Remedial Courses Effectiveness on Timely Graduation Rates and Degree Progression within Construction Engineering Students

This research paper concerns the field of academic management that aims to determine the impact of intensive remedial courses undertaken during summer periods in subjects with low pass rates related to the discipline of structures and structural analysis. The literature reviewed for this research concurs that intensive remedial courses can help improve students' academic performance. Moreover, the impact of such remedial courses on indicators, such as degree progression or completion times, can facilitate informed decision-making through which effective alternatives can be established to enhance the progress of students with low-performance levels. The methodology used is based on analyzing the degree progression and graduation times of sample groups of students from a Construction Engineering program at a private Chilean university. Degree progression and graduation time results of the following groups are compared: 1) students who pass the intensive summer remedial courses, 2) students who do not take or who fail the intensive summer remedial courses, and 3) students who pass the related courses during regular semesters. The results show that graduation times are positively impacted when students have passed intensive remedial courses. However, no statistically significant differences are observed between groups in the degree progression indicator, even though the average progression of students who passed intensive courses is 9% higher than those who did not enroll in or did not pass the remedial courses. Moreover, the former group demonstrates a similar rate of progression to that of students who pass their structure of structures during regular teaching periods. Consequently, this study establishes that the impact of intensive remedial courses is positive, albeit modest. In turn, its findings lay the groundwork for evaluating the performance of students from intensive remedial courses regarding additional indicators, including dropout rates and perceptions via the use of cases of success and failure.