In the spring of 1995, the Student Satisfaction Inventory was administered to more than 1,000 students here at Eastern New Mexico University. Scale scores and national norms have been previously reported in the DATAWave. In this issue, a more detailed examination of the instructional effectiveness scale is reported. The full text for each of the questions, local means and standard deviations and national comparisons can be found in Table 1 on page 4. Pages 2 and 3 contain box plots that graphically display the results. Box plots are summary plots based on the median quartiles and extreme values. Box plots are formed from “boxes” which contain the 50 percent of values falling between the 25th and 75th percentiles, and from “whiskers”, which are lines that extend from the box to the highest and lowest values excluding outliers. A vertical line across the box indicates the median.
| CHART 1 |
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| Student Satisfaction Inventory Instructional Effectiveness Importance Scale Responses by Scale Question |
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Examination of Chart 1 will show that with the exceptions of questions 3, 61, and 70 students' responses are consistent and positively skewed. Generally this is consistent with all item responses with regards to importance by the ENMU sample who tend to rate all items as being important. Questions concerning "faculty care about me as an individual," "adjunct faculty are competent classroom instructors," and "graduate teaching assistants are competent classroom instructors" are in general less important than the other items questioned. It may be more accurate to report that these items are important, but there is more variance in the students' responses.
This and previous examinations of the importance data continue to demonstrate that all items appear to be important to ENMU students. An examination of students' satisfaction with these questions may provide more useful information. Areas where students appear to be most satisfied are questions 8, 16, 39, 58, 65, and 68. In fact, the responses to questions 8 and 16, which asked students about the content of their courses being valuable and the excellence of their instruction, compared most favorably with the national norms. In the former question, ENMU rating is equal to the national mean and in the latter, it slightly exceeds the national mean. The box graphs for the remaining strong areas show that the responses are positively skewed and that students tend to agree highly in this area. More normally distributed responses are seen for questions 3, 25, 41, 47, 53, 61, 69, and 70. This greater variance or movement towards normalcy perhaps indicates a cohort of less satisfied students. These questions address faculty caring, faculty fairness, commitment to academic excellence, faculty consideration of student differences, variety of courses, adjunct teachers, and teaching assistants. Perhaps these concerns could be grouped into faculty-student relationships and programmatic concerns.
| CHART 2 |
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| Student Satisfaction Inventory Instructional Effectiveness Satisfaction Scale Responses by Scale Question |
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Anecdotal data and some survey data support that faculty-student relationships are one of the strongest parts of the Eastern experience. Assuming that this is true, and that the evidence indicates that some students feel otherwise, improving faculty-student relationships may be a relatively low cost endeavor. Perhaps more costly may be the concerns around adjunct faculty, graduate assistants, and availability of classes which would require additional resources.
As in the past, these results are offered, in part, to inform the ENMU community. They are also offered in order to hear feedback from members of the administration, faculty, and professional staff. Comments are of course again, really appreciated. These results may have more meaning to you when broken down by any one of a number of demographic variables (i.e., student ethnicity, class level, college, major, age, gender).
If you would like more information on instructional effectiveness, other student satisfaction inventory scales, or assessment results, please feel free to contact the Assessment Resource Office, or me personally, at extension 4313 or testaa@ziavms.enmu.edu
1 Difference statistically significant at the .05 level 1 Difference statistically significant at the .05 level
Coordinator, Assessment Resource OfficeTABLE I
Eastern New Mexico University MainScale Importance Satisfaction /SD Performance Gap INSTRUCTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS 6.34 5.01 / 1.00 1.33
3. Faculty care about me as an individual 6.02 4.89 / 1.45 1.13 8. The content of the courses within my major is valuable 6.62 5.30 / 1.43 1.32
16. The instruction in my major field is excellent 6.61 5.34 / 1.44 1.27 25. Faculty are fair and unbiased in their treatment of individual students 6.38 4.59 / 1.63 1.79
39. I am able to experience intellectual growth here 6.29 5.34 / 1.28 0.95 41. There is a commitment to academic excellence on this campus 6.28 4.92 / 1.37 1.36
47. Faculty provide timely feedback about student progress in a course 6.23 4.80 / 1.48 1.43 53. Faculty take into consideration student differences as they teach a course 6.16 4.52 / 1.59 1.64
58. The quality of instruction I receive in most of my classes is excellent 6.56 5.21 / 1.42 1.35 61. Adjunct faculty are competent as classroom instructors 6.05 4.83 / 1.33 1.22 65. Faculty are usually available after class and during office hours 6.37 5.32 / 1.41 1.05
68. Nearly all of the faculty are knowledgeable in their field 6.52 5.52 / 1.27 1.00 69. There is a good variety of courses provided on this campus 6.44 4.88 / 1.60 1.56
70. Graduate teaching assistants are competent as classroom instructors 6.16 4.67 / 1.58 1.49
2 Difference statistically significant at the .01 level
3 Difference statistically significant at the .001 level
TABLE II
4-Year Public Institutions
(Satisfaction)Scale Importance Satisfaction /SD Performance Gap Our Inst.- Nat'l Group INSTRUCTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS 6.28 5.12 / 0.95 1.16 -0.113
3. Faculty care about me as an individual 6.07 4.84 / 1.51 1.23 0.05 8. The content of the courses within my major is valuable 6.51 5.30 / 1.37 1.21 0.00
16. The instruction in my major field is excellent 6.49 5.26 / 1.41 1.23 0.08 25. Faculty are fair and unbiased in their treatment of individual students 6.37 4.95 / 1.53 1.42 -0.363
39. I am able to experience intellectual growth here 6.30 5.38 / 1.25 0.92 -0.04 41. There is a commitment to academic excellence on this campus 6.28 5.13 / 1.36 1.15 -0.213 47. Faculty provide timely feedback about student progress in a course 6.20 4.83 / 1.51 1.37 -0.03 53. Faculty take into consideration student differences as they teach a course 6.05 4.66 / 1.53 1.39 -0.142
58. The quality of instruction I receive in most of my classes is excellent 6.50 5.29 / 1.35 1.21 -0.08
61. Adjunct faculty are competent as classroom instructors 5.94 4.93 / 1.34 1.01 -0.101 65. Faculty are usually available after class and during office hours 6.34 5.46 / 1.40 0.88 -0.142
68. Nearly all of the faculty are knowledgeable in their field 6.52 5.62 / 1.26 0.90 -0.101 69. There is a good variety of courses provided on this campus 6.39 5.23 / 1.49 1.16 -0.353
70. Graduate teaching assistants are competent as classroom instructors 5.89 4.74 / 1.48 1.15 -0.07
2 Difference statistically significant at the .01 level
3 Difference statistically significant at the .001 level