factors by college | items by college
Every two years since 2001, DePaul University has administered the ACT Survey on Academic Advising. This survey is designed to assess students’ perceptions of their advising experiences in terms of needs and satisfaction with the process. This particular report will address the advising needs of full-time undergraduates, identifying those areas where students believe DePaul is adequately serving their needs and those areas where DePaul falls short, both university-wide and within each college/school[1]. In so doing, data from the 2003, 2005 and 2007 surveys will be included in these analyses. The table below provides the counts by college, along with the representation of the colleges among the survey respondents and within the population as a whole. This table demonstrates that, at least by college, the survey sample closely mirrors the population as a whole.
| 2003 | 2005 | 2007 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| count | % sample | % population | count | % sample | % population | count | % sample | % population | |
| Commerce | 480 | 27.8% | 30.9% | 659 | 31.7% | 32.0% | 322 | 31.6% | 33.5% |
| CTI | 233 | 13.5% | 12.7% | 162 | 7.8% | 7.5% | 80 | 7.9% | 7.4% |
| Education | 190 | 11.0% | 7.9% | 181 | 8.7% | 8.0% | 69 | 6.8% | 6.3% |
| LA&S | 732 | 42.4% | 41.6% | 955 | 46.0% | 46.1% | 492 | 48.3% | 47.1% |
| Music | 29 | 1.7% | 2.3% | 38 | 1.8% | 2.3% | 24 | 2.4% | 2.2% |
| SNL | 11 | 0.6% | 1.9% | 39 | 1.9% | 1.4% | 17 | 1.7% | 1.1% |
| Theatre | 53 | 3.1% | 2.7% | 43 | 2.1% | 2.7% | 15 | 1.5% | 2.4% |
| * Note: These are FT undergraduates only. Barat students were removed from the 2003 and 2005 sample and population counts | |||||||||
This report focuses exclusively on Section 3 [2] of the advising survey, which asks students to respond to a set of advising topics, asking if
1). they spoke to an advisor about the topic, and, if so,
2). their level of satisfaction with the assistance they received.
Through these items, we can assess the level of need felt by the students and the degree to which they felt that need was satisfied by their advisors.
First, students were asked, for each need, to indicate if they:
Have discussed Have not discussed, but should have Have not discussed and do not need to.
Next, students were asked to rate their level of satisfaction with the assistance received for each need on a five-point scale from highly satisfied to highly dissatisfied, provided that they indicated having discussed the issue with an advisor. In the following figures, we have identified need and degree of need met satisfactorily using the following methodology:
% TOTAL NEED = (a + b) / Total N – the number of students who perceived a need, whether or not they went to get help, divided by the total number of students surveyed, stated as a percentage.
% ADDRESSED NEED = a / (a + b) – the number of students who discussed the issue with their advisor divided by the number of students who perceived a need, stated as a percentage.
% SATISFACTORY EXPERIENCE= (highly satisfied + satisfied) / a – the number of students who indicated being “satisfied” or “highly satisfied” with the assistance received divided by the number of students who addressed the need.
% SATISFIED NEED= (highly satisfied + satisfied) / (a + b) – the number of students who indicated being “satisfied” or “highly satisfied” with the assistance received divided by the number of students who perceived a need, stated as a percentage.
Rather than just list the items in the order in which they appeared on the survey, the “need” assessment aspect of each was subjected to a factor analysis that grouped the items into four categories. Overall percentages were computed for each factor. Rather than graph each item, the factors were used in the following figures (tables with the percentages for each item are available). The items that fell into each category are listed below.
Scheduling and registration procedures
Dropping and adding courses
Meeting requirements for graduation, student teaching, certification, etc
My academic progress
Obtaining course credit through nontraditional means
Selecting and changing my major area of study
Matching my learning style to particular courses, sections, or instructors
Clarifying my life and career goals
Identifying career areas that fit my current skills, abilities, and interests
Obtaining financial aid
Obtaining employment on campus
Finding a job after college, i.e., job placement
Continuing my education after graduation
Improving my study skills and habits
Obtaining remedial and tutorial assistance
Coping with academic difficulties
Withdrawing or transferring from this institution
Dealing with personal problems
The chart below shows the four metrics considered (% total need, % addressed need, % satisfactory experience, and % need satisfied) for the four need types, collapsed across college (FT undergraduates, only).
