How Improve Operational Research Learning? A Performance Analysis of Business Administration and Accounting Students

Abstract

This paper analyses factors that can affect Business Administration and Accounting students’ performance in Operational Research course. To accomplish this, were analyzed de final grade of 556 undergraduate students. The hypotheses of research were analyzed using two-tailed t test. The result confirms most of the hypotheses, however two of them were not significant. The results show that female students perform better than male students; better classified students on application process have higher scores, as well as students who do the course in the morning and students who have more colleagues from the original group. We also found a negative correlation between absence and final grade. However, the major (Business Administration or Accounting) and the class size were not significant. The correlation between independent variables show that female students present less absence than male. Also the absences are related with bigger classes and less colleagues form original group. Having more colleagues of the original group can encourage the student to go to class. These findings could be important for teachers and educational institutions during development of new strategies and learning methods, as well as for students planning new forms to improve their own performance. Moreover, these results also contribute to the discussion of important issues, providing background and arguments for further research.

Keywords

• Student’s Performance
• Learning
• Business Administration
• Accounting
• Operational Research