- March 2002: Obtaining and Utilizing Feedback: The Exit Survey and Keeping in Touch: The Georgia Tech Baccalaureate Alumni Survey
- December 2001: Employers Opinions on the Capabilities of Tech Graduates
- March 2001: Academic Confidence Among Georgia Tech Freshmen
- December 2000: Assessing Learning Communities at Georgia Tech
- March 2000: Campus Assessment Activities
- November 1999: Instruction and Evaluation Methods: How Do Tech Faculty Compare to Our Peers?
- September 1999: What Impact Has Computer Ownership Had on George Burdell's Studies?
MEASURES is the Office of Assessment's official newsletter. It is published once a semester and distributed to the faculty and staff at Georgia Tech. To download each issues in full, merely click on the .pdf icon to the left of each newsletter. You will need Acrobat Reader to view the documents, which you can obtain for free by visiting Adobe's website. If you would like a hard copy of the newsletter sent to you, please email Sue Woolard
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In 2001, the Georgia Tech Office of Assessment conducted a survey of baccalaureate alumni who graduated from the Institute between 1994 - 1997. This survey was undertaken to identify satisfaction levels with preparation for employment and experiences at Georgia Tech. A thorough survey process, including a pilot survey, prenotification card, two full mailings, and a telephone follow-up, yielded a 41.7% response rate. Because of the quality assurance steps taken, and the results received, we concluded that the results obtained are both accurate and broadly representative of the population of Georgia Tech bachelor’s graduates for the surveyed years. Alumni were asked to rate items pertaining to the importance of various skills and abilities and to rate the extent to which they believed their undergraduate education at Georgia Tech had adequately provided them with those skills and abilities. Questions were also posed concerning satisfaction levels with instruction, advisement, equity of treatment, and facilities at Georgia Tech. Additionally, alumni were asked about their employment and further education status...more |
Ensuring the continuity of employer feedback provides a valuable assessment of both the changing needs of employers and how well student skills are meeting these demands. There are multiple sources of career-related performance criteria that must be evaluated to prepare an accurate assessment, including data collected from co-op employers, recruiters, employers of alumni, and the students themselves. In 1999, a grant proposal was created to study employers’ and recruiters’ opinions of Georgia Tech students in regards to their success in the workforce. While the initial grant was for a pilot study of employer feedback, the need for longitudinal research in the area was recognized. Both the Division of Cooperative Education and Career Services participated in the study...more |
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| Since 1966 Georgia Institute of Technology has participated in the Higher Education Research Institute’s (HERI) Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP). Each year incoming freshmen complete the Student Information Form, and the results are used by HERI as part of a longitudinal study. Every participating campus receives a report containing their responses and those of specified comparison groups. This year Georgia Tech incoming freshmen were asked to complete this survey during their summer or fall orientation program. Of the 2,166 students in the incoming 2000 class, 2,092 attended an orientation program but only 1,298 (59.9% of the incoming class) completed the survey. The following information is based on the 1,286 responses of first-time, full-time students, but should be interpreted with caution since generalizations to the entire incoming 2000 class cannot be made. In addition, only summary data were provided by HERI on institutional comparison groups, thus precluding tests of significance...more | |
| In recent years learning communities have gained popularity on university campuses as a way to integrate students into college life and to help them in their educational endeavors. Hearkening back to the origins of higher education as a community of scholars and students learning together, the modern notion of a learning community revolves around the creation of an environment conducive to intellectual and personal growth, and especially to interdisciplinary and interpersonal connections. In the fall of 1999, 200 Georgia Tech incoming freshmen students were randomly selected to participate in a Learning Community program. Students were divided into eight learning communities, housed in close proximity to one another, and block-scheduled into sections of Psychology 1000, Mathematics 1501 or 1502, and English 1101 or 1102. Three major concerns drove the creation of learning communities at Georgia Tech: 1) the desire to promote interdisciplinary, collaborative learning as part of the undergraduate experience; 2) the desire to promote interactive learning experiences, characterized by heightened student-instructor interaction inside and outside the classroom; and 3) the desire to explore undergraduate interventions aimed at fostering academic and social integration – hopefully leading to superior first-year academic performance and increasing first-year to sophomore retention rates...more | |
| In what environment do students learn best and adjust most quickly to the rigors of collegiate study? In the fall of 1999 approximately 200 incoming freshmen students were selected to participate in a program designed to foster interaction, student learning, and retention. Called a Learning Community, this type of program emphasizes connections between academic courses, and usually features students living, studying, and taking classes together. To assess the impact of this program, Georgia Tech participated in a nationally-administered survey, the Learning Communities Experiences Questionnaire, which was developed at Indiana State University’s Office of Institutional Research. The survey was administered in two forms during the semester: once as a pre-test during the first week of the semester and once again as a post-test during the final week before exams. This survey contains questions that focus on high school study habits and learning experiences, students’ current attitudes towards learning and higher education, students’ attitudes towards group work, and their college social involvement. Results from two groups of students will be examined; those students participating in learning communities and the freshmen experience seminar and those students only participating in the freshmen experience seminar. Student responses will be shared with the campus community in an upcoming Assessment Newsletter as well as on the Assessment web page...more | |
| In October of 1998, Georgia Tech faculty members participated in the 1998 UCLA Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) faculty survey. Every three years this survey is conducted in order to obtain information on attitudes and characteristics of faculty members at institutions of higher education nation-wide. Faculty from six of Georgia Tech’s peer institutions (Stanford University, John Hopkins University, MIT, Carnegie- Mellon University, Cal Tech, and Virginia Tech) completed the survey and were used as our peer comparison group...more | |
| During the 1999 spring quarter the Georgia Institute of Technology Office of Assessment and the Office of Information Technology conducted a web-based survey asking students about their experiences with the computer ownership policy. Students who first enrolled at Georgia Tech in the summer or fall of 1997 and were enrolled during the 1999 spring quarter were asked to complete the on-line survey. Of the 1,689 students in the cohort, 820 completed and returned usable surveys. Chi-square test results revealed that the respondents were representative of the cohort in terms of college, gender, and ethnicity...more | |
