Fall 2011- Fall 2013 Connect to Learning Core Student Survey: Preliminary Findings
1. FALL 2011-FALL 2013
CONNECT TO LEARNING
CORE STUDENT
SURVEY:
PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
Helen L. Chen, hlchen@stanford.edu
June
26, 2013
2. C2L Core Student Survey
WHAT: A survey instrument intended to capture
common data across diverse C2L institutions
WHO: Students in ePortfolio courses and their
instructors
WHERE: Administered online and f2f at 19 C2L
campuses representing a range of institutional
types, students, and disciplines
WHEN: Fall
2011, Spring
2012, Fall 2012
The C2L Core Survey was
informed by similar surveys used
in the C2L network and also
includes outcomes items from
NSSE/CSSE’s benchmarks for
effective educational practice.
3. C2L Core Student Survey Goals
1. Capture perspectives of the student
experience in courses with an ePortfolio
requirement or assignment over time –
evidence of ePortfolio impact
2. Ensure student voices are informing and
represented in the C2L developmental
framework
3. Build a common data set across C2L
campuses to allow broader exploration
beyond individual schools and programs
4. Why ePortfolio?
1. ePortfolio initiatives can advance student
learning and success by helping students
reflect on and connect their learning
across disparate academic and non-
academic learning experiences.
2. ePortfolio initiatives can make student
learning more visible not only for students
themselves, but also for faculty and staff.
3. ePortfolio initiatives can spur institutional
change by focusing attention on student
learning and requiring connection and
cooperation across departments and
6. Demographics for aggregated
sample across administrations
Total number of respondents: N=6,729
Range of valid responses: N=5,239-6,729
Females (48.6%); Males (29.2%); Missing
(22.2%)
Community college students (66%)
Senior college/university students (34%)
Full-time (69.7%); Part-time (12.5%)
First generation to attend college (26.5%)
7. Sample Population
Survey Administration Instructions:
We ask that you administer the Core Student
Survey in selected ePortfolio course
sections this semester, keeping in mind that
it’s more important to designate courses with
meaningful ePortfolio implementation, rather
than just giving out the survey in as many
courses as you can.
Students in courses with a meaningful
ePortfolio implementation from Fall 2011 to
Fall 2012
9. To what extent has your work in this
course:
emphasized synthesizing and organizing
ideas, information, or experiences in new
ways?
emphasized applying theories or concepts
to practical problems or in new situations?
contributed to your knowledge, skills, and
personal development in writing clearly and
effectively?
contributed to your knowledge, skills, and
personal development in understanding
yourself?
contributed to your knowledge, skills, and
12. Selected Student Outcome
Items
Range: Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree
(4)
Building my ePortfolio helped me to think more
deeply about the content of this course.
Using ePortfolio has allowed me to be more
aware of my growth and development as a
learner.
Building my ePortfolio helped me to make
connections between ideas.
Building my ePortfolio helped me succeed as a
student.
Someday, I’d like to use my ePortfolio to show
what I’ve learned and what I can do to
15. “Instructor Feedback” Scale (α=.82)
Range: Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (4)
Description: Recognition and usefulness of
instructors as an audience and guide for
ePortfolio creation and development
My instructor provided useful feedback on
my ePortfolio.
I know that my instructor looked at my
ePortfolio.
My instructor(s) discussed the ways
ePortfolio helps students to learn.
16. “Peer Feedback” Scale (α=.81)
Range: Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (4)
Description: Recognition and usefulness of
peers as an audience for and influence on
ePortfolio development
My peers/classmates provided useful
feedback on my ePortfolio.
I know my peers/classmates looked at my
ePortfolio.
21. Someday, I’d like to use my ePortfolio to show
what I’ve learned and what I can do to
others, such as potential employers or professors
at another college.
22. “Extending” Scale (α=.84)
Range: Strongly Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (4)
Description: Willingness to go beyond the course
requirements and include learning experiences in the
ePortfolio
I went beyond what was required for the course (for
example, creating extra pages or posting my own
links, text or photos).
I included information or experience from other
courses I am taking or have taken.
I included school activities or experiences outside of
the classroom (for
example, clubs, sports, internships, study
abroad, etc.)
I included information or experiences from other
areas of my life (for
example, volunteering, work, friends, family, commu
24. Why ePortfolio?
1. ePortfolio initiatives can advance student
learning and success by helping students
reflect on and connect their learning
across disparate academic and non-
academic learning experiences.
2. ePortfolio initiatives can make student
learning more visible not only for students
themselves, but also for faculty and staff.
