Julie Bryant, Associate Vice President for Retention Solutions, RNL, Author at Ruffalo Noel Levitz Blog: Higher Education Enrollment, Student Retention, and Student Success

Nontraditional Student Satisfaction: What You Need to Know

November 29, 2018 by Julie Bryant, Associate Vice President for Retention Solutions, RNL 1 Comment

Nontraditional students are becoming the new tradition for colleges and universities. One in three students are enrolled in at least one online course, and online enrollments have increased by 3.4 percent while on-ground enrollments have declined 1.2 percent (according to the NCES Digest of Education statistics). Nearly two-thirds of part-time students at four-year privates and half of part-time students at publics are 25 and older, while 11-15% of full-time students are adult learners at these institutions. In addition, “Fast Facts” from the NCES show that 37 million students in the United States have some college but no degree—a large pool of potential adult learners who may come back to college, many through online learning.

With an increasing number of nontraditional students coming to college, what do we know about this population? Ruffalo Noel Levitz has been surveying adult, graduate, and online learners for years with our satisfaction-priorities surveys. Here are key things every institution needs to know about nontraditional student satisfaction.

Nontraditional students are very satisfied

Nontraditional students—adult undergraduates, graduate students, and online learners—have generally higher satisfaction levels than their traditional student counterparts. The 2018 National Student Satisfaction and Priorities Report reflects the following summary satisfaction scores:

The three nontraditional student satisfaction data sets reflect higher summary satisfaction scores than the four-year private, four-year public, and community college data sets (which are dominated by students 25 years of age and younger).

I often say that if nontraditional students aren’t satisfied, they likely aren’t enrolled at your institution because they don’t have time for less than a high quality experience. These students are often choosing to pursue higher education while balancing other life commitments of work, family, volunteer activities, etc., so they are going to have high expectations if they are enrolled at your institution as well. I have also heard it said that adult learners may not immediately identify as “students” when asked to describe themselves (“I am an assistant at XYZ Corporation; I am a parent; and I am also taking classes at ABC College.”) so when the pressure of life closes in, enrollment at the college may be the first thing that gets dropped.

Older and more satisfied

This year’s National Report takes a closer look at demographic subpopulations to identify where student groups are more or less satisfied with their experience. With this approach, we can see that a big influencer on overall nontraditional student satisfaction is the age of the student, with older students indicating higher levels of satisfaction in each data segment.

Student satisfaction by age

What are the age ranges for your nontraditional students? Do you have students on the lower end of the age range (25-34) who may be generally satisfied, but who may still be at risk for leaving the institution if you are not scheduling classes at convenient times, making it easy for them to get access to the support services they need and encouraging your faculty to be understanding of their life circumstances?

When gathering student satisfaction data, it is important to assess your nontraditional populations as well as your traditional students, and then look at the data by demographic segments to target your actions. While your enrolled nontraditional students are more likely to be generally satisfied with their experience, there will still be areas where you can make additional improvements which will help you to attract additional students to your programs.

Satisfaction levels for other demographic populations

In addition to examining student satisfaction by age indicators, this year’s report also slices the national data for nontraditional populations by:

Institutional Choice
Race/Ethnicity
Gender
Employment
Class Load

The data is reviewed separately for adult undergraduates, graduate students and online learners (as well as traditional students at four-year privates, four-year publics and community colleges). Institutional choice in particular has a powerful link with overall student satisfaction for students at all levels and all institution types.

Understanding which populations have higher and lower satisfaction overall, can point campuses in a direction to more deeply explore unique experiences with campus climate, instruction, registration, financial aid and other campus services for potential improvements. (See my previous post for more detailed discussion about examining these different populations.)

I encourage you to download this year’s 2018 National Student Satisfaction and Priorities Report and to consider how you can work on your campus to improve satisfaction for your nontraditional student populations. If you are not currently surveying student satisfaction on your campus, you may want to add this assessment to your activities to provide the student voice to your student success efforts. RNL offers a full suite of satisfaction-assessment instruments for traditional and nontraditional students, used by campuses of every size, type and mission. I encourage you to learn more about how student satisfaction can offer tremendous benefits to your campus.

National Student Satisfaction Assessment: Understanding the Perceptions by Demographic Variables

October 15, 2018 by Julie Bryant, Associate Vice President for Retention Solutions, RNL Leave a Comment

Did you know the satisfaction levels of your different subpopulations on campus can vary? Not all students are as satisfied as others.

For years, in working with individual campuses to help them understand their student satisfaction assessment results, I have observed differing satisfaction scores for student subpopulations on a campus-by-campus basis. For example, when I see more females in a data set, I know the satisfaction levels are more likely to be higher.

I have shared these observations with campuses anecdotally to guide them in their review of their results, their understanding of the comparison with the national data, and in helping them to think about intentional activities to improve satisfaction in key populations.