As expected, students’ academic concerns are the most prevalent needs as Course Management and Academic-Goal Setting needs have the highest level of total and addressed need. Across all four need types, though, the levels of total need have increased from 2003 to 2007. It would appear that students are more likely to go to advisors about their concerns, as evidenced by the rather dramatic increase in level of addressed need from 2003 to 2005 and 2007. Approximately two-thirds of students who do see an advisor leave satisfied with the experience, regardless of the type of need. We also see increased levels of satisfied needs, though across the board, the level of need satisfied is lower than the levels of total of addressed need. This is to be expected, though, as the % need satisfied includes those students who indicated having a need, regardless of whether or not the need was addressed by going to an advisor (i.e., not having a need addressed is akin to not having the need satisfactorily addressed). The next pages look at differences in the four metrics across college for each need type.
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It would appear that the highest levels of course management needs are in the college of commerce and the school of education. A lower level of need is seen in Theatre. Students in Education, Commerce, Music and SNL who perceived a need were more likely to go seek help than students in the other colleges. LAS and Theatre had lower levels of course management needs being addressed. Though Commerce students were more likely to perceive course management needs and more like to have them addressed, they were less likely to feel that the need was satisfactorily met. SNL students, by and large, were more likely to be satisfied with how needs were addressed. (Note, SNL was excluded from the Overall numbers)
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SNL, Commerce and LAS students were more likely to report having academic goal-setting needs (e.g., choosing a major, clarifying career goals). Students in Education, Music, and Theatre, where majors and requirements tend to be more cohort-based, reported lower levels of need. Where there was a need, students in SNL, Music and Theatre were more likely to seek out assistance to address the need. Commerce and Education students were less like to address any perceived needs. For students in SNL who perceived the need, a much higher percentage of those needs were satisfactorily addressed than such the needs of students in other colleges. Less than one-quarter of Commerce and Education students’ needs were satisfactorily addressed according to students in those colleges.
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The level of perceived need of this type is fairly equal across colleges. It could be, though, a full-time student type of need more than a part-time student need as the level of total need is much lower among SNL students. Although SNL students perceived lower level of needs, they were more likely to address the needs than were students in the other colleges. Only about one-quarter of the needs of Education students were talked about with advisors. A higher percentage of the economic needs of SNL students were satisfactorily addressed than those of students in other colleges. Music and Theatre also outperformed the other colleges. Less than 20% of the needs of students in the other four colleges were addressed at a level those students perceived as satisfactory
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Compared to the other need categories, needs of this type were less prevalent across the colleges, with only about one-quarter to one-third of students saying they had a need that fell into this category. Even with the lower levels of perceived need, students in Music, SNL and Theatre were much more likely to have those needs addressed than students in the other colleges. Only about one-third of needs in this category were addressed by students in Commerce, CTI, Education and LAS (compared to over half in the other colleges). Given that students in SNL, Music and Theatre were more likely to have their needs addressed, it’s not surprising that a considerably higher percentage of needs in these colleges were satisfactorily resolved.
This report focused on the Advising Needs section of the ACT Survey of Academic Advising. The analyses found that:
In VISION Twenty12, DePaul outlines a commitment to improving student advising as one way on enriching the academic quality of the institution. These findings have important implications for any institution that is firmly committed to improving their advising processes. Not only does the creation of a campus environment that supports optimal student learning and development serve to mitigate some of the pre-college risk factors that they bring to college, but once in college, some students encounter other challenges that negatively affect their academic success, such as lower levels of academic and social integration and less positive out-of-class experiences. With students’ academic success as a goal, institutional advising policies and practices must ensure that students’ needs are addressed to guarantee their success at the institution.
[1] Note that SNL was removed from the university-wide analyses as only
full-time undergraduates were considered for the overall analyses. However, an analysis of responses of SNL students is included among
the data tables.
[2]Section 1 includes student demographic information; Section 2,
background information on advisors; Section 4, impressions of advisors;
Section 5, additional advising information. There is also a set of
university-specific items asked.