Influence of the Perceived Workload of Students on the Academic Performance Rates

Resumen

The new programs of studies developed according to the European Higher Education Systems are students-centered. In this sense, it is critical to properly set the workload a student must dedicate in order to reach the learning outcomes defined for each subject. This paper analyses the perception of students with regards to the difficulty and workload employed by them in the first course of two new degrees implemented at Technical University of Madrid (TUM). Several questionnaires were developed to gather the information required, which contained questions about the difficulty perceived or the time spent, among others. The total number of students that took part in the surveys ranged from 54 to 63, depending on the four months of the semester considered (February, March, April and May). In addition, statistical analyses were conducted to check the influence of the perceived difficulty and workload on the academic performance rates. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and a subsequent Hierarchical Ascendant Classification (HAC) were also accomplished to obtain the clusters representing the subjects considered in this work. The students usually perceive a higher difficulty in the study of the subjects than expected prior to their enrollment in University. Those subjects perceived by students to be the most difficult ones tend to show lower Efficiency and Success Rates. In addition, the students tend to abandon the study of any subject when they consider it is a difficult one. The results of this study suggest the difficulties found by students during their first academic course in University.