The Fluid Mechanics course has been identified as one of the highest failure rate courses in the Diploma in Civil Engineering among undergraduate students. This course deals with the behaviour of fluids under various forces as well as its application in the civil engineering field and is equally important compared to other fundamental courses. It appeared that students’ achievements based on designated course outcomes, which are to explain basic knowledge of fluid mechanics and formulate engineering problems related to fluid mechanics, were mostly unsatisfactory. In an effort to foster the issue, an intervention programme was introduced, whereby it has been conducted for two semesters, physically and virtually. This programme maintains the conventional teacher-centred method while applying an active learning environment where lecturers guide students creatively in problem-solving exercises that focus on critical subtopics. During the face-to-face sessions, the programme was conducted for two hours in three sessions. The online programme session, on the other hand, was carried out due to COVID-19 restrictions, conducted in three live sessions led by different lecturers. The recorded videos were shared with the students for further use afterwards. The findings indicate that the Intervention Programme fulfilled physically (semester March 2019 – July 2019) has decreased the percentage of failure rate by 0.48% compared to the previous semester without the intervention (semester September 2018 – January 2019), while for online intervention, the failure rate has slightly increased by 0.35% (semester October 2020 – February 2021) when compared to no intervention held (semester March 2020 – July 2020). However, a comparison made between these two methods shows that an online intervention programme has significantly improved the percentage failure rate as compared to a face-to-face intervention programme by a decrement of 12.77%. Such interventions, especially if conducted online, would have a significant impact on academic outcomes and help in eliminating the achievement gap among students.
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In-Text Citation: (Zahid et al., 2023)
To Cite this Article: Zahid, A. Z. M., Saifullizam, N. Z., Chik, W. S. W., & Kamaruddin, S. F. (2023). Assessment on Intervention Strategy to Reduce the Failure Rate in Fluid Mechanics: Face-to-Face and Online Approaches. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 12(1), 25–35.
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