Assessing the effect of a classroom IEQ on student satisfaction, engagement and performance

Inappropriate indoor environmental quality (IEQ) conditions are shown to reduce occupants’ satisfaction, wellbeing and performance. Therefore, it is crucial to provide an excellent classroom IEQ in order to minimize learning loss among students. This study determines the effect of different thermal and indoor air quality (IAQ) conditions in a classroom on students’ satisfaction, study engagement and cognitive performance. Three data collection campaigns were performed in a university classroom. Data collection consisted of (1) continuous IEQ monitoring (i.e., temperature, relative humidity, CO2, …), (2) frequent assessments of students’ satisfaction with IEQ and study engagement via here-and-now surveys, and (3) evaluations of students’ memory and processing speed. The IEQ conditions were varied by adapting (1) a room temperature setpoint between 18°C to 26°C and (2) a CO2-setpoint between 500 ppm and 1000 ppm. A mixed-effects regression analysis on the collected data showed statistically significant relationships between students’ study engagement and the room temperature trend, air enthalpy, relative humidity and TVOC-concentrations in the classroom. The addition of data on students’ satisfaction with IEQ only improved a minority of model fits. A statistically significant difference in students’ memory was found between test conditions. However, a randomized experimental design is needed to determine the relationship between the classroom IEQ and students’ cognitive performance.