WYSAC, University of WyomingUW Student Opinion Survey, 20121
University of Wyoming Student Opinion Survey, 2012
WYSAC Technical Report No.SRC-1206
July, 2012
WYSAC, University of WyomingUW Student Opinion Survey, 20121
University of Wyoming Student Opinion Survey, 2012By
Brian Harnisch, M.B.A., Assistant Research Scientist
With the assistance of
BistraAnatchkova, Ph. D., Manager, Survey Research Center
Shinze Kato, Assistant Research Scientist
Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center
University of Wyoming• Dept. 3925
1000 East University Avenue •Laramie, WY 82071
•
(307) 766-2189 • Fax: (307) 766-2759
Citation for this document: WYSAC. (2012).UW Student Opinion Survey, 2012, by B. Harnisch.(WYSAC Technical Report No. SRC-1206). Laramie, WY: Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center, University of Wyoming.
Short reference:WYSAC (2012), UW Student Opinion Survey, 2012.
© Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center, 2012.
Table of Contents
1.Introduction
1.1.Background
1.2.Organization of this Report
2.Methods
3.Demographics
4.Key Findings
5.Survey Results
Appendix A. Q2 - Other responses
Appendix C. Q14 - Problems encountered when transferring to UW.
Appendix D. Q18 - Other responses
Appendix E. Q29 – Other plans after graduation from current program.
Appendix F. Comments and Suggestions
Appendix G. - Survey Instrument
List of Tables
Table 1. Overall satisfaction with education at UW.
Table 2. Q1 - Student Satisfaction
Table 3. Q2 - Services and Programs
Table 4. Q2 - Services and Programs, con't.
Table 5. Q3 - Help Centers
Table 6. Q3 - Help Centers, con't.
Table 7. Q4 - Multicultural resource center & Veterans services center.
Table 8. Q4 - International resource center & Non-traditional student center.
Table 9. Q5 - Frequency of volunteer activity.
Table 10. Q5a - Hours spent volunteering on each occasion.
Table 11. Q6 - Hours spent on various activities.
Table 12. Q7 - General climate for diversity.
Table 13. Q8 - Preference of job location.
Table 14. Q9 - Transferred courses to UW.
Table 15. Q10a - (Transfer students) Types of courses transferred from a Wyoming community college.
Table 16. Q10b - (Transfer students) Types of courses transferred from a non-Wyoming community college.
Table 17. Q10c - (Transfer students) Types of courses transferred from a non-Wyoming community college.
Table 18. Q10d - (Transfer students) Associates degree at community college.
Table 19. Q10e - (Transfer students) Level of preparedness for UW academics.
Table 20. Q11 - (Transfer students) Quality of transfer orientation program.
Table 21. Q12 - (Transfer students) Quality of help received in transferring to UW.
Table 22. Q13 - (Transfer students) Difficulty Transferring
Table 23. Q15 - Ease or difficulty registering for courses.
Table 24. Q16 - Timing of classes.
Table 25. Q17 - Timing of classes when registering.
Table 26. Q18 - Assistance sought after difficulty registering.
Table 27. Q19 - Residence status prior to enrollment.
Table 28. Q20 - Passport status.
Table 29. Q21 - International travel or studies.
Table 30. Q22 - (Students who have traveled or lived outside of the US) Benefits of international experiences.
Table 31. Q23 - Familiarity with celebrations in other countries.
Table 32. Q24 - Participation in internationally themes campus activities.
Table 33. Q25 – Role and importance of international education.
Table 34. Q26 - Portion of courses focused on international perspectives, issues, or events.
Table 35. Q26a - Percentage of internationally focused classes required.
Table 36. Q27 - Agreement or disagreement with statements regarding international education.
Table 37. Q28 - Overall college experience.
Table 38. Q29 - Plans following graduation.
Table 39. Q30 - Class standing.
List of Figures
Figure 1. Class standing distribution, 2012 & 2010.
Figure 2. Overall satisfaction with education at UW.
Figure 3. Volunteering during semester.
Figure 4. Students working zero hours per week during the semester.
Figure 5. Preference of job location..
Figure 6. Percentage of students who prefer to get a job in Wyoming, change over time.
Figure 7. Climate for Diversity - Friendly to Hostile.
Figure 8. Climate for Diversity - Non-racist to Racist.
Figure 9. Climate for Diversity - Homophobic to Non-homophobic.
