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Giving Students a Voice Whatever
the strengths of our graduate program, students needed a mechanism for
providing feedback and faculty needed a way to learn the students'
point of view.
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An Extra Benefit This
effort acknowledges the students, and not just those who are part of
the CID team, as professional members of the department. Ultimately,
the goal is to give our students the best possible graduate education
experience. The simple step of asking students their opinion, and
acting on their suggestions, helps this goal.
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Student-Run Qualitative Assessment The student organizers used two methods to gather data: a questionnaire with specific but open-ended questionsa student meetingQuestions and discussion were constructive, focusing on strengths of the program and ways things could be improved.
Student Questionnaire
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Qualitative vs. Quantitative We chose to use a qualitative questionnaire, rather than a quantitative survey, for several reasons: We did not know which issues would prove most important to the students.We wanted answers to open-ended questions, which cannot readily be answered in multiple-choice format.The graduate student body is relatively small, making statistics from a quantitative study less meaningful.We cared about minority as well as majority opinions.We wanted students to feel empowered by providing their opinions.
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The Product: Student Report on the Graduate Program From
the information gathered in the assessment, the student organizers
created a written report that could be shared with the faculty,
describing student views and suggestions for improvements. This
professionally written document, containing constructive and specific
concerns and ideas, provided a basis for continued deliberations on how
to improve the program. The report was critical to getting the faculty
to act.
Student Report
Table of Contents for the student-written program assessment.
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Shared Governance The
Graduate Program Assessment provided students with an opportunity to
have a direct impact on our program. It served as the basis for
in-depth discussions between students and faculty, leading to both
minor and significant improvements. To continue this process, we
reinstated a past practice, including two student members on the
department's Graduate Affairs Committee. In addition to this mechanism
for ongoing representation, we are now planning the first update to our
Graduate Program Assessment.
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