Abstract:

Networks of students are very common in most higher education institutions. In general, students enrolled in any subject have contact with their colleagues and, besides, with students that enrolled the subject in the past. These communities are typically informal, and professors do not have access to these communities. Moreover, students may connect in a more casual way with other colleagues through social networks to discuss about contents, materials, evaluation methods, etc. in current, past or future enrolled courses.

In this context, it is usual that students have a lot of information about any subject, even before attending any sessions. Sometimes, they even plan in advance how to deal with the evaluation tests, practices, exercises, etc., before that kind of details are released by teaching staff. But this information is not official and is based on previous experiences that are always subjective, circulating among students and, what is more dangerous, speculations about the probability of failing or passing the subject. Although that kind of speculations are based on official information (typically statistics about past courses), they can generate the feeling of impotency in students, as they assume results will follow a given random distribution regardless their behavior.

Informal observations show how this situation causes in the students a lack motivation, a low interest in learning activities, resignation, and the Pygmalion effect. But the same observations show how, for some students, this approach is very successful. They can organize their schedule and are able to prepare the best strategy to pass all subjects with the optimum effort. But, even for those students, rumors and speculation may even cause a shock if their expectations are not met, and relevant changes are finally applied to the teaching methodology, so the learning method is totally different from any previous experience in the same subject. And changes may be done at any moment because of many reasons. So globally, informal observations show rumors and spurious information about past courses have a negative impact in students’ learning and results.

In order to scientifically validate the informal observations, a pilot experience was planned and carried out during the first term of the academic years 2020/21 and 2021/22, in the context of Data Science program at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Two different groups were defined. The first group (control group) was composed of students enrolled in the subject “Data representation and transmission” in 2020. That year the subject was taught for first time and no information about it was available, apart from the official sources. The second group (pilot group) was composed of students enrolled in the same subject in 2021, when information about the previous course was available. Once finished all the evaluation process, students were asked to fill a survey about the experience. Academic results of both groups, as well as results obtained from the surveys, were processed and analyzed.

Results confirmed most informal observations. They showed that rumors and speculations have a negative impact in students’ learning. But mainly in psychological parameters such as motivation. Academic results, globally, do not change in a significant way. Although a slightly significant change may be observed under certain circumstances

Keywords:

Engineering teaching, pilot experiences, students’ learning, academic results, motivation.