Academic performance, class attendance and seating location of university students in practical lectures

Abstract

The question of where students sit in a classroom has been widely studied under different approaches since the beginning of the 20th century. In this study, the data related to the seating location of the students in the computer-aided design practice lecture at the university were recorded and arranged, to analyse their seating preferences, their consistency throughout the course and their relationship with several factors related to academic performance, class attendance, and punctuality. In general, it was observed that, students are reluctant to seat on the first row, and that the most punctual students chose to occupy the places in the first rows, closer to the lecturer (r = 0.35, p = 0.015), although this had no impact on academic performance. While the following was indeed correlated with the attendance rate: those students who attended the most class achieved a better academic performance which was reflected in the final mark (r = 0.38, p = 0.007). No difference was observed in any aspect between male and female students.