Main results:
-> The students’ distribution does influence the students’ performance

21. Conclusions and future work
-> Extend the study to other degrees and subjects
-> Study the gender
-> Study the social context
-> Study the “repeater” condition
-> Extend AWAD to fully automate the process (interested people may contact us)
-> Do you have any other ideas? Please, tell me!

22. Thank You