ANN Application: To Study Effect of Literacy and Numeracy Skills on Electrical Engineering Students’ Performance

Abstract

In Higher Education level, literacy and numeracy skills is considered vital to the technical based courses and programs such as engineering. In fact, in universities’ student intake selection process into engineering courses, results of mathematical subjects is highly considered. This study investigates the effect of literacy and numeracy skills of Diploma Electrical Engineering students’ performance in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Cawangan Terengganu, Kampus Dungun by using Artificial Neural Network (ANN). This research has been conducted on current final semester students (Semester 5). Three models of ANN are developed to observe the correlation between mathematical subjects and student performance which is measured by using Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA). The development of a model involves constructing several ANN designs and selecting network with the best performance. The historical data from students’ database were used in the training and testing processes. The Regression Coefficient, (R) values from the developed models was observed and analyzed to see the effect of the mathematical subject to student performance. It can be proven that good literacy and numeracy skills in engineering students effect the student’s performance.