An analysis of academic outcomes in graphic expression subjects in engineering by considering students’ admission profiles

Abstract

Decree 171/2022 that regulates compulsory post-High School in Catalonia, establishes that Technical Drawing I and II are modality courses, which means that they are not compulsory. So students can choose other modality courses, such as Biology, Physics, Geology and Environmental Sciences, Chemistry or Technology and Engineering. Therefore, not all the students who take High School in Science and Technology will take Technical Drawing courses, although all the study programs of Industrial and Aerospace Engineering Degrees include a core course of Graphic Expression in the first academic year and admission programs strongly recommend having studied Technical Drawing. According to these circumstances, universities offer introductory level courses to prepare students, but these courses are not required for admission. It is ultimately the student’s decision. Therefore, students with different learning backgrounds normally co-exist in the same course, and these different backgrounds may affect the final course grade. This situation is observed in the Graphic Expression subject in the Engineering course of the Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Engineering at Escola Superior d’Enginyeries Industrial, Aeroespacial i Audiovisual de Terrassa (ESEIAAT) at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). To understand the effect of students’ profiles on final course grades, a linear regression analysis is conducted. Studying the relation among the different variables (admission grade, technical drawing background, introductory course) can provide information to understand how the collected data behave and to potentially predict future outcomes. This model is also expected to help to introduce new strategies to improve the course’s pass rate