What if my campus does not want to do all content area student studies?
Consortium members are not required to do all student studies. Colleges that participate in select student studies will still receive the operational/trend data, plus the summary report for each content area.
What is the modified Small College Consortium?
Small colleges pay a reduced price, but still receive complete student, operational, and trend data for all content areas, access to benchmarking data, as well as a written summary report specifically for small colleges.
Can StudentVoice pull student samples for the Consortium surveys?
StudentVoice is available to assist campuses with sampling issues. If possible, please provide an email file that includes the entire undergraduate population of students (both full- and part-time). Assessment consultants at StudentVoice can then create appropriate and representative random samples from the list of emails for each of the Consortium studies for which your campus participates.
What kind of response rate can my campus expect?
The typical response rate for most online StudentVoice surveys is between 15 and 25%. Response rates can be increased in some instances by offering incentives, sending out pre-survey emails advising students when to expect the online survey, and sending several targeted reminders to non-respondents.
What sample size is recommended for each of the student Consortium surveys?
We understand that your campus may have concerns about over-assessing. We will work closely with you to create a survey schedule and sampling plan that will work best based on any other national assessments in which you are participating. In most instances and when appropriate based on undergraduate enrollment size, we will recommend a minimum sample size for each student survey of 2500 students. This recommendation is based on several sampling considerations and the typical response rate to StudentVoice online surveys.
Why is a sample size of 2500 students recommended for each of the Consortium student surveys?
Given the sampling considerations, the number of responses needed to have between 4 and 5% error and a 95% confidence interval is approximately 400-600 for an infinite size population. Given the typical response rate of between 15%-25%, your campus will need to survey 2500 students to obtain 500 completed responses. Larger sample sizes are highly recommended – especially for larger campuses and in the instances where no other national assessments are taking place.
Are Consortium student surveys designed for undergraduate students only?
Yes, the Consortium surveys are designed for full- and part-time undergraduate students only. If your campus would like to survey graduate students, any responses from graduate students will be excluded from benchmarking features and from the written reports.
Is student data collected through the Consortium secure?
StudentVoice is committed to maintaining the highest standards in data security. To protect information used in internet transactions (i.e., online surveys, data reports) StudentVoice uses the following security techniques and procedures: Secure login access (username and password) is required to access all data reports; information is exchanged via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) that uses 128-bit encryption; information requests must pass through multiple hardware and software security firewalls; StudentVoice’s data center is monitored 24/7 and access is restricted to authorized parties with validated key cards; data is backed up every hour internally; and data is backed up every night to a centralized backup system, with offsite backups in the event of catastrophe.
When can we begin the student data collections?
You can begin collecting the student survey data immediately upon institutional approval.
Do I need to go through an institutional review board process (IRB)?
Due to the fact that your student data will become part of an aggregate Consortium dataset (your college or university data will not be identified), institutional approval will likely be necessary. If your campus does not have an institutional review board, a letter from a senior administrator will be accepted as approval to participate. This letter should acknowledge that your campus agrees to have its data included in the aggregate data, which may be used for presentations and publications.
What kinds of data will be collected through the operational and trends surveys?
Operational and trend data will include data on staffing patterns, budgets, programming, policies and general trends for that content area.
My campus is already a StudentVoice Member Campus, why should we participate in the Consortium?
Participating in the Consortium will give you access to comprehensive operational/trend datasets for each of the content areas, as well as written summary reports for each of the content areas.