Survey shows rate of student satisfaction
OCCC students are satisfied with a number of services offered to them while other areas within the college need improvement.
That was determined by a recent student opinion survey administered by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness.
The survey measures student satisfaction for 19 college services. Among them are academic advising and food service. The survey also measures 43 college environmental factors such as class size and course availability, according to the report.
“The survey is used to gather information about student satisfaction,” said Marion Paden, vice president for Enrollment and Student Services. “Based on the level of student satisfaction for those areas that are within student services, which the majority of them are, then we design strategies to improve the level of student satisfaction.”
The survey shows overall student satisfaction with OCCC as being 85.8 percent, which is higher than the national norm of 81.9 percent, according to the Sept. 18 Board of Regents agenda.
Areas that rated significantly higher than the national norm include, but are not limited to, the college bookstore, the student union, class size, the library, and the student media, according to the report.
From 2004 to 2006, student satisfaction improved or remained the same in about 80 percent (49 of the 62) of the service and environmental areas measured such as academic advising, parking facilities and career planning services, according to the report.
However, despite improvement in those areas over the past two years, student satisfaction remained significantly lower than the national norm in four other areas — student employment services, billing and fee payment procedures, financial aid services and availability of financial aid information before enrolling, according to the 2006 Student Satisfaction Report.
While higher increased satisfaction was indicated within the college, these areas still failed to meet the national norm.
The Spring ’06 survey results list student satisfaction with billing and fee payment procedures as having increased substantially from 3.69 in Spring ’04 to 3.80. However, the figure is lower than the national norm of 3.81.
“We are always looking for ways to make paying easier for students and we hope to add the ability to pay online using a checking account,” said Bursar Brandi Henson in an e-mail. “Ultimately, we would also like to be able to do away with the paper billing and go to an entirely online billing system.”
Financial aid services and available financial aid information prior to enrolling also were two areas that rated lower than the national norm.
Financial aid services increased in student satisfaction with a rating of 3.65 as opposed to a rating of 3.53 in Spring ’04. The Spring ’06 rating was significantly lower than the national norm of 3.86.
The availability of financial aid information prior to enrolling experienced a slight drop in student satisfaction with a rating of 3.60 when compared to the national norm of 3.63.
The last area that experienced a significantly lower rating was the student employment services area.
Student employment services rated a 3.42, which was lower than the Spring ’04 rating of 3.52 as well as being lower than the national norm of 3.80.
Appropriate personnel have been notified of the results in these areas, and factors concerning the lower ratings are being addressed as part of the annual planning process, according to the Sept. 18 Board of Regents agenda.
Since 1996, OCCC has administered the ACT Two-Year College Student Opinion Survey to a sample of the college’s on-campus credit students during even number spring semesters, according to the report.
There were 1,002 usable forms, which represented roughly 8 percent of the student population, according to the 2006 Student Satisfaction Report.
The March 2006 survey was administered to students by 75 instructors based on meeting time and class type, including developmental, technical-occupational and university parallel classes.
This method was implemented to obtain a random sample of students of varying ages, gender, ethnicity, and full/part-time status.
The relatively small percentage of the student population surveyed as well as student demographics raises the question of the reliability of the survey.
“The most important part is that you get a truly random sample and that it’s representative of your group,” said Joyce Morgan-Dees, Institutional Effectiveness research support analyst.
Paden said she expects the numbers to get higher.
“That’s why I’m involved in [the survey], because we want students to be at least as satisfied as their peers at other two-year colleges, but, of course, we’d like to be significantly higher than the norm in student satisfaction.
“We’re always looking at areas where we can improve student satisfaction.”
Editor David Miller can be reached at editor@occc.edu.
