Modelling Students’ Affinity for Lecture Attendance Using Differential Equations: The Case of Students of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Research Context: The aim of the study was to investigate students’ affinity for lecture attendance using differential equations and to explore reasons why students absent themselves from lectures.
Research Methods: The study employed a quantitative methodology which was adopted in order to allow the researchers to gather more precise and quantifiable information on students’ perception about lecture attendance. Questionnaires were administered continuously to a cross-section of students numbering five hundred to ascertain their affinity for lecture attendance and reasons why they attend or do not attend lectures.
Conclusion: A logistic differential equation had been used to model students’ affinity for lecture attendance. The calculated or predicted values of students who regularly attended lectures were obtained by using logistic differential equation. The predicted values were then compared with the observed values and analyzed. From Tables 1,2,3 and the graphs in Figs. 1 and 2 which were obtained by the usage of MATLAB, it was seen that the observed values and the predicted values almost converged to the same values, signifying that the model is good for the prediction of students’ preference for lecture attendance. It was interesting to note that the reasons that drive the majority of students to lectures are to find out what they are supposed to learn, not to miss important information and to find out about assessment task. The study also revealed that some students use on-line notes as a substitute for lecture attendance.