Figure 10. Climate for Diversity - Sexist to Non-Sexist.
Figure 11. Immediate plans after graduation.
University of Wyoming Student Opinion Survey, 2012
1.Introduction
1.1.Background
The Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences (A&S) at the University of Wyoming (UW) and UW the Division of Student Affairs, commissioned the Wyoming Survey & Analysis Center (WYSAC) to conduct the biennial survey of UW students. For over a decade the survey has been conducted in the spring of even numbered years. Students participating in the survey are also administered one of two national student satisfaction surveys - the A.C.T. survey or the Noel-Levitz survey. The UW Student Opinion Survey uses a paper and pencil data collection instrument which for the most part includes questions used in previous years to provide for comparisons over time. As with previous years, additional questions of interest were added in 2012, while a few from previous iteration were taken off the survey to keep the length manageable. Survey results from the 2012 are presented in the following report, with comparisons to responses from previous years, where applicable.
1.2.Organization of this Report
The following section (Section 2) describes the methodology used in the design and administration of the survey. Section 3reports on the one demographic characteristic of survey respondents that was included in the questionnaire. Section 4 contains graphical presentations of select key findings from the survey results, with discussion and comparisons to previous years. Section 5 presents complete survey results for each item with corresponding results from previous years, where applicable.
Caution is advised when making comparisons to previous years, as the current version differs slightly from previous versions in question order and presentation. Differences in question wording are noted where appropriate. Appendices A-F contain the full text responses of all written comments in the survey, and Appendix G presents the survey instrument.
2.Methods
While the current version survey contains many of the questions used in previous iterations of the survey, a number of questions were added to this iteration to address student perceptions, knowledge, and exposure to different international cultures, issues, and other topics.Questions were added, removed, and altered using input from Oliver Walter (A&S Dean), John Nutter of the Department of Student Affairs, and the Student Affairs Assessment Team (SAAT). The WYSAC team refined the question changes and reformatted the survey instrument.As in the previous two iterations of the survey, the questionnaire was then turned into a scannable document using Teleform® software.
The survey was administered byUW instructors (who had previously agreed to participatein the survey)to students in their classes taught at 11amon March 21st, 2012. All of the students who attended that class were asked to complete both the UW Student Opinion Survey and one of the two national surveys. Participating classes were selected at random to receive either the A.C.T. or the Noel-Levitz survey. In addition, Casper College and the Outreach school administered the survey at a later date.
Completed questionnaires were returned by instructors to the UWA&S office by the end of March and were collected by WYSAC staff. Completed questionnaires from the Casper campus and the Outreach School were received through May. The A.C.T. and Noel-Levitz surveys were sent on for processing to the respective agencies. At this time, the SRC began the compilation of data from the UW Student Opinion Survey. Completed questionnaires were scanned on WYSAC high volume scanners and subsequently verified using built in verification procedures. WYSAC research scientists analyzed the data using theIBS SPSS Statistics 19 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) and compiled the results.
A total of 1680completed UW Student Opinion Surveys were obtained. Assuming randomness in the design of the sample, a sample this size should yield a margin of error of about +/- 2.25 percentage points with 95% confidence. As in previous years, the actual margin of error will be slightly higher due to the clustered sample design (randomly selecting entire classes).
3.Demographics
A total of 1,680 students completed the 2012 UW Student Opinion Survey. Of those, 1,619 students are from the Laramie campus, 52 from the Casper campus, and 8 from the Outreach School. Of the 1,619 students who completed the UW survey, 879 completed the A.C.T. Student Opinion Survey (Four-Year College Form), and740 completed the Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory.
For the second iteration of this survey, students were asked to identify their class standing. As with 2010, there was a fairly even distribution between classes with roughly a quarter of students reporting their class standing to be freshman through senior. (See Figure 1 and Table 39.)
Figure 1.Class standing distribution, 2012 & 2010.
