Open-Ended Comments

 

In spring 2004, five open-ended questions were asked of seniors; their responses to these questions were organized according to department and have been delivered to department chairs. Here are examples of things seniors said about their major program:

 

·         The “one best thing” about my major program is …

 

Anthropology major: The professors -- they are motivated, inspirational, and passionate!

 

Architecture and Planning major:  It [the college] is very small and specialized, allowing you to enjoy the amenities of a big university within a small college.    

 

Environment and Population Biology major:  The classes are exciting and the labs are a great teaching tool, a hands-on experience helps many learn more than they would in just a lecture setting.

 

Computer Science major: The faculty is outstanding. I’ve never had a Computer Science course that I didn’t enjoy and I believe the professors have a lot to do with that.

 

·         The ways in which my program “met” my educational goals …

 

Accounting major: The Leeds School of Business has given me 100% of the experience, confidence, and knowledge to dominate in the current work world. I hope this school continues to be the great institution it is today.

 

International Affairs major: My educational goal was to obtain a broad knowledge of politics, economics and history. International affairs produced the means to obtain those goals. It also offered me a good opportunity to study abroad and expand my foreign language ability.

 

Environmental Studies: I wouldn’t change anything about the program, but I would have taken more time to graduate so I could take more classes.

 

 

Of the five open-ended questions, three of which specifically pertain to aspects of a student’s major program. The other two questions do not specifically address the major program, but in answering them, many of the seniors mentioned something about their program. Therefore we grouped the responses to all five of these questions together for each respondent and printed them in order of major program, questionnaire ID, and questionnaire item, so that department chairs could review all comments from their seniors in one convenient document.

 

Here is an example:

 

AS-ANTH

 

             913970  1:GOALS-DEF   I was able to focus on biological

                     anthropology rather than having to take all cultural

                     anthropology.

 

                     2:WMAJ  It would be nice if there were more biological

                     anthropology courses offered rather than the plethora of

                     cultural classes.  Perhaps it would be nice if students

                     could have an emphasis in one or the other.  Also,

                     linguistic anth is poorly represented.

 

                     3:BMAJ  It teaches good ethical skills for life in general, not just for the field itself.

 

                     4:DODIFF  I would have perhaps chosen a second major

 

                     5:DEARCJ-4YRS   F  My major was easy to complete within

                     that time and it is the only major I chose.  Further, it

                     helps that I did not transfer here from another school and

                     I had all my maps requirements out of the way before I came

                     here, particularly foreign language.

 

 

Departmental comments can be obtained in electronic, rather than paper form, by emailing: IR@colorado.edu. These can be provided in the same format as the paper copy or alternatively, departments may request a listing of all their comments, grouped by questionnaire item instead of by survey respondent (questionnaire ID).

 

The KEY below shows how to interpret the five abbreviated questionnaire items that appear in the printed copy of departments’ open-ended comments

 

Item Codes – possible

values                              

2004 Senior Survey Questionnaire Items (verbatim)

Closed Item responses

-- first part of two-part items

 

1:GOALS-DEF

  GOALS-SOME

  GOALS-NO

  GOALS-xxxx

 

Please explain in what ways your program did, or did not, meet your educational goals.

 

 

Overall, did your program of study at CU-Boulder meet your educational goals?

 

DEF = Yes, definitely

SOME = Yes, somewhat

NO = Not at all

xxxx = missing response

 

2:WMAJ    

 

 

If you could CHANGE ONE THING about your major program, what would it be?

 

 

3:BMAJ

 

What is the ONE BEST THING about your major program?

 

 

4:DODIFF 

 

 

If you were starting over at CU-Boulder, what thing(s) would you do differently? (Check all that apply) --  option: OTHER (Please describe below)

*Note: only those who checked “other” to the closed item wrote something – thus this item is missing from the listing of comments for most respondents.

 

5:DEARCJ-GT4YRS  F

  DEARCJ-GT4YRS  T

 

 DEARCJ-4YRS     F

 DEARCJ-4YRS     T

 

Dear CJ: I know that some of our high school classmates will graduate from college in four years, and some will take longer. I'm going to take

      {See response choices in next column} →→

 

BOX {where students typed in their comments}:

(Write your letter here.)

Either of two options (shown below) was marked, and then the letter was written in a box below that.

