The Challenge
Gustav Potgieter teaches engineering analysis at North-West University to a large class of students with very different levels of preparation. Some were doing well. Others were at risk of failing.
With a class that size, he could not give each student individual attention. Struggling students often lacked the confidence to ask for help until after they had failed a test. Multiple-choice assessments told him who got an answer wrong, but not why, so it was hard to target support.
How Gustav Worked with Mindjoy
Gustav took an action-research approach and started with a baseline. Students first wrote an engineering analysis test without Mindjoy, then the same test with Mindjoy's support, which showed where students needed the most help.
He then ran a weekly loop. Every Friday he reviewed the class's common misconceptions in Insights and adjusted the next week's teaching to match. Insights showed him what students were getting wrong, and his teaching changed in response, week after week.
Through the semester he kept the same rhythm: weekly reviews of engagement and an assessment of outcomes every two weeks. This let him keep refining how tutors supported his teaching.
The Impact
Participation changed the most. Students went from asking 70–80 questions a week to 1,800. Students who spent more than 20 minutes a week with Mindjoy showed the strongest improvement.
The at-risk group improved on their own baseline scores by 39%, and outperformed both the control group and a second control group of students who had not been at risk.
Gustav did not replace any of his teaching. He used what Mindjoy showed him each week to decide where his own time would matter most.
