Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Curriculum Complexity And Graduation Rates At Utah State University, Hayden Hoopes

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This study utilizes a curricular analytics framework developed by Heileman et al. (2018) to examine the relationship between curriculum complexity and graduation rates in academic programs at Utah State University. The goal in quantifying the complexity of curricula is to determine whether or not prerequisite courses and other factors of curricula structure impacts graduation from the university. To accomplish this goal, curriculum complexity spreadsheets were developed for 96 degree programs at the university, which facilitated the assignment of curriculum complexity scores to the 6,337 students who qualified for the quasi-experimental study. Logistic regression was then applied to the resulting data …