Success on increasing number of students that pass the coastal engineering subject

Abstract

During the last ten years, the ratio of students that do not take the final exam in the subject of Coastal Engineering at the University of Cadiz was 1/3 of the total number of enrolled students. Furthermore, the ratio of students who did not pass the test was 50%. Hence, only a third part of the total amount of students successfully passed the exam. In order to improve this percentage, a working procedure hypothesis was implemented and the results are shown herein. This procedure implies some “homework”, the duration of which is similar to the theoretical lessons, i.e. 2 hours a week. Assignments are not mandatory and they only represent 10% of the final mark. Weekly dedication is directly related to the main aspects of the theoretical lessons and includes practical exercises as well as the search of particular cases about the topics explained at the classes.

This methodology allows the students to: a) improve their knowledge of the subject; b) check their learning progress; c) introduce them to the e-learning; d) learn complementary concepts of scientific research by using e-databases; e) refresh and update the theoretical concepts provided during the live lectures; f) add new teaching material to enhance the comprehension and study of the subject; g) feel motivated by the possibility of increasing their marks.

Achievement monitoring is performed just before each lesson. This way, any possible doubts derived from the exercises resolution are clarified. Despite representing only a low percentage of the final mark, a complete dedication of the students was achieved. The application of this procedure during the previous academic year resulted in 97.4 % of the students successfully passing the final test.