Diagnostic Evaluation of Basic Mathematical Knowledge Carried Out on Freshman-Year Engineering Students

In the educational field, the global Covid-19 pandemic contributed to the poor academic performance of students, partly due to the change from in-person format to online classes for approximately two years. On the other hand, the profile of current students as digital natives has caused many of them to present problems with concentration, attention, and learning retention during teaching. Furthermore, students' overreliance on technology to rapidly complete their tasks and school activities often hinders their ability to engage in meaningful learning. Consequently, students who finish high school and wish to enter engineering careers could present areas of opportunity in the mastery of basic mathematical tools, which are necessary to successfully study physics and mathematics subjects in their first year of a professional engineering career. This paper presents a study of a “Pre-Test” diagnostic exam on basic mathematics tools, which was applied during the first week of classes to 1,314 students who entered the first semester of engineering careers. The exam consisted of 10 questions on basic topics of algebra, trigonometry, and area calculation. The study shows a statistical analysis of how the students responded to each question, which was very helpful in identifying the most difficult topics. On the other hand, corrective actions are presented that were implemented over 4 weeks, with activities on the Canvas and WebAssign platforms, as well as the development of a problem situation based on Kepler's laws. At the end of the 5 weeks, the “Post-Test” diagnostic exam was applied, with the participation of 1,136 students, with whom this study was satisfactorily completed, where the degree of academic recovery that the students managed to achieve was analyzed, concerning these basic mathematical tools.