I am excited to share that this year, the 2018 National Student Satisfaction and Priorities Report looks at the national satisfaction levels for key subpopulations to provide insight into how various subpopulations may influence overall satisfaction levels. Understanding which students are less satisfied on the national level can help you target initiatives to similar student groups on your own campus, improving student satisfaction and ultimately student success for specific populations.

The power of institutional choice perceptions in student satisfaction assessment

We have consistently seen that students who say they are attending their first-choice institution have significantly higher levels of satisfaction. This is true across institution types serving traditional-age students:

What these charts reflect is that only one-third of students attending their third-choice institution identify themselves as being satisfied or very satisfied with their experience. The majority of these students indicate that they are dissatisfied.

[Read more…]

Highlights from the 2018 Ruffalo Noel Levitz National Conference

August 28, 2018 by Julie Bryant, Associate Vice President for Retention Solutions, RNL Leave a Comment

Nearly 1400 higher education professionals joined us in Orlando for the 2018 Ruffalo Noel Levitz National Conference to learn from each other about ways to improve the student and institutional experience. This year’s conference included tracks on the entire student lifecycle, from marketing and recruitment, to student success and graduation, to alumni engagement and fundraising. Our overview video that kicked off the conference spoke of some of those challenges:

Followed by a presentation from the president and CEO of RNL, Sumit Nijhawan.

In the more than 150 current sessions that followed, campus professionals and higher education experts dove into more detail about how to address these challenges. At a higher level, though, our four keynote speakers really set the tone for the conference by providing insights and inspiration for the attendees. Here are some highlights from their presentations.

Byron Pitts, award-winning journalist

Byron Pitts

Our opening keynote speaker Byron Pitts is the co-anchor of ABC’s Nightline and the author of the memoir Step Out on Nothing. He shared his amazing story of going from a “functionally illiterate” elementary school student to an award-winning television reporter who has traveled the world. In particular, he credits an English professor at Ohio Wesleyan University with not only changing his life, but with saving his life when she helped him during his difficult freshman year.

A few highlights from his opening keynote session:

Indifference can be a deadly weapon.
Consider where your heart is when you are speaking the truth because it makes a difference in how that truth is heard.
It is both a blessing and a burden to be the first in your family to go to college.
The children of privilege have a responsibility to the world to serve the children who aren’t born with the same privileges.
There are power in our words to change people’s lives.
When someone comes to you and asks, “What do you do, where do you go, when the world hurts too much?” you can say, “Come to me.”

Byron encouraged us to be willing to step out for someone we don’t know because it can make the difference not only for them staying in school, but a difference in the rest of their lives. [Read more…]

Student satisfaction data: Overcoming barriers and facilitating use

April 5, 2018 by Julie Bryant, Associate Vice President for Retention Solutions, RNL Leave a Comment

Ruffalo Noel Levitz recently hosted a webinar, Student Satisfaction Data: Overcoming Barriers and Facilitating Use. The webinar featured speakers from three institutions sharing their experiences:

Heather Chapman, Director of Academic Analytics at Weber State University (Utah)
Chris Confer, Assistant Provost and Dean of Students at Anderson University (Indiana)
Cammie Pollastro, Assessment Coordinator at Western Wyoming Community College.

If you missed this hour-long session, you can listen to the recording. I also want to share a few highlights from these presentations with you:

Why assess student satisfaction? Three reasons from campuses

Student satisfaction data: listen to the recording

Click here to listen to the webinar featuring these three campus presenters.

Heather Chapman indicated that Weber State administers the RNL Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) because it is a good fit for their demographic, they have found it relatively easy to convert the data into action, it is a comprehensive survey instrument, and the results are easy for faculty and staff to digest.

Chris Confer shared that they were looking for tools to help them with improving retention at Anderson University. They wanted data to support or refute anecdotal evidence, and also were looking for ways to understand and improve the value of the university in the face of rising tuition. They also appreciated that the SSI offers external national benchmark for comparison purposes.

Cammie Pollastro said that the decision to use the SSI was made several years ago by her predecessors at Western Wyoming Community College, but the current team has continued to use the instrument because it gives them an important perspective on their students’ perceptions, helps them to understand which campus services are most important, and identifies current satisfaction levels.

How do campuses share their college student satisfaction data?

Sharing the data widely on campus is an important step to be sure the campus at large is aware of the student perceptions. The three campuses provided examples of how they have shared the results on campus, including:

Presentations to the Student Affairs Division and the Academic Affairs Division
Working sessions with the Student Government Association to partner on initiatives
A chapel presentation dedicated to talking about the result and the subsequent improvements
Incorporating the data into a Measures Table which is used by the Building Student Connections team for evaluation and to inform the areas of concern for targeted action

What are some examples of initiatives and responses?

Taking action with the data to make improvements on campus is the key to improving student satisfaction. Typically campuses are looking for opportunities to change policies, procedures, or student perceptions in ways that may be easy to implement immediately as well as initiatives that may require additional time and resources. The three campus presