Diana, what kind of response rate do you get from the suggestion box¿ How often do you publicize the results of these policies¿
Using upper classmen can be a very powerful tool. Have you considered using them during the new student orietation¿ I used them for a panel with parents while the entering students were in a different session. They were great answering candid parent questions and gave the parents a sense of receiving the unvarnished story.
Loren Kroh
Amanda, any idea why staff/faculty forget about student service¿
Our school has an opened door policy. Our students know that they can come to any person to get answeres to questions, comments and corcerns they may have. We ask our students on a daily bases how things are going, what they ienjoy most and what they don't enjoy and then we talk about it. All of our students evauluate both our instructors and course at the end of each term. Any recurring negative comments are delt with on a very timely manner.
At our campus, we have a student suggestion box in the student lounge. We have them let us know what they feel needs improvement and what they think we are doing correctly.
Also, every quarter we have student surveys which are submitted to the corporate office. In return, we get a student satisfaction percentage.
My institution uses several different methods to help assure student expectations and satisfaction. We have course and teacher evaluations, employer advisory groups as well as graduate advisory groups. We also have a quarterly meetings with student representatives to discuss topics or concerns. One of the strongest retention moments is when the upper class men give their input on the questions that lower class men bring up. It helps the new students know that the program comes together and provides the training they've been promised. Building off of this we are currently planning to bring a panel of upper classmen for a question and answer session with students in their fourth week of school.
Expectations of the student based on our advertising and admissions process is something that I have always been bothered by. I have heard comments and feedback from students, stating that their initial experience was great, but then it seemed once they were in the seat, we "staff/faculty" forgot about them. CONSISTENT service is the key to this. As a member of the management team, we have been striving to be much more present in the classroom, and engage students in more conversations. Again, being consistent with our presence and connection to students is of utmost importance.
Lola, what's the timing on the tabulation of data and reporting of results? Who is responsible for these actions? Most importantly, do the students perceive this procedure as being productive and useful?
Loren Kroh
Kandy, sounds like you perceive a major problem in the enrollment process. What are you willing and able to do about it?
Loren Kroh
That seems like a lot of surveys, Tim. How do the students respond to them? Are you getting useful information that leads to improvements the students can relate to? Who processes all this data? Is it done electronically?
Loren Kroh
Antoinette, sounds like you are being very proactive. Congratulations! Has that led to better student persistence?
How do you know that these activities actually meet student expectations and satisfaction, Marcia? They may simply satisfying staff and faculty expectations.
Like many other institutions we utilize surveys to determine if the student's expectations are being met, based on the promised expectations. When these are reviewed, the results are tabulated and students are made aware of their survey results. Each area needing to be addressed is clearly defined, the efforts to be put forth to relayed to the student body, with specific steps outlined for resolve.
We hand out survey's for each student to fill out on each of their instructors and their overall class experience, we aslo meet with the students individually to see how things are going through out the program. We review each survey and take notes on what they think needs to be improved and do our best to accommodate that change. If a student has a personal issue arrise we will work with that individual to accommodate them while here. We strive to make sure each student is successful and happy while attending here.
We also use a survey constructed for rating the instructors, curriculum, and administrative staff.
I sometimes feel that there is a miss in communication upon admission with our students. They meet with admissions & financial aid to determine course of study and then begin classes, sometimes prior to even meeting the program director. Now this may be okay for some programs of study, however in some, especially Allied Health related fields, I feel it is very important for that student to fully understand the realm of the chosen program of study. For example: When a student inquires about Respiratory, and then is placed in Polysomnography because of the wait list in Respiratory...and told, "oh if you like respiratory you will like polysomnography...." I feel that shows ignorance & incompetance from our admissions representatives. To those in the field we know the differences between respiratory & polysomnography and just because you are interested in one does not mean you will enjoy the other.
Now while we do provide "product knowledge" for the admissions staff, (maybe completed about once per quarter) it is not capable of completely educating that staff outside of this program of study. I feel that there needs to be a change in protocol to allow the students to have some sort of meeting/interview with specific program directors to explain in full detail expectations for the chosen program.
So I feel that from the beginning we are at a disadvantage to meet/satisfy students expectations.
While this concern & recommendation may upset some....I do feel that in the interest of our students it will benefit ALL.
We have been very active to apply our projects and other activities to real-world environment. This has helped show the student that there is an application of classroom concepts to what they want to do after graduation.
How often did we ask when we were in school do we really need to know this stuff how is it going to help my career?
Various opportunities to get student feedback at a our career college include:
1. 1st Term Enrollment Survey - students write their career objective and expectations.
2. Course/Instructor Evaluations completed by students of each course they complete (instructors have the option to give a mid-term evaluation to students to guage student expectations and progress).
3. Mid-Point Survey completed by the student of their academic progress toward graduation.
4. Externship survey and evaluation forms by their site supervisor.
5. Exit interviews by our career service department.
I hope I covered them all. :)
We inform the students at orientation that we have an open door policy from the fist day of class to the very last day of class. Any time students have questions we are there to answer them. If there is an issue going on at home or in the class room we will sit down with the student to talk about it and come up with positive alternatives to their problems. We will inform the Instructor about issues in the class room and they would resolve it to the best of their ability. We constantly ask students how class is going when we see them in the hallway. They always have smiles on their face which makes me happy because it shows that we do care about their education and success!
Student expectations and satisfaction are met with orientation programs, student support services, financial aid resources, technology support,course relevancy, faculty requirements, administration support,departmental support and student survey at the end of semester.
