Saddleback College International Program
Learning Domains:
Leadership
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Social Advocacy and Justice
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Education
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Assessment and Evaluation
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Personal Development
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X
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X
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Description:
Every semester the International Program
at Saddleback College holds a New Student Orientation for incoming
international students. The purpose of
the New Student Orientation is to introduce new international students to the
U.S. higher education system, connect them to the Saddleback College campus,
and inform them on important federal immigration requirements that they need to
comply with during their studies in the United States. This entry describes my
learning as it relates to evaluating the effectiveness of the Spring 2013 New
Student Orientation by developing a survey, analyzing the survey responses, and
making appropriate recommendation informed by the evaluation analysis.
Learning Outcomes:
SWiBAT: Develop a survey form to
evaluate the effectiveness of the New Student Orientation by incorporating
appropriate quantitative and qualitative survey items
SWiBAT: Analyze the survey
responses using appropriate educational research measures and summarize the
findings into a written report
Assessment Rubric:
Advanced
|
Competent
|
Basic
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Needs
Improvement
|
|
SLO
# 1
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Developed a comprehensive survey consisting of quantitative
and qualitative items and administered it to the participants
|
Developed
a solid survey consisting of quantitative and qualitative items
|
Developed
an acceptable survey consisting of either
quantitative or qualitative items
|
Was
unable to developed a survey consisting either quantitative or qualitative
items
|
SLO
# 2
|
Analyzed the survey findings using
appropriate educational research measures, summarized the findings into a
written report and provided future recommendations
|
Analyzed the survey findings using appropriate educational
research measures and summarized
the findings into a written report
|
Analyzed the survey findings using some appropriate educational
research measures but not all and summarized
the findings into a written report
|
Was unable to analyze the survey findings using appropriate
educational research measures
|
Evidence:
Reflection:
Initially,
the development of the survey involved examining which elements of the
orientation needed to be evaluated. The
orientation consisted of a number of sessions that ranged in information
including an icebreaker activity, an immigration workshop, campus safety,
learning assistance resources, academic advising, class registration, transfer
center resources, and a student panel with questions and answers. My primary
goal was to evaluate the usefulness of each of the offered orientation
sessions. Therefore, I created a comprehensive survey that consisted of 10 quantitative items (yes or no and 5-point-likert
scale questions) that assessed whether the students found each of the sessions
helpful with numerical values. In
addition, the survey consisted of three qualitative questions, which assessed
what information students were able to take away from the orientation through open-ended
questions and asked for feedback to determine if any information was
missing. To disseminate the survey, I
e-mailed it to the orientation participants 2 days after the event as an online
form. Out of the 29 total attendees,
only 12 students actually completed the survey. Reflecting on this outcome, I
would recommend to administer the survey during the orientation next time
because online surveys tend to produce very low response rates (Lodico,
Spaulding, & Voegtle , 2010). My analysis of the survey responses consisted
of looking at basic descriptive statistics for the qualitative items and coding
for themes in open-ended responses (Lodico, Spaulding, & Voegtle , 2010).
For instance, I obtained the mean values for the 5-point scale questions, which
asked the participants to rate how helpful each of orientation sessions was. To
analyze the qualitative student responses, I was able to identify several
themes that relate to specific knowledge areas in which the students were able to
gain more understanding. For example, some
students became more aware of the American college system in general. A few others became more familiar with the campus
police and transfer center resources. Lastly, I was also able to identify a few
potential areas for future improvements as some students provided input about
the information they would have liked to have that was not provided. Overall, I
found this project very helpful in allowing me to learn more about program evaluation
and improvement.
References
Lodico, M. G.,
Spaulding, D. T., & Voegtle, K. H. (2010). Methods in educational research:
From theory to practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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