 

4YRS = * FOUR years because…

GT4YRS= * LONGER than four years because…

 

TYPE OF RESPONDENT—Demographic code used to designate whether the respondent was a freshman or transfer student at entry:

F = Freshman at entry

T = Transfer student at entry

 

 

Summary of Findings

 

Table 1 shows the number of students within each major program who answered each of the five questions. Three-fourths of the total respondents to the Senior Survey answered both of the last two items on the questionnaire ("Worst of major" and "Best of Major"). Two-thirds of all senior survey respondents answered the question about how their program "met their educational goals" and 86% of the respondents chose to answer the "Dear CJ (letter to a high school friend)" item, about their expected time to graduation.

 

The types of themes (e.g., "faculty are great") mentioned by seniors who commented on the best and worst aspects of their major program are almost identical to those that were mentioned in response to the question about how the student’s program met his or her educational goals. The themes mentioned by seniors in response to these first two items have been quite consistent from year to year. Thus, beginning in 2001, we decided to forego a detailed analysis of themes, and instead, have delivered each department’s 2001 and 2004 Senior survey comments directly to them for their own use and interpretation. 

 

In the next section below, we also discuss each of the open-ended questions in turn, and illustrate the most salient, general themes mentioned by respondents, as well as provide example comments for each question.

 

The Dear CJ open-ended item, however, was asked on the 2004 Senior survey, but not asked in 2001. We had last asked this question on the 1998 Senior survey and had brought it back because we were particularly interested in collecting qualitative data that provided us with a larger picture of students’ intentions and experiences regarding their expected time to graduation. The data from this open-ended item were categorized into the same themes as in 1998 and much preliminary analysis was done in comparing findings from the two survey years.  However this was never quite finished. A hard copy of all open-ended comments, coding, and analysis for this item is available in PBA's library.

 

Best and Worst of Major Comments

 

The frequency with which students mention certain themes often varies by department. For instance, a large portion of the Fine Arts students mentioned the need for better facilities for their program; whereas a large number of the Architecture and Planning students mentioned the need for more hands-on experience in their major program courses.

 

 

Consistent with previous senior surveys, seniors’ comments pertaining to the one best thing about their major program could be grouped into four broad themes.

  • Faculty: instruction and interaction with faculty
  • Courses: the curriculum is easy to navigate, good variety and availability of courses
  • Academics: excellent learning experience or great academic reputation of a specific program
  • Hands-on: practical experiences--e.g., internships, studying abroad, research experience, oral presentations

 

 

Example comments -- Best of Major (displayed with student’s major program code and theme(s) mentioned)

 

HIST-Faculty:  The professors are amazing!

 

SPAN-Faculty:  The professors are overall very good and are passionate about what they teach. That made it helpful and much easier to care about a class and give time to it when the professors were passionate and challenging.

 

THDN-Courses:  Small classes, lots of experiences, small teacher to student ratio.

 

EPOB-Courses-Academics-Faculty:  I had EPOB 2050, 2060, 2070, and 2080 through the Baker Residential Academic Program.  It changed my life. Offering lower division intro courses in a small setting with great professors and staff made me love biology even more, and gave me an extremely solid foundation of the basics.

 

ACCT-Academics:  The option to participate in the concurrent degree program is awesome!  It also helps to boost the reputation of the business school.

 

ENVS-Hands-on-Faculty:  I had a wonderful experience on a study abroad program and was able to work this into my major requirements. Kirsten Pack, my advisor, rocks!

 

GEOG-Hands-on:  The amount of research and internship opportunities is by far the best thing in my major.

 

 

As in past surveys, seniors mentioned the following salient themes as aspects of their major program that they would like to see improved.

  • Courses: the structure of the Arts and Sciences core or major program core requirements, the variety of courses and availability of courses offered, and other aspects of courses
  • Hands-on: the need for more hands-on, practical experiences in the major program
  • Advising: more and better advising and assistance in selecting courses/meeting degree requirements
  • Faculty: better interactions with faculty or better instruction from faculty
  • Resources: better resources (e.g., labs, facilities) for their program
  • Major program: improvements in the structure or operation of their particular major department

 

Example comments -- Worst of Major (displayed with student’s major program code and theme(s) mentioned)

 

ENGL-Advising-Courses: Better advising and availability of required classes

 

GRMN -Courses:  More upper division classes offered; perhaps a German Pop Culture class.

 

ARCH-Courses-Hands-on:  I would like it if there was more emphasis on drafting/drawing and also more practical analysis of what would be realistic design for this current day and age.

 

EALC-Advising:  Better advising, I had many miscommunications with my advisor during my time here that resulted in many problems that we had to fix.

