First Term Survey Presentation Jason DeRousie 12/7/2015 1 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

First Term Survey Presentation

Jason DeRousie

12/7/2015 1

Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

First Term Survey Response

• Sent to 4,296 new first year and 1,101 new

transfer students at the beginning of Oct.

• Response rates were very good

– 48.1% response rate for first year students (1,711 complete; 358 partial) – 43.4% response rate for transfer students (423 complete, 55 partial)

• Response rates have been climbing over the

past several years

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Survey Respondents

• Respondents generally matched the populations

– By college, by race/ethnicity, by state residency – The exception was gender; females were over-represented

• 84% of first year respondents live on campus; 72% of

transfer respondents live off campus

• First year respondents were traditional age (99.1% 17-

19); Transfer students were more likely to be older (67% were 18-21, but 20% were 25 or older)

• ~90-91% identify as heterosexual/straight; ~7% identify

as LGBTQ

• ~11% of TR and 5% of FY were non-resident alien

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Caveats

• This is just a first run at the data; more

analysis to come

• Differences are only provided to be thought-

provoking

• Though the survey was representative, results

were from a subset of the population

• This survey provides just a snapshot in time of

the experiences of some new students

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Transition Programming

• Virtually all FY respondents attended orientation

(99.1%), as did almost all TR students (93.1%)

• 90.1% of FY respondents attended WWW events

compared to 51.9% of TR respondents

• One challenge is encouraging connections

between students and faculty/staff

– More than 50% of FY and TR respondents had not at all/only minimally developed a relationship with faculty/staff by the time of the survey

• Another challenge (possibly) is getting students

actually involved instead of just aware of involvement

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Expectations vs. Reality

• For both TR and FY respondents, the first day of classes

was less difficult than expected, but managing daily life, coursework, and connecting with peers were more difficult

• Being part of a diverse community was what they were

expecting or was slightly easier

• Transfer students had more accurate expectations –

higher percentages “matched expectations” for each question

• But for those TR respondents whose expectations were

not matched, things were more difficult than expected

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Confidence (FY)

• Overall, FY students were pretty confident in

most things – more than 90% of respondents were very/somewhat confident in their ability to:

– Use Moodle, identify resources for academic support, identity resources for personal/psychological support, identify groups to get involved with, and graduate on time

• Less confident (though still pretty confident)

about coping with stress (17.7% were not at all/not very confident), managing time (16.2%), connecting with other individuals on campus (13%), and choosing the right major (16.5%)

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Confidence (TR)

• Overall, TR students were pretty confident in

most things, but less so than FY students

• They were least confident about their ability to

cope with stress (22.8% were not at all/not very confident), effectively manage time (22.8%), identify a group that supports an identity (24.4%), or connect with other individuals on campus (22%)

• Also not as confident in their ability to graduate
• n time as FY respondents (80.2% vs. 91.4%

confident)

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Involvement

• Students are getting involved and/or are aware
• f opportunities for involvement

– More than 90% of FY and more than 85% of TR respondents were Somewhat/Very confident in their ability to identify a group to get involved with – More than ¾ of FY respondents have gotten involved Some/A Great Deal (only 6% Not at All) – But only slightly more than half of TR students had

• However, there are students struggling with

making social connections

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Social Connections

• Both groups were hoping to make friends as a part of

WWW, but neither actually did so at as great a rate as hoped (there was a 20-point gap between the % who hoped to and those who actually did)

• 27.8% of TR and 23.0% of FY respondents attended

WWW events alone but would have preferred to go with others

• 8.7% of TR respondents had not made friends at all and

25.8% had only a little

• 20.1% of TR respondents are often/constantly lonely
• Connecting with peers was more difficult than many

were expecting (~40% of FY and TR respondents said it was somewhat/much more difficult)

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Feelings (FY)

• Some worrisome findings when students were

asked how often they “Felt” certain negative emotions

– 30.1% often/constantly feel overwhelmed – 22.7% often/constantly feel highly anxious – 22.8% are often/constantly concerned about financial issues

• However, only 6.8% often/constantly feel that

NC State is not a good fit

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Feelings (TR)

• Similar results for transfer respondents (at

higher levels than FY respondents)

– 38.1% often/constantly feel overwhelmed – 35.1% are often/constantly concerned about financial issues – 24.8% often/constantly feel highly anxious – 20.1% are often/constantly lonely

• However, only 5.2% often/constantly feel that

NC State is not a good fit

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Early Alert Process

• New for 2015 – students that answered

specific questions in particular ways were flagged and then contacted

• Two categories of alerts – psychological and

academic (a third arose when some students triggered both alerts)