4.Key Findings
As was the case in both 2010 and 2008, a large majority of students in 2012 at the University of Wyoming agree that they are pleased with the education they are receiving. When collapsing those who strongly agree and those who somewhat agree with that statement, we find that 95% of respondents agree that they are pleased with the education they are receiving from the University of Wyoming. (See Table 1Table 2)
A vast majority of respondents to the 2010 Student Opinion Survey report to be pleased with the education they are receiving from the University of Wyoming. When collapsing those who strongly agree and those who somewhat agreewith that statement, we find that 95.3% of respondents agree that they are pleased with the education they are receiving from the University of Wyoming, compared to 95.0% and 95.8% in 2010 and 2012, respectively. AsTable 1andFigure 2 indicate, the percentage of respondents who now strongly agree with the statement continues to increase biannually, while the number of those who somewhat agree has decreased by over 10percentage points. Students continue to strongly agree or somewhat agree that they would indeed recommend that a friend or relative attend the University of Wyoming, with 55.8% and 33.8% of respondents saying so, respectively.
Table 1.Overall satisfaction with education at UW.
StronglyAgree / Somewhat
Agree / Strongly or Somewhat Agree / Somewhat or Strongly Disagree
a. Overall, I am pleased with the education that I am receiving at UW. / 2012 / 51.5% / 43.8% / 95.3% / 3.8%
2010 / 49.9% / 45.1% / 95.0% / 4.1%
2008 / 48.6% / 47.2% / 95.8% / 3.2%
2006 / 42.6% / 50.7% / 93.3% / 6.1%
2004 / 38.9% / 55.0% / 93.9% / 5.4%
b. Overall, I would recommend that a friend or relative attend UW. / 2012 / 55.8% / 33.6% / 89.4% / 6.6%
2010 / 52.9% / 37.8% / 90.7% / 6.5%
2008 / 51.4% / 39.5% / 90.9% / 5.9%
2006 / 46.0% / 43.0% / 89.0% / 8.1%
2004 / 43.9% / 47.4% / 91.3% / 1.7%
Figure 2.Overall satisfaction with education at UW.
As in previous iterations, one block of questions in the survey was dedicated to different UW services and programs. First, students were asked if they wanted help with the particular service or program from UW. Next, they were asked to indicate whether or not they were aware of that service at UW. If the respondent indicated they were aware of the service, they were then asked if they have used this service at UW. Students that indicated that they had used a service, but left the option that they were aware of the service blank, were backfilled as being aware of the service accordingly. Finally, those who had used the servicewere asked whether or not they found the service useful.
In 2012 the first three options presented to respondents were either new or were an updated wording of a service or program presented in previous iterations. Just over 8% of respondents indicated they want help with participation in campus activities/programs, while 84% of respondents were aware of the service, 41% had used this service, and of those who had used the service 34% reported that they found it useful. Just over 7.2% of respondents said they wanted help with student organization participation¸85.7% were aware of the service from UW, just over a quarter (26%) said they have used the service, while 35% of those who had used the service reported that they found it useful. For the final new addition to the 2012 iteration, leadership programming opportunities, 12% of students said they wanted help with this from UW, 80.8% said they were aware of this service from UW, while only 12.1% reported they had used this service. Of those that had participated in ,leadership programming opportunities, 24.6% said that they found it useful. (See Table 3Table 4)
For a majority of the programs and services offered at UW, the proportion of students who say they want help with these services and programs remained largely unchanged from 2010, while a few showed slight increases. The proportion of students wanting help with residence hall activities (5.8%), work experience within your major (42.0%), interactions with people from other cultures (11.1%), opportunities to study abroad (14.2%), and student exchange opportunities within the U.S. (14.9%) all showed an increase from 2010. In all of these cases, a smaller proportion of respondents said that they were aware of the service or program, which may account for the increased desire for help with them. Another notable decrease in awareness of services and programs occurred in recreational or fitness opportunities, with only 73.6% of students reporting that they are aware of this service from UW, down from 93.5% in 2010. (See Table 3Table 4)
In comparison with respondents from 2010, awareness of the different UW ‘help centers’ in 2012 increased across the board. Exactly 70% of respondents were aware of the Washakie Student Learning Center, up from 61.8% in 2010. Over 80% of respondents are aware of the Math Lab (82.9%), up from 77.8% in 2010. Similarly, 83.3% of respondents say they are aware of the Writing Center, up from 78.2% in 2010; while just over half (53.6%) say they are aware of the Oral Communications Lab, up from only 42.4% in 2010. For the Washakie Student Learning Center and the Oral Communications Lab, the proportion who used the center who said they received the help they sought there increased or stayed the same from 2010, while the Math Lab and Writing Center showed small decreases. (See Table 5Table 6)
New to the 2012 iteration, students were asked similar questions about UW’s difference resource centers, including the Multicultural Resource Center, the Veterans Services Center, the International Resource Center, and the Non-Traditional Student Center. The Multicultural Resource Center showed the highest awareness among students with 41% saying they were aware of the center, while 33% are aware of the International Resource Center, 32% of the Non-Traditional Student Center, and finally 27% of students are aware of the Veterans Services Center. While usage of all centers ranged from only 10-20% of students, a large majority (80-90%) of all those who had utilized the resource centers reported that they did indeed receive the help they sought there. (See Table 7Table 8)
Nearly 60% of responding students indicate that they provided volunteer service at least once during the semester, a slight increase from 58% in 2010. There was an increase of just over 6% in the number or students who report that they volunteer on campus, with 30% saying so in 2010 compared to 36% in 2012. Similarly, there was a 5% increase and 2% increase in the number or students who report they volunteered within the Laramie community and outside of the Laramie community, respectively (see Table 9Figure 3). When asked how many hours, on average, students work each time they volunteer, the percentage distribution remains largely unchanged from 2010. (See Table 10)
Figure 3.Volunteering during semester.
