Predicting academic success in Electronics

This study was motivated by the desire to help potential Electronics students more accurately determine if they would be successful academically if they were to major in a particular program of Electronics. This study focused on the research questions, (1) What are the best predictor variables for predicting success in an Electronics major; (2) Is abstract learning preference an effective discriminator between students in the three Electronics programs; and (3) What is the best model that can be derived for predicting success in each of the three Electronics programs.;The literature review focused on articles which identified the best predictor variables for predicting academic success in Electronics and related fields. Two-hundred thirty-six predictor variables were identified; seven of the top 12 predictor variables were studied, in addition to the variable "abstract learning preference.";Data for the study were gathered from 149 subjects: 46 in Electronics Technology (ET), 55 in Electronics Engineering Technology (EET), and 48 in Electrical Engineering (EE). The data sources included high school and college transcripts and the Learning Style Inventory (LSI) survey by D. A. Kolb.;The response variable in the study was the college major grade point average. Correlation analysis was used to determine the rank of the predictor variables for each of the Electronics programs. The variable abstract learning preference was found to be a successful discriminator between students in the three Electronics programs, and was also found to be significant in predicting academic success for students in EET.;Multiple regression models were derived for each of the three programs of Electronics. The model for ET explained 55% of the variance; the model for EET explained 51% of the variance; and the model for EE explained 36% of the variance.;Significant differences were found between students in EE, EET and ET in the areas of high school grades, ACT scores, and abstract learning preference.