IU South Bend CAMPUS ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE - Spring 2004

General Studies- Survey

The General Studies Assessment Grant supported an alumni survey. The survey was designed by the director with considerable help from the Faculty Advisory Committee and Karen Christopher. The Committee approved the survey instrument and the letter that accompanied the survey. We used Indiana University Alumni Association mailing addresses and we sent out approximately 1800 questionnaires. We have more than 2000 alumni, but over time some addresses become useless. After two months, we had received 176 returns and these have been analyzed. A few additional questionnaires have come in after our analysis. We have included the comments from these questionnaires, but we have not included them in the statistical analysis. Copies of the survey instrument and the data analysis are attached.

The first 12 questions are designed to assess the respondent's satisfaction with various aspects of the general studies program. For each question the respondent answers one of the five options:
Strongly Agree 1
Agree 2
Neutral 3
Disagree 4
Strongly Disagree 5.
The first five questions ask the student about his/her satisfaction with one of our basic requirements. The average responses are as follows:
Computer Literacy 2.53
Mathematics 2.25
Speech 2.23
World Culture 2.19
Writing(2 courses) 2.04
While all of the scores are good - between Agree and Neutral - One, the writing requirement, is clearly better than the rest, and another, computer literacy, worse than the others. We asked a second set of questions regarding our five basic requirements because students could be less satisfied for two reasons. The students might be less satisfied because we required too much or because we required too little. Computer literacy is a good example. It has the highest dissatisfaction rate and the lowest score (1.62) on the: too little= 1, about right= 2 and too much=3 question. It appears that the lack of satisfaction with our computer literacy requirement probably means we haven't required enough. This interpretation makes sense when one understands our computer requirement is fairly recent and many of the respondents had no computer requirement when they were in general studies. As computers have become more and more important requiring at least one course (what we currently require) seems very sensible.

Mathematics, speech and world culture have similar scores on the satisfaction questions (2.25, 2.23, 2.19) and similar scores on the too little too much questions (1.92, 1.85, 1.89). We expected the mathematics requirement to rate lower on satisfaction and more toward the too much side because anecodotal evidence from our students suggested many were unhappy with our mathematics requirement. They did not like mathematics and didn't believe it should be required. We were surprised to find that the scores in speech and world culture were similar to those in mathematics. We get very few complaints about these requirements.

The sixth question concerns the satisfaction with the General Studies Advisors. The average score on this question was 1.67 which was the third lowest (most satisfied) of the 12 questions, and was very close to the score of 1.63 for the general studies program. If you advise enough students there will always be a few who are unhappy about something and that is the case here. Of the 176 responses six were 4's and six were 5's. This was a small number, less than ten percent, but enough to raise the average score. Since each student has a unique program, we spend a considerable amount of time advising students, so this is a very important question. I know that Ted Hengesbach and Judy Graf, like Karen and I, worked very hard to help our general studies students make good decisions. This excellent average score is a tribute to their hard work.

The seventh question concerns our general studies forgiveness policies. This question received only 117 responses. This was by far the lowest number of responses to any of the 12 questions. By comparison, the next lowest number of responses was143 on correspondence courses and the median number of responses was 159. The low level of responses was due to the fact that many of our students never bothered to check out our forgiveness policies. Our policies are very generous, but many students don't need to use them. These policies are discussed at length in our F 203 Introduction to General Studies course, but only about half of our students take this course. The average score was 2.09 which is reasonably good.

One of the major advantages of the general studies program to students is the flexibility students have with their individual program. Thus it is not surprising that students are most satisfied with the program's flexibility. The average score of 1.46 was the best of the 12 questions.

General studies students can earn college credit by taking CLEP exams and DANTES exams. Since we give the DANTES exams - Bethel College gives the CLEP exams - our students tend to take the DANTES exams if they want college credit. In a typical year, we will administer 40 to 60 DANTES exams and more than half of the exams will be passed successfully. While most of our students don't take any exams for credit, some of our students take several and a few take five or six. The satisfaction level is 1.80 which is in the middle of the 12 questions. Only 144 responses were received on this question indicating that some of our alumni were unfamiliar with these tests. We discuss the advantages of these tests in our F 203 class, but only about half of our students take the class. The average score of 1.80 is quite good, so those who are aware of the tests appear pleased.

The average score on the portfolio question was 1.79 which was almost identical to the DANTES question. A few more students 148 responded to this question, but clearly some students were not familiar with portfolio possibilities. We discuss portfolio possibilities in F 203 but only a few students are in a position to receive portfolio credit. As in the previous question, those students who are aware of the portfolio credit seem reasonably satisfied with our procedures.

While we don't give correspondence courses, the School of Continuing Studies has a large selection and some of our students take correspondence courses for credit. The average level of satisfaction was 1.90 which is slightly less than that for DANTES tests and portfolios. Also some students were unaware of correspondence course possibilities, so the number of responses was 143 which was almost identical to the 144 for DANTES tests.

The final question concerns the satisfaction with the general studies program. This is probably the most important question and it has the second best score of 1.63. This suggests that most of our graduates are pleased with the program and only a small percentage - eight 4's or 5's out of 168 responses or less than .5 percent - were dissatisfied.

We believe that one good measure of the program's success is the percentage of our students that enter graduate school and earn graduate degrees. Former Director Theodore Hengesbach estimated that approximately 25 percent of our graduates went on to graduate school. The responses to our question regarding the respondents educational and occupational activities indicate that 30 of our alumni or 17 percent have earned graduate degrees and another nine alumni are currently enrolled in graduate programs. These numbers reinforce Dr. Hengesbach's estimate of 25 percent. We believe this is a good outcome measure of our program's success.

We have included copies of the respondents' comments, including a few who were not included in the statistical analysis. The overwhelming majority of comments about the general studies program are positive. There are a couple of negative comments about advising and a number of negative comments about difficulty getting jobs. Since general studies graduates work as doctors, dentists, lawyers, social workers, teachers, managers, sales representative, etc., we believe the program can provide graduating seniors with good opportunities for employment. It is true, however, that it is a general program, so it will not provide specific training in a specific occupation.

We believe the information from our survey of graduates indicates that they are pleased with the various aspects of the general studies program including requirements, advising, alternative ways of earning credit and our forgiveness policies..

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