3. ePortfolio initiatives can spur institutional
change by focusing attention on student
learning and requiring connection and
cooperation across departments and
Editor's Notes
Given the overrepresentation of community colleges, should we run the analyses separately for community college students vs. senior students?Think about other ways of analyzing
Convenience sampling is typically only justified if the researcher wants to study the characteristics of people passing by the street corner at a certain point in time, for example. It can also be used if other sampling methods are not possible. The researcher must also take caution to not use results from a convenience sample to generalize to a wider populationConvenience samples are often used for this purpose: to test certain questions and see what kind of responses arise and use those results as a springboard to create a more thorough and useful questionnaire. .
By collapsing Agree and Strongly Agree, the two items that have shown continued growth over the three administrations are:Building my ePortfolio helped me to make connections between ideas.(Fall 2011:66.7%; Spring 2012:72.7%; Fall 2012:85.5%)Building my ePortfolio helped me succeed as a student.(Fall 2011: 58.6%; Spring 2012: 65.9%; Fall 2012:79.0%)A connection could be made with the “Making connections…” statement with the NSSE item: Synthesizing and organizing ideas, information, or experiences in new waysBy collapsing Quite a Bit and Very Much, there has been steady growth in the percentage of students reporting an increase in this outcome: Fall 2011: 75.7%; Spring 2012:85.2%; Fall 2012:87.6%There has been consistent agreement with the statement:Someday, I’d like to use my ePortfolio to show what I’ve learned and what I can do to others, such as potential employers or professors at another college.(Fall 2011: 71.2%; Spring 2012:74.6%; Fall 2012:77.2%)We have hypothesized that the role of external audiences would be an incentive for students to create and maintain their ePortfolios. These results largely confirm this hypothesis.
This scale was created by taking the mean of the responses to the 3 instructor-related items. The instructor feedback scale is defined as student recognition and usefulness of instructors as an audience and guide for ePortfolio creation and development. The values were normalized on the same scale as the individual items ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 4 (Strongly Agree). Strongly Disagree and Disagree were collapsed into what is described as “Low recognition of instructors” and Agree and Strongly Agree were collapsed into “High recognition of instructors.”
This scale was created by taking the mean of the responses to the 2 peer-related items. The peer feedback scale is defined as student recognition and usefulness of peers as an audience for and influence on ePortfolio development. The values were normalized on the same scale as the individual items ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 4 (Strongly Agree). Strongly Disagree and Disagree were collapsed into what is described as “Low recognition of peers” and Agree and Strongly Agree were collapsed into “High recognition of peers.”
Fall 2011: 75.7%; Spring 2012:85.2%; Fall 2012:87.6%
This figure is an example of how the peer feedback scale was used to define two groups – low and high recognition of peer feedback and influence for each of the C2L survey administrations. Students who saw viewed peers as providing support and feedback in their ePortfolio development process (High Feedback) also reported stronger agreement (Agree/Strongly Agree) with the statement “Building my ePortfolio helped me succeed as a student” as compared to students who did not view peers as an important audience (Low Feedback).This trend is demonstrated across the three survey administrations.
The percentage of students who indicated that they “strongly agreed” with this statement doubled from Fall 2011 to Fall 2012. (Although it should be noted that these are not necessarily the same students who responded to the survey.)
This scale was created by taking the mean of the responses to the 4 “extending”-related items. The extending scale is defined as students’ willingness to go beyond the course requirements and include other kinds of learning experiences from both inside and outside the classroom in the ePortfolio. The values were normalized on the same scale as the individual items ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 4 (Strongly Agree). Strongly Disagree and Disagree were collapsed into what is described as “Low extending” and Agree and Strongly Agree were collapsed into “High extending.”
Interesting correlation between students’ recognition of instructor and peer feedback/influence and students’ willingness to include out of class learning experiences in their ePortfolios.This figure is an example of the relationship between Instructor Feedback and students’ willingness to “extend.” By cross tabulating these two scales, we can see an association between students who recognized the importance and influence of instructor feedback and involvement in the creation and development of their ePortfolio (High Feedback) and their reported willingness to extend in their ePortfolio (High Extending).This figure reiterates the trend seen in relationship between Instructor Feedback and students’ willingness to “extend.” It is interesting to note that the influence of Peer Feedback is slightly stronger than the Instructor Feedback. Again, by cross tabulating these two scales, we can see an association between students who recognize peers as an important audience in their ePortfolio development process (High Feedback) and their reported willingness to extend in their ePortfolio (High Extending).This trend is demonstrated across the three survey administrations.This trend is demonstrated across the three survey administrations.
