Mobilize Data to Action: Assessing the Student Experience

Submitted by Erica Wager on
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What is the Purpose of the Assessment?

The Student Experience Research Team (SERT) formed in 2020 under the Title V Grant to research student equity achievement gaps at EMCC. We then presented at the Student Success Conference.

Describe the necessity for this assessment

The SERT found from a data audit we performed that students of color, particularly Black/African American students were less likely to persist, be retained, and had lower GPAs at our college.

Describe how the practice will be implemented

Following our data audit from Fa 2020, the SERT investigated the student experience on our campus. We held focus groups with students and designed and implemented a survey that over 450 students participated in during Sp 2021. We asked questions about sense of belonging and sense of community in and out of the classroom, diverse student experiences, experiences of prejudice or discrimination on campus, and more. We presented these at the SSC on November 5th, 2021. 

Interpret, compare, and describe the results

Our findings were quite extensive. We recommend you peruse our attachments for further detail. We had 25 students participate in four different focus groups. We used the Museus & Smith (2016) culturally engaging campus environments model to situate these qualitative findings. We had over 450 students participate in our survey, we found positive feedback about the student experience as well as places where we can grow as a campus. We made recommendations from these findings. 

After analyzing, and reflecting on the outcome, what are the next steps?

We have held more focus groups in Fa 2021 and have given another survey that asks questions similar to our Sp 2021 survey with some added questions about course modality preferences of our students. We have had focus groups with 25+ students this semester and have received survey data from over 500 student participants. We will analyze these results in Sp 2022 and continue to share our results with the college and wider district.

Abstract

The Student Experience Research Team (SERT) formed in Fall 2020 under the Title V Grant to explore student equity achievement gaps at EMCC. The SERT has been conducting a mixed-method study on the student experience at EMCC to better understand how we can improve student learning and outcomes at the college. During the Fall 2021 Student Success Conference hosted by the Maricopa Center for Learning and Innovation, the SERT presented initial research findings from the Spring 2021 collected data. 

Notes: feel free to listen to our SSC presentation by going to this website: https://mcli.maricopa.edu/events/student-success-conference/agenda

You can find our presentation under "Breakout session 6" 

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Erica Wager Mon, 11/15/2021 - 11:24am

Collaborators were Liz Cantu, Communication Faculty, and Linda Manning, Psychology Faculty