Predicting Academic Performance in the School of Computing & Information Technology (SCIT)

Abstract

What determines academic performance? Prior research shows that standardized measures such as aptitude (e.g. SAT scores), prior academic performance, effort and motivation explain a significant portion of the variation in class performance. When universities in the United States determine which students to admit, typical criteria include SAT, ACT or other achievement scores and high school GPA. At the University of Technology, Jamaica in the School of Computing & Information Technology, the main admission criteria are appropriate score in an aptitude test and passes in at least five Caribbean Examination Council subjects including Mathematics and English. This study examines the relationship between students' demographic attributes, qualification on entry, aptitude test scores, performance in first year courses and their overall performance in the program. The study has implications for the School's admission policy. The results should help us to identify an optimal set of admission indicators, which have the potential of predicting students' performance.

Predicting Student Academic Performance at Degree Level: A Case Study

“…The study in [16] determines the relationship between students' demographic attributes, qualification on entry, aptitude test scores, performance in first year courses and their overall performance in the program. Their sample data consisted of 96 students, 68 male and 28 females that were accepted to in the Bachelor of Science in Computing and Information Technology (BSCIT) at University of Technology, Jamaica (UTECH) in 1999-2000 academic years.…”

A Comparative Analysis of Selected Studies in Student Performance Prediction

“…A common approach for building such prediction models is to train a machine-learning algorithm with student performance data collected from the final years of high school combined with students' demographic data. It has been shown such data are indeed good predictors of success at a critical point such as the end of the first year of college studies ( [6], [27], [28], [29], [30], [31], [32], [33]). However, much of the demographic data seldom changes and academic performance history from earlier years never does.…”

Towards an Understanding of Predictors of Academic Performance

“…The academic indicators could be performance of lower education levels (i.e. including high school) (Farley & Ramsay, 1988;Brown, 1964;Brown, 1966;Wolfe & Johnson, 1995), entrance examinations (Rankin, et al, 2003;Heales, 2005), foundation and prerequisites Booker, 1991;Cohn, 1972;Eckel & Johnson, 1983;Brookshire & Palocsay, 2005), initial course exams (Sachdeva & Sterk, 1982), freshman or sophomore years (Rankin, et al, 2003;Bellico, 1972;Eskew & Faley, 1988;Borde, 1994;Golding & McNamarah, 2005;Brookshire & Palocsay, 2005;Pomykalski, et al, 2008), standardized tests (Booker, 1991;Eckel & Johnson, 1983;Brookshire & Palocsay, 2005;Wolfe & Johnson, 1995) and aptitude tests .…”

“…While other studies were looking at the predictors of students' success with the intention of devising effective intervention programmes Golding and McNamarah (2005) looked at the predictors of students' performance with the intention of informing the selection process. Selecting those students who are most likely to succeed into their university programs is another way of ensuring quality and making sure the right candidates are enrolled in the programmes.…”