Abstract:

At the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) there are about 5.000 freshmen per year, who have to attend a standardized one-year introductory phase, after which they choose their majors. The introductory phase is tightly structured, courses are taught in large groups and supported by the university’s e-learning platform. The courses’ final exams are organized as multiple choice exams which are evaluated automatically.
Based on a previous study on the influence of homework assignments on students’ learning behavior, which showed a significant extension of time spent learning after the introduction of voluntary homework assignments, we further analyze the key factors for success at the final exam in the course “Introductory Finance”.
We use several statistical methods to analyze students’ learning behavior and determine the impact on the percentage of the points reached at the exam, using the data given by the log files of the university’s e-learning platform as well as the responses of an online survey.
Preliminary results show that the total number of exercises solved, the length of the time period spent learning as well as the learning intensity and strategy play a crucial role for passing the exam. However, these factors do not completely explain the given exam results, so further research will focus on specifying the impact of additional factors like demographic data.

Keywords:

Learning behavior.