• Students were contacted by Case

Management and/or Academic Advising Services

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Early Alert Respondents

• 75 FY students triggered an alert (3.7%)

– 43 psych only; 22 academic only; 10 both

• 31 TR students triggered an alert (6.5%)

– 18 psych only; 9 academic only; 4 both

• A strong relationship existed between these

early alert respondents and many negative emotions and interactions

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Sense of Community

• Asked several questions related to a sense of

community, as well as the full Sense of Community (SCI) scale

• In general, students gain a sense of community

through programs for new students, but there is a subset that is not feeling that sense of community

• 86.5% of TR and 92.6% of FY students gained a

sense of community with NC State from WWW and 76.9% of FY students gained that from Convocation

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Sense of Community

• 80-90% of TR and FY students say its moderately/ very

important to experience a sense of community in the four areas

– NC State overall, college/major, formal orgs, small groups

• FY respondents are most interesting in

community/belonging with small groups (e.g., friends)

• TR respondents are most interested in developing

a sense of community with their college/major

• In general, TR respondents develop less of a sense
• f community in all areas than FY students – particularly

with formal orgs (28.2% said they had not at all)

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

SCI Scale

• Only 6% of FY respondents said it is not

very/not at all important to feel a sense of community with other NC State community members; 13% of TR students said the same

• Four subscales created:

– Membership, Influence, Fulfillment of Needs, and Shared Connection

• FY respondents had higher scores (more

positive) on all four subscales than TR students (statistically significant differences)

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Academic Sucess

• Managing time was the area of least confidence for both FY and TR

students

• TR students were a little more confident in their ability to choose

the right major (90% were Somewhat/Very Confident vs. 83% for FY respondents)

• Almost half of TR and FY students would have like to have more

interaction with their academic advisor in the first weeks/months of the semester (43% and 47%)

• 15% of FY students and 21.6% of TR students feel Often/Constantly

academically underprepared; another 27% of both feel that way Sometimes

• Almost 1 in 4 FY students (23.6%) and 1 in 5 TR students (19.8%)

had already utilized academic assistance for coursework “A Great Deal” (~30% more of both said they had done so “Some”)

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Academic Sucess

• Neither group is connecting with faculty much
• More than half of FY respondents had missed at

least one class (40.6% had missed none) and 15%

• f students have missed 4 or more classes
• Only 10% of TR students had not missed any

classes; 17.8% have missed 4 or more classes

• FY students were more confident in their ability

to graduate on time (90.4% were somewhat/very confident) than TR students (~80% somewhat/very confident)

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Transfer vs. First Year Students

• FY students are generally more confident about things,

though TR students had more accurate expectations

• TR students have made friends less, were less likely to use
• ther students as a reference, and have gotten involved in

campus activities

• FY students find it more important than TR students to

experience a sense of belonging/community, and they generally do

• TR students are generally more likely to experience

negative emotions more frequently

– FY students are more likely to be homesick and/or bored

• TR students were and are more likely to be in more

frequent contact with family/support members (almost half were in contact with their family/support every day, vs. 29% of FY students)

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Other (FY)

• FY respondents are more likely to avoid the biggest and smallest

sizes of gatherings

– Respondents were not at all/not very likely to attend organized programs/activities if they are huge crowds (27.8%) or very small groups (26.8%)

• FY respondents are not working that much – only 5.6% work more

than 10 hours a week in some capacity and 81.6% don’t work at all

• There is an association between working and feeling concerned

about financial issues –working=more concerned about financial issues; and between working and missing more classes (though only 8 students said they had missed class b/c of work)

• But there is no association between working and feeling
• verwhelmed

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Other (TR)

• TR respondents are more likely to avoid the

biggest gatherings

– Respondents were not at all/not very likely to attend organized programs/activities if they are huge crowds (36.4%) or large crowds (27.1%)

• TR respondents are working some – 30.6%

work more than 10 hours a week in some capacity and only about half don’t work at all

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Other Data Areas

• Qualitative data
• Additional questions not covered

– Family questions, admissions process, etc.

• Full data by various demographic groups
• Data by college
• Findings for New Student Programs

(Orientation, WWW, Convocation, etc.)

• Findings for various student groups

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

QUESTIONS FOR ME?

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Academic and Student Affairs Office of Assessment

Questions for You!

Discuss at your table

• What was most/least interesting?
• What else do you think the data suggest?
• What can we do with the results – preliminary

recommendations for action?

• What else would you want to know?

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