20个问题

Does beloit provide students with experiences that lead them to healthy, fulfilling lives? 一项新的调查正在帮助学院找到答案.

每个在伯洛伊特注册的学生都有一个独特的大学生涯，这是他或她的经历所特有的. 如果你仔细想想，就会发现:没有两个学生上同样的课，上同样的教授, live in the same hall among the same set of peers, 或者参加相同的俱乐部. 贝洛伊特 values individuality and celebrates what makes each student unique, 为学生提供多种机会，让他们以自己的方式参与一个有趣且相互联系的社区.

但最近，伯洛伊特开始研究学生的特殊道路是否与更广泛的大学经历相匹配，这些经历已被证明能带来积极的学习成果，并在毕业后带来成功和充实的生活. For example, do students feel cared about by a faculty or staff member? 他们在贝洛伊特有导师吗? 他们对学习感到兴奋吗? Are they engaged in extracurricular activities with their peers?

“These are important questions we need to ask,” says Provost and Dean of the College Ann Davies. “我们想要强调, 在beloit特定的上下文中, the practices and relationships that have a high impact on student success.”

来评估这些共同的经验, 贝洛伊特根据几十年的高等教育研究，将某些大学经历与积极的研究生结果联系起来，开发了一份简短的问卷，以衡量所有学生都应该拥有的学生经历的9个要素.

伯洛伊特大学的学生体验指标调查结果让大学社区的成员们时而欢呼(例如, 98%的学生报告说，教师或工作人员让他们对学习感到兴奋)和挠头(只有57%的学生说他们有归属感校园). 有一件事是肯定的:调查结果为教职员工提供了机构指南，因为他们审视自己在为所有学生提供有意义的大学经历方面的作用.

想知道更多

伯洛伊特大学的学生体验指标调查是由盖洛普-普渡大学一项全国性研究的结果推动的，该研究采访了30多人,000 college graduates (as well as other studies, including the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education). 盖洛普-普渡大学的研究发现，毕业生在工作中投入的几率和总体幸福感增加了一倍多, 作为大学生, they’d had meaningful interactions with professors, 参加过课外活动吗, and had applied classroom learning to real-world problems, 在其他经历中.

“These are all experiences we care deeply about at 贝洛伊特, and we believe we provide them to all students, but we wanted to see if what we say we’re providing is actually happening,” says Director of Strategic Research and 评估 Ellie (O’Byrne) Anderbyrne’05, 谁领导了伯洛伊特调查的设计，并通过学院的制度研究办公室监督其管理, 评估, 和规划.

伯洛伊特的问题意图足够广泛，足以证明学院的整个事业是以学习为中心的, 从宿舍的对话和互动到运动场上的比赛，再到研究实验室的探究式学习. 学生们同意或不同意以下说法:至少有一位伯洛伊特学院的教授质疑过我, 至少有一位伯洛伊特学院的工作人员向我提出了质疑(97%的学生同意其中一个或两个)。, 我与背景或观点与我不同的学生就社会问题进行了有意义和诚实的讨论(80%同意).

全球范围内复制贝洛伊特 intentionally kept the questionnaire short, 只问20个问题, in the hope of getting higher student participation. 该调查跳过了性别问题, 主要, 类一年, and other demographic or academic information. 使用学生证号码, the Office of Institutional Research was able to summarize the data according to certain demographics, 包括残疾学生, 国内有色人种学生, 国际学生, 运动员, 第一代大学生, 佩尔助学金获得者, 白人学生.

贝洛伊特 administered the survey over the 2016 winter break, sending email invitations to the entire student body. 最初的应答率很低, so Anderbyrne engaged several key constituencies—faculty and staff advisers, 教练, residential life staff members—in encouraging student participation.

“We know that students tend to do things when someone they know and care about asks them to do it,安德伯恩说.

努力得到了回报. 到2017年1月底, 61 percent of the student body—nearly 800 students—had completed the survey, 包括每个班级的56%到68%, 66%的女生, 55%的男生.

将结果付诸实践

调查结果引发了全校范围内关于如何利用这些数据全面改善学生体验的讨论. “Being able to align our work toward a set of markers is meaningful for all faculty and staff members,” says Dean of Students Christina Pape Klawitter’98, who noted that the college is “asking good questions about what we do. Our students are front and center, and we take our commitment to them seriously.”

只有57%的学生表示他们对校园有归属感，这一事实引起了贝洛伊特人的广泛关注. Only 49 percent of sopho更多的s reported a sense of belonging, as well as only 45 percent of 佩尔助学金获得者.

“这低于我们的预期, 我们需要继续疏通它, 多问问题,戴维斯说. “We may well need to be better at providing a sense of belonging, 但我们也需要问, 归属感是什么样子的? 学生们是怎么定义的?”

The college has already begun to learn 更多的 about how students define belonging. That survey question is one of two that Chen Bao’17, 他来自西安，主修经济与教育, 陕西, 中国, is examining as part of her spring 2017 Honors Term. After Bao attended a two-day seminar at Wabash College, 她培训并领导了一个学生团队，共进行了12个焦点小组，共有48名学生，以收集与调查相关的定性数据.

“我们把每个焦点小组都控制在很小的范围内，这样参与者就能轻松地分享他们的观点,她说。.

Though Bao is still analyzing the data from the focus groups, her preliminary findings show that belonging is defined by students in many different ways. “Some students felt that if they belonged to a circle of friends, 比如在俱乐部或其他团体中, 它们属于校园,她说。. “但其他人, even if they had a group they felt they belonged to, they didn’t think they belonged to the whole campus.”

The students in the focus groups also discussed specific experiences, 积极的和消极的, that have made them feel included or not included on campus. Bao cited 贝洛伊特’s Initiatives Program for first- and second-year students, which fosters student development and integration into the learning community, 作为一个积极的例子.

“The survey has been helpful from an equity and inclusivity perspective,安德伯恩说. “We think we’re helping students from a variety of backgrounds have these experiences, but there might be systematic ways in which students with disabilities or students of color, 例如, 没有得到它们. This data helps us focus our efforts to improve the 贝洛伊特 experience for all students.”

鲍还在调查一个问题的回答，这个问题反映了伯洛伊特对实践中的文科的长期承诺, 学生们沉浸在严谨的学术环境中，并有机会在课堂外运用所学知识，这一理念得到了丰富. 而只有42%的学生表示，他们有实习或工作，使他们能够应用课堂学习, 74 percent of seniors claimed this experience.

鲍发现，学生们大多将这个问题理解为与校外机会有关(这存在障碍), 比如无薪或低薪, to some students) and didn’t always recognize on-campus experiences, 比如课堂项目或勤工俭学的工作, as valuable avenues to practice classroom learning.

“So much of the work we do at 贝洛伊特 rests upon students being aware of what it is they’ve done,戴维斯说. “我们需要问自己，我们希望他们拥有的体验是否以帮助他们理解和表达体验的方式构建.戴维斯指出，学生少报可能会影响另一个问题的回答:你是否做过一个花了一个学期或更长时间才完成的项目? 只有42%的学生说他们知道. “这些结果指向了关于个人经历的意向性和自我意识的问题,戴维斯说.