An investigation into the effects of staff participation on the pass rate for an electrical engineering course at a University of Technology

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test the impact of individual participation and teamwork on the pass rate of first-semester Electrical Engineering students at Durban University of Technology (DUT). South Africa's economic growth remains reliant on critical and scarce skills such as engineering. As a result, any institution of higher learning should make engineering training and education a priority. Collaboration and participation are critical components of any successful educational system. Assimilation of module content, readiness for assessment, perceptions of support from lecturers individually or collectively, and perceptions of the results are all significant variables in this study. A mixed methods approach was used to accomplish the study's objectives. The quantitative method was chosen to design the survey and collect data from all registered first-year students enrolled in the Electrical Engineering 1 laboratory module. A questionnaire was distributed to 344 students enrolled in the Electrical Engineering 1 laboratory module. Qualitative data were gathered through interviews with lecturers on the module at the Department of Electrical Engineering. The study discovered a positive and significant correlation between student pass rates and teamwork and individual participation in service. Additionally, the study discovered that first-year students have favourable attitudes toward the service provided by Electrical Engineering laboratory technicians. This implied that students were more likely to assimilate module content and be prepared for assessment if departmental teamwork was emphasised to increase pass rates. The study recommends a new approach for identifying students who require additional individual attention to improve their academic performance using these variables. Students must be viewed as partners in the lecturers' pedagogical approaches following the collaborative approach, which involves all stakeholders in decision-making for continuous improvement.