Promoting positive start of electrical engineering studies — A teacher´s perspective

The experiences from the first year of studies play a major role in determining the progress of later studies. Engaging study culture, requiring active participation in classes and active support from the teaching staff, can facilitate overcoming obstacles in the studies. In practice, the teacher has a key role in affecting the mindsets of the students. Implementing assessment as a continuous process permits collecting real-time information on students´ performance during the course, which enables to monitor, and more importantly, to influence the students´ behaviour and decrease the number of students dropping out from their studies. The students´ progress was monitored in two big first-year courses (170-300 seats) on physics and circuit analysis starting from the first weeks of the studies. The goal was to recognise and to affect the potential drop-out candidates and support them to continue working towards completing their courses with the teacher´s own actions and pedagogical decisions. Experiences gained during this project provide insight on appropriate actions in planning of teaching to facilitate students´ success in studies.