 

HIST-Faculty:  The terrible teachers who do not care about students. And the complete and utter lack of representation for male views along with lack of acceptance of them.

 

FILM-Resources:  The film studies program is in desperate need of money for equipment, a building to call our own, and more qualified faculty.  Funding, funding!  Aren't we one of the largest majors on campus?

 

 

Comments on How Program Met Educational Goals

 

Similar themes to those discussed above were mentioned by respondents who answered the item about how their program “met their educational goals.” Seniors used this question to provide detailed feedback about specific aspects and opportunities of their major program experience that were especially beneficial or lacking.

 

Seniors were first asked to rate how they thought their program met their educational goals: “definitely,” “somewhat” or “not at all.” Comments were then grouped and listed within these categories. Those that said their program “definitely” met their goals were slightly more likely to mention themes similar to the comments about the “best thing” of the major program. Those that said their program “somewhat” met their educational goals were more likely to mention areas that needed improvement in their major program. However, the themes mentioned were not always consistent with the rating the student gave. Thus, there were some seniors who said their program “definitely” met their educational goals, but who commented on something completely negative about their educational experience.

 

Tables 2 and 3 below show the overall responses of seniors to the closed-ended item and the number of seniors who wrote an accompanying comment, given the rating they gave.  Example comments for each category of response are shown below the tables.

 

Item: Overall, did program of study meet your educational goals?

 

Table 2

 

All respondents to the closed-ended item

 

      N

  Percent*

Not at all

58

4%

Yes, somewhat

825

65%

Yes, definitely

429

31%

TOTAL

1312

100%

 

 

Table 3

  

Only those who wrote a comment for the open-ended item

 

      N

  Percent*

No response to above item

   20

2%

Not at all

   53

5%

Yes, somewhat

  639

67%

Yes, definitely

  289

27%

TOTAL

  1001

100%

 

 

*Note: Percentages in Tables 2 and 3 are weighted to adjust statistically for different sampling fractions and response rates over programs.

 

Example comments -- Met Goals - Definitely:

 

ARCH:  Interacting with professional architects and for them to critique our work with a professional view. The program taught me on how to really investigate and solve problems independently from the instructors.

 

CLHM:  I wanted to receive a well-rounded education that covered a broad range of topics, while also providing a basic foundation in the liberal arts. The Humanities program has equipped me with this.

 

PHIL:  I think the philosophy program help prepare me for law school.

 

AAAH:  The fine arts program was so under-funded that the facilities often stood in the way of academics. Graduate students teach almost all of the classes, and even though they're excellent, they aren't professors.  It has dissuaded me from going to graduate school any time in the near future. However, the professors that I did have were amazing, and I learned more than I could have imagined.

 

MCEN:  I would have liked more hands-on learning, and also more emphasis on practical application rather than pure theory.

 

 

Example comments -- Met Goals - Somewhat:

 

COMM:  It provided a good breadth of theorists to study from and a lot of real life examples, but sometimes the material was just too common sense.

 

ENGL:  The creative writing program is sufficient but variety is minimal and could definitely be expanded to encompass more than just poetry and fiction.

 

SPAN:  I am a Spanish major and I wanted to graduate and to be fluent in Spanish and I do not believe I have achieve my goal. I wish I would of had more speaking opportunities.

 

CHEM:  I would have liked some more emphasis on careers and post-college opportunities.  I think a mandatory internship or something like it, or more incentives to do such, are very much needed

 

MCDB:  The level of competition was too high, made it hard to focus on learning, because I had to focus on grades too much. The attitudes of some faculty about medical education vs. scientific education created a bit of an unfriendly environment depending on which side of things one fell on.

 

MUSIC:  The flexibility of professors when it comes to allowing students to miss class for real-world experience is unacceptable.

 

 

Example comments -- Met Goals - Not at All:

 

HIST:  The advising that I revived was sporadic and initially: wrong. Any attempts I made with faculty members for guidance were met with distain and or dismissal.

 

MATH:  The programs were too easy.  I was able to drift through both majors with minimal effort while maintaining a near 4.0 gpa.  I had a few classes that lived up to my expectations of college classes, but most seemed like high school courses.

 

ANTH:  In the Anthropology department, there were few, if any, real world/experiential learning opportunities in the realm of cultural anthropology (plenty for archaeology in Four Corners... but alas, that was not my interest). In order to obtain such experiences, I turned to the INVST program, and Fine Arts.

 

ECEN:  Course Cancellations, Huge Classes, Bias of instructors and TA's made my undergraduate years at CU very unsatisfactory.