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Georgia Institute of Technology

StudentsOffice of Assessment

Introduction:

In 1999, an Exit Survey Pilot Program was initiated by the Office of Assessment in order to develop an overall picture of the attitudes and opinions of graduating seniors at Georgia Tech. Currently, nine undergraduate programs and four graduate programs participate in the study.

Conducted immediately prior to graduation from a degree program, exit surveys  gather useful feedback on the program from the perspective of those who have just experienced it. Exit surveys are designed to not only assess the program objectives and outcomes of the various colleges and schools within the Institute, but also to give a student perspective on how well the educational, professional and personal goals of students are being met by the Institute.

Institute Objectives:

Each exit survey consists of two parts. The first portion is an Institute-level survey concerning Georgia Tech overall, including such variables as faculty contributions, general knowledge and skills obtainment, facilities and academic resources, administrative and student services, co-op and freshman experience.

The Institute portion of the exit survey also incorporates items related to essential ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) and SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) criteria that can be used to support accreditation, program review and other Institute outcomes.

Program Objectives:

The second portion of the instrument concerns program-specific questions tailored especially for each school. The Office of Assessment works collaboratively with each school to design a survey that accurately and effectively measures the strengths and opportunities for improvement of each program and garners feedback on important points of interest each school is attempting to isolate.

There are also several open-ended questions on the survey where students can explain or elaborate on the opinions and attitudes they expressed on the scaled items. Questions include listing the major strengths and weaknesses of their programs of study and the most effective and least effective courses.

Questions also cover core course evaluations, general program effectiveness such as breadth and depth of elective courses, knowledge and skill gains in fundamental academic and professional principles within the discipline, relevance and currency of major courses, and career preparation.  This essential feedback can then facilitate curriculum decision making.

Methodology:

At this point, participating schools include, at the undergraduate level, Management, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Materials Science Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Textile and Fiber Engineering, and Mathematics. At the graduate level, participating schools include Aerospace Engineering, Information Design Technology, Chemical Engineering, and Environmental Engineering.

Surveys are distributed by two methods. For larger programs, such as Management that graduates roughly 125 students every regular school year semester, surveys are distributed with petitions for graduation by the students' major school home office. Students then return the surveys with their petitions and the students' home office returns the surveys to the Office of Assessment. The second method of distribution begins when the surveys are given to the undergraduate coordinator of each school or college and then distributed to the students in senior capstone (senior design) course sections. Completed surveys are then returned to the Georgia Tech Office of Assessment for data entry and analysis. Custom reports are then developed for each school or college that administered the survey.

Goals:

The goals of the Exit Survey Pilot Program are to take the burden of data processing off the individual programs, facilitate benchmarking within each college, and to provide Institute-level data for institutional effectiveness.

One limitation of the exit survey program is, of course, that it is a constrained study. Without data from a much larger sample of graduating seniors, no definitive conclusions can be made. This means that, for the present, generalizations concerning the overall opinions of students at Georgia Tech are best used as a baseline to help discover long-term trends and to elucidate possible areas for further investigation. Recently, the Office of Assessment has been making strides to invite more degree programs into the pilot program and standardize the issuance and retrieval of surveys to garner the most accurate and up-to-date information on student opinions and attitudes. It is also our goal to see that every student is surveyed upon their graduation from Georgia Tech.

Participation:

Participating in the Exit Survey Program is a great way to obtain program feedback from students. Get involved in order to make more informed curriculum decisions and better prepare for ABET accreditation or program review. If you are interested in learning more about the Exit Survey Pilot Program, please contact Joe Ludlum or call at 404.385.1292.