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Surveys
Surveys can be used to provide an assessment of learning outcomes (at course and program levels), by asking students themselves to rate their perceptions of their attainment of learning goals.
Student perceptions are unlikely to provide comprehensive results, however, because students are not always good judges of their own abilities and/or they may not realize important facets of a discipline they are missing.
There are two types of surveys to consider:
Additional Survey Information and Resources
TCNJ Surveys
The Office of Institutional Research & Assessment encourages the use of web-based surveys using Form Genie. When web-based surveys are not possible, The College does have a software package, TeleForms, that can be used by our office or others (with training).
Whichever survey method you choose, the Office of Institutional Research & Assessment can assist you in survey development and analysis. Departments provide survey deployment and collection.
Please follow the links below to find out how to work with our office in developing a survey
- You create and/or modify the survey in Form Genie. To do this, you can:
- Review an existing TCNJ survey and modify it (see Sample Surveys), OR
- Review the literature for surveys available in your discipline, OR
- Create your own survey.
- If you would like the Office of Institutional Research & Assessment to review your survey before activation, email a copy and we will return comments to you;
- Once your survey is in its final form, you will activate the survey on Form Genie, and communicate the survey link and deadline to survey recipients;
- Download data and take survey off-line when complete.
(NOTE: For assistance with the Form Genie, please contact the Help Desk at X2660 for training)
Once you have all the data, you may send it electronically to the Office of Institutional Research & Assessment and we will be happy to:
- Export data into SPSS;
- Run a frequency report (and/or other analyses if requested);
- Return report and/or SPSS data file to you.
For paper-based surveys:
Paper-based surveys will be created in TeleForms.
At this time, TeleForms surveys used for participant evaluations of an experience or activity can not be created by our office. However, you may have the software installed locally, and we will train a designated full-time staff or faculty member to use the TeleForms suite of programs.
TeleForms surveys related to programmatic assessment can be created by the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment:
- You create a first draft of the survey. To do this, you can:
- Review an existing TCNJ survey and modify it (see Sample Surveys), OR
- Review the literature for surveys available in your discipline, OR
- Create your own survey.
- Then, email the draft survey to assess@tcnj.edu, and we will:
- Review the survey with you to check for errors;
- Create the survey in TeleForms and correspond until the final version is ready;
- Email a final pdf copy (survey is now "activated" and ready for distribution).
- To distribute the survey , you:
- Print the necessary copies directly from the pdf file without any magnification or reduction on heavy weight paper (32 lbs);
- Distribute them;
- Collect the completed surveys (removing staples if the survey is multiple pages);
- Return completed surveys to Office of Institutional Research and Assessment.
- Our office will:
- Scan the completed surveys into PDF format;
- Use TeleForms to both read and verify the surveys;
- Export data (e.g. into SPSS);
- Run a frequency report (and/or other analyses if requested);
- Return report and SPSS data file to you
National Surveys
TCNJ regularly participates in two national surveys:
- Cooperative Institutional Research Program Survey (CIRP)
- National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)
Departments may find it useful to include information obtained from these nationally normed surveys as part of an assessment plan, and the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment can assist in providing individual student level data in aggregate form to departments who request it. Specific information on each of these instruments and results are available by following the links above.
A document which describes and compares these and other available national surveys is:
Ecosystems Approach to Assessment with Surveys
developed by the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education
Objective: To form a partnership between those who are the subjects of the assessment and those performing the assessment
Concept: Develop a two-part questionnaire:
- Series of forced-choice items (e.g. Likert scale) – no more than 30
- Participant feedback on no more than five items they feel most strongly about (positively or negatively)
Example of Part 2:
| Item Number | Why do you feel strongly about this item? | What do you recommend for change? |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | I can't study when I want to | Set up study lounges |
| 7 | There isn't enough to do | Organize a volunteer program |
| 13 | The food is always cold | Set up a hot food bar in the dining room |
As presented at an webinar from Innovative Educators entitled "Implementing Effective Assessment Tools for Student Services." by John H. Schuh, September 29, 2005.
