Changes in First-Year Engineering Students' Performance in Mathematics and Engineering Subjects at Different Stages of Distance Learning

Abstract

Covid pandemic was unprecedented in modern education but is not expected to be unique, therefore increased attention should be paid to accurately analyse its effects on education. Calculus is an important undergraduate mathematics course in engineering programmes, which gives the foundation for engineering subjects like mechanics or electronics. Unfortunately, recent experiences show that the performance of students admitting after the pandemic has deteriorated dramatically in recent years. This research aims to analyse the changes in performance and attitudes of first-year students in the aftermath of the pandemic. In our research, we investigated the performance and learning habits of three groups of first-year mechatronics and energy engineering students during Calculus-1 and the related Mechanics subject. The “2018 group” studied maths traditionally, whereas the “2020 group” took online education in the last months of high school and the first year of university. The “2022 group” spent two years of high school at home in remote learning (the significant 10-11th grades, for maths competence), but received in-person education at the university. Learning habit and performance of the students were monitored using EduBase online educational platform. The results of both the qualitative and quantitative analysis have revealed that online education during the pandemic changed the learning habits of the group in 2020 and had only slight effects on their performance in Calculus and Statics. However, for group 2022, where the pandemic affected high-school maths studies, the performance at the university has fallen dramatically resulting in an increased drop-out rate after the first semester. © 2023 SEFI 2023 - 51st Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education: Engineering Education for Sustainability, Proceedings. All Rights Reserved.