fb icon myAcc icon

Historical Data

Home  Reports  Student Outcome Data  Historical Data

Historical Data

EFFECTIVE LEARNING

A. November 2013 -  Initial Survey (311 responses) 
    November 2013 Questions and Results

B. Spring 2014 –Based on a review of the student survey results the faculty recommend the following ideas for improvement.

General Education

  • More emphasis (all courses) on promoting library services and access to research material in class and/or Blackboard
    • Continue to show library orientation videos (highlight that they exist on Library website)
    • Save review of Library orientation until it is relevant
    • Offer extra credit for participation in Kim M.’s presentations/or help with papers (tutor)
    • Further develop the lecture on library services into an assignment demonstrating how to access periodicals and how to incorporate into writing
    • Demonstrate the difference between Google sources (or others) and peer-reviewed sources
    • Include student service information in syllabi
    • Student orientation and registration
    • Assign a research paper to all students, in which case they would need to learn more about our resources
    • Emphasize the importance of more fundamental classes during advising;  work harder when teaching lower-level classes to make sure that students feel confident that they can continue on
    • Incorporate more explanation of how the course material can be used and how it relates to things they are already familiar with – the more relevant the faculty makes it for them, the more they will engage and have a better learning experience

Career Technical Education

  • Stress the importance of studying before taking the Compass test & ask questions about their career goals during advising.
  • Reinforce the importance during advising of taking a math & science class while at ACC, even if it is not required in their program.
  • Develop a testing instrument that could predict future success in the student's chosen field of study.
  • Include information regarding library services in all syllabi and Blackboard sites and/or take students to the library for an orientation to services. 
  • Assign at least one research project in each class, requiring students to use library services.
  • Include information regarding student services in all syllabi and Blackboard sites and/or invite a Student Services Center staff member into class to give a short presentation about services.
  • Promote competency in accessing library resources remotely by assessing my student’s familiarity, experience, and proficiency in this area.
  • Research different types of search engines to be used by nursing students and other health-related fields.
C. Improvements implemented
  • Several instructors incorporated as assignment of a research paper into their courses.
  • The Speech instructor brought her SPE 123 student into the library for a tour so they could research their informative speech.

D. April 2015 – Re-assessment Survey (337 responses)
     April 2015 Questions and Results

PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS 

A. October 2014 -  Initial Survey (467 responses) 
     October 2014 Questions and Results

B. Spring 2015 – Based on a review of the student survey results the faculty recommend the following ideas for improvement.

General Education

  • Spend more time on story problems
  • Teach real-world problem-solving skills
  • Make students think more in class
  • Teach the scientific method
  • Strive to make our students more accountable regarding critical reading.  For example, include critical questions and/or quizzes with reading assignments. 
  • Include more problem/solution papers in English courses
  • Allow opportunities to test hypotheses through observation of physical phenomena based on readings
  • Spend a few more minutes on the research method section of course
  • Emphasize abstract thinking, logical constructions, and critical thinking skills in course materials
  • Emphasize engaging applications to apply concepts in different circumstances – develop lucidity.

Career Technical Education

  • Encourage more analytical and problem-solving in-class activities, discussions, and assignments, and emphasize the importance of these skills in school, life, etc.
  • Refer students to opportunities to improve these skills such as course work (PHL 125-Language and Reason), and financial literacy training through the Student Support Services program.
  • Stress in the learning environment, that problems and solutions are generally beyond our own personal experience, ergo researching information and consulting with others is necessary in order to effectively problem solve.
  • Incorporate more real-life work in class, keep reviewing, more in class work
  • Use problem-solving scenarios – role-playing, case studies, small group work.
  • Continue to work on problem-solving/critical thinking skills. 
  • Develop discipline-specific problem-solving questions

 C. Improvements implemented

  • More faculty included critical thinking type assessments in their courses.
  • Emphasis problem-solving processes in the occupational courses.

D. February 2016 – Re-assessment Survey (141 responses) 
     February 2016 Questions and Results

MATHEMATICAL CONCEPTS

A. October 2015 -  Initial Survey (137 responses)
     October 2015 Questions and Results
B. Spring 2016 –Based on a review of the student survey results the faculty recommend the following ideas for improvement.

My suggestion was to consider having the students take the Core Competency Surveys as part of their graduation application process. You would have a random sample. You would be assessing students at the end of their time here so have the greatest possibility of the student being in possession of the required skills. You should have 100% of surveys completed with no abandoned attempts. This method would also have the incentive to the student included at no additional cost to the school.  

_______________________________________________________________________________

I wanted to suggest that a possible sample of students for the initial Core Competency Survey would be students attending the mandatory orientation. Not only would they be a captive group, but it would also be at the beginning of the students’ academic work at ACC. Since the survey does not take an inordinate amount of time, it seems as though it would be easy to fit in with the orientation schedule. Since it is a random sample, it could be the last activity when the group is together for those selected. The idea of a beverage incentive for each student participating sounded great.

I was also wondering if it would be possible to create an app for the exit-survey version so that students could take it on their telephones? 

One suggestion regarding the assessment of core competencies would be to make the question process a part of mandatory orientation as a beginning control group and then administer again at end semester of their program for comparison of outcome of improvement. I understand some of the perspectives of is it a good representation of truth or are they just completing to get it done- but that could be viewed in any completion just to get the cup coffee.

Another area I suggested was to get the student’s perspective on how to get good responses.

Here are my comments:

  1.  May want to provide more of an incentive for the students to complete the competencies. This may improve upon the participation rate.
  2. Consider having the students complete the assessment in the Testing Center. The instructor can then monitor participation and provide a few extra-credit points for a class.
  3. Have the assessment completed by second-year students.

I mentioned a couple of things during start-up on the outcomes assessment data. They were:

  1. Using a small incentive for all students instead of one large chance drawing for one student to win. Example – free soda or drink from the bookstore. Maybe it won’t make a difference, but it might be worth a try.
  2. When looking at data results, we should break results into two groups:
  • All students
  • Students that have attended a minimum of three semesters – closer to graduation.
C. Improvements implemented
  • Cleaned up the display problems for questions 9 & 10.
    *In the first round of the survey, there were display issues with formula in two of the questions: questions 9 and 10. These issues were resolved when reissuing the survey for the second round.
  • Work on institutionalizing the use of the student’s college email for notification of the test.
  • Had faculty bring their classes to the library to take the assessment, rather the leave it up to the students to take the test on their own.

D. April 2017 – Re-assessment Survey (139 Responses)
     April 2017 Questions and Results

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

A. December 2016 -  Initial Survey (389 responses)  
     December 2016 Questions and Results
B. April 2018 - Second Survey
     April 2018 Results

WORLD INTERACTION

A. November 2017 - Initial Survey (251 responses)
     November 2017 Questions and Results
B. November 2018 - Second Survey (238 responses)
     November 2018 Questions and Results