Case-Based Learning, Class Attendance, And Academic Achievement of Master of Management Students In A Human Resource Performance Planning and Appraisal Course

This study evaluates the academic achievement of Master of Management students in a Human Resource Performance Planning and Appraisal course after the second half of the semester was redesigned around case-based and problem-based learning, and examines how attendance and assessment components relate to final grades. A descriptive-retrospective quantitative design was applied to the complete institutional records of all 29 students in one class at Universitas Islam Sumatera Utara, Indonesia, in the odd semester of the 2024/2025 academic year. Descriptive statistics, normality tests, Pearson and Spearman correlations, and paired t-tests were applied. The mean final grade was 83.78 (SD 5.30), all students passed, and 48.28% obtained an A. Attendance averaged 95.57% and correlated strongly with the mean of the academic components that exclude attendance (r = 0.874; ρ = 0.844; p < 0.001). Final project scores, obtained after the case-based phase, exceeded mid-term scores by 1.72 points (t(28) = 3.27; p = 0.003; dz = 0.61), and 19 of the 29 students improved. All four course learning outcomes were attained. The findings suggest that case-based learning suits working postgraduate students and that attendance is a strong marker of engagement, although the single-group retrospective design does not permit causal inference.