The impact of different learning approaches based on MS Teams and Moodle on students’ performance in an on-line mechanical CAD module

Abstract

During the Covid-19 pandemic, various on-line tools have been employed to support both synchronous and asynchronous education in universities. Several efforts have been made towards investigating the influence of various factors on students’ academic performance in higher education. However, investigating the effectiveness of different learning methods during the pandemic is still an under-researched area. The goal of this study was to investigate if different teaching approaches, based on the usage of two distinct learning tools (MS Teams and Moodle) and a combination of those two, have an impact on students’ academic performance in a higher education engineering module. In this study, an analysis of variance test has been performed to explore the factors affecting students’ learning achievements. Hypothesis testing has also been conducted to examine whether different learning approaches have an impact on first-year students’ academic performance in a mechanical engineering CAD module. A major conclusion is that even though the investigated teaching approaches may not have a direct impact on distinct variables, e.g. students’ enjoyability and familiarisation of the learning platforms, they can still affect their performance. Also, the utilisation of a different learning tool used for asynchronous support (i.e. Moodle) may result in high levels of learners’ dropout cases.