Profiling Student Backgrounds: Analysing the Impact of Diverse Educational Experiences on Learning Outcomes in Engineering Education In 2024, we taught a large cohort of 331 second-year Civil, Electrical and Electronic, and Mechanical Engineering Science students the fundamental principles of C programming and computational thinking, including abstraction, decomposition, pattern recognition, and algorithmic thinking. The challenge of this task is heightened by the diverse educational backgrounds within the group, as the class comprises students with prior exposure to computer programming and those encountering it for the first time. In the first week of the semester, we asked students to complete an online survey on the learning management system to understand the student cohort’s background. Of the 331 students enrolled in the module, 200 participated in the survey, resulting in a participation rate of approximately 60%, which is considered reasonable for a voluntary survey. The survey intended to determine what proportion of the student cohort had been exposed to computer technology at home or school and to use the results to determine the teaching strategy for the semester. We also wanted to determine if customising our teaching strategy to the students’ backgrounds would improve the student’s performance in the module. The responses to the survey question on accessibility to a computer or laptop at either home or school are shown in Figure 2, and Figure 3. One hundred forty-four students (72% of respondents) reported having access to a computer or laptop at home, while 56 students (28%) indicated they did not. All students responded to this question. At school, 135 students (67%) had access to a computer, whereas 65 students (33%) did not. Given that this is a post-COVID-19 cohort, the higher percentage of students with home access likely reflects the shift to online learning and work-from-home policies implemented during the pandemic. Figures 4 and 5 illustrate the percentage of students with computer access at home or school by degree type. Table 1 provides the specific numbers, showing, for instance, that 53 Civil Engineering Science students (73% of the Civil cohort) had access at home, while 20 did not. Figure 2: Survey response to determine student access to a computer or laptop at home Figure 3: Survey response to determine student access to a computer or laptop at school Figure 4: Percentage of students with access to a computer or laptop at home based on the degree type Figure 5: Percentage of students with access to a computer or laptop at school based on the degree type Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century | Showcasing UJ Teaching Innovation Projects 2024 106
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