The Online Survey: An Efficient And Effective Means Of Engineering Graduate Student Assessment
- Conference
- Location
-
Austin, Texas
- Publication Date
-
June 14, 2009
- Start Date
-
June 14, 2009
- End Date
-
June 17, 2009
- ISSN
-
2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
-
Graduate Studies
- Page Count
-
23
- Page Numbers
-
14.1237.1 - 14.1237.23
- DOI
-
10.18260/1-2--5049
- Permanent URL
-
https://peer.asee.org/5049
- Download Count
-
369
Paper Authors
Lokesh Padhye Georgia Institute of Technology
Mr. Padhye is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. He served as a Chair of the Dialogue for Academic Excellence Committee (DAEC) of the Association of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AEES) from August 2007 to July 2008.
Gretchen Goldman Georgia Institute of Technology
Ms. Goldman is a Ph.D. candidate in the CEE at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. She served as a President of the AEES and as a member of the DAEC from August 2007 to July 2008.
Nadia Szeinbaum Georgia Institute of Technology
Ms. Szeinbaum is a Masters student in the CEE at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. She has served on the DAEC from August 2007, and has served as a Chair of the DAEC since August 2008.
Scott Rogers Georgia Institute of Technology
Mr. Rogers is a Ph.D. candidate in the CEE at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. He has served on the DAEC since the formation of the committee in August 2004, and served as a Chair of the DAEC since August 2004 to July 2006.
Recep Goktas Georgia Institute of Technology
Mr. Goktas is a Ph.D. candidate in the CEE at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. He served on the DAEC as a Committee Secretary from August 2005 to August 2006, and as a member from August 2007 to July 2008.
Zohre Kurt Georgia Institute of Technology
Ms. Kurt is a Ph.D. student in the CEE at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. She has served on the DAEC since August 2007.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
The Online Survey: An Efficient and Effective Means of Engineering Graduate Student Assessment Abstract
A survey is a potent tool for assessing student needs and concerns to improve an engineering graduate program as demonstrated by recent, documented survey studies conducted in an environmental engineering graduate program. We extended the work done in prior studies employing paper surveys by conducting an online student assessment for the first time in the program history. With regard to survey design and analysis methods, we mostly adopted the methods established in the prior studies.
The online format was adopted primarily to increase the accessibility of the survey to students in our graduate program. Other benefits of the online format include a more efficient distribution process and an increased ability to preserve confidentiality in comparison to the paper format. The online format also allowed us to compile and analyze data with greater ease. In addition, conducting the online survey was cost-effective. The use of the survey online client required only a minimal cost and eliminated the relatively large stationery costs associated with paper surveys. Along with recognizing the advantages, we had to navigate potential obstacles associated with online surveying, such as ensuring that a respondent is able to complete the survey only once with uncompromised confidentiality and achieving a high response rate with limited personal interaction.
The survey was received well by students, achieving a high response rate (>72%) and garnering positive student feedback. Academic concerns perceived by students in the program with regard to a seminar course in our program, graduate coursework, and student-advisor relationships were identified and presented to the faculty. Some of the areas of discontent identified were the limited number of graduate classes offered in the program and the specificity of the seminar course directed only towards a small portion of the student population. In most cases, we believe that the online survey provided more accurate data than did the previous paper surveys. However, in some cases, data such as those from student-advisor relationship questions appear to have been affected by biases also present in the paper surveys.
The online administration of the survey provided numerous advantages, suggesting that it is a more preferable surveying method over the paper survey and will likely be implemented in future program assessments. This study can act as a model for other programs looking for efficient and effective assessment of their academic needs and concerns. To that end, we discuss our online survey method, how we considered the advantages and potential drawbacks of online surveying, and the significance of our survey findings extensively in this paper.
Introduction
A survey is a potent tool for assessing student needs and concerns in an academic environment when its design, distribution, and data analysis are carried out effectively, as recent study has demonstrated1. We aimed in this work to improve the distribution method employed in that study by using an online format rather than a paper format. In this paper, we describe in detail the
Padhye, L., & Goldman, G., & Szeinbaum, N., & Rogers, S., & Goktas, R., & Kurt, Z. (2009, June), The Online Survey: An Efficient And Effective Means Of Engineering Graduate Student Assessment Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--5049
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2009 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015