Similar to results in 2010, freshman students in 2012 worked significantly fewer hours per week during the school year than other class standings. When examining those who did not work at all (zero hours per week), we find that just over 64% of freshman did not work at all, compared to 40% of non-freshman students. When considering students of all class standings, hours worked per week remained largely unchanged from 2010. (See Table 11Figure 4)
Figure 4.Students working zero hours per week during the semester.
A slightly fewer number of students report that they strongly prefer to get a job in Wyoming upon completion of their education, with 26.3% saying so in 2012 compared to 28.6% in 2010. At the same time, there were slight increases in the number of strongly prefer to work in Colorado, a nearby state, in another part of the country, or in another country (+0.1 to +2.2 percentage point increases). Alternatively, there was a slight increase in the number of students that somewhat prefer to get a job for all options, while the number of students that somewhat prefer to get a job in Wyoming increased nearly 6 percentage points from 2010 from 28% in 2010 to 34.2% in 2012. When considering the number of students who strongly prefer or somewhat prefer to get a job in Wyoming after they complete their education, we see a leveling of the positive trend observed since 2002. In 2012, 45.5% of students say that they strongly or somewhat prefer to get a job in Wyoming, compared to 45.4% in 2010. Overall, it appears students are less likely to have a strong preference to work in Wyoming after graduation but are more likely to consider employment in Wyoming and other areas. (See Table 38, Figure 5Figure 6).
Figure 5.Preference of job location..
Figure 6.Percentage of students who prefer to get a job in Wyoming, change over time.
As in 2010 and previous iterations of the UW Student Opinion Survey, students in 2012 were asked an array of questions regarding the general climate for diversity at the University of Wyoming. A large majority of students on 2012 feel that the climate at UW is very close to friendly or closer to friendly (83.4%), down from 88.6% in 2010 and 89.2% in 2008. (See Figure 7Table 12)
Figure 7.Climate for Diversity - Friendly to Hostile.
While slightly more students feel that the social climate at UW in 2012 to be very close to non-racist (25.7%) than was the case in 2010 and 2008 (23.2% and 21.3%, respectively), when comparing all those feel the climate to be both very close to non-racist or closer to non-racist we see only a total of 56.5% of students feel this way, compared to 63.7% in 2010. (See Table 12Figure 8)
Figure 8.Climate for Diversity - Non-racist to Racist.
Continuing the trend observed since 2006, fewer students feel the social climate at UW to be very close to homophobic or closer to homophobic, with 23% saying so in 2012, compared to 26% in 2010, 29 % in 2008, and 36% in 2006. Overall, the shift towards very close to non-homophobic among students at the University of Wyoming continues. (See Table 12Figure 9)
Figure 9.Climate for Diversity - Homophobic to Non-homophobic.
More people in 2012 (2.7%) feel that the social climate at UW is very close to sexist, than was the case in previous years. In 2010, 0.6% of students felt this way about the social climate. Additionally, 10.5% of students in 2012 felt the climate was closer to sexist, compared to 8.2% in 2010. When collapsing closer to sexist and very close to sexist, we see that the percentage of those who respond that way has increased from 8.8% in 2010 in 2010 to 13.2% in 2012. (See Table 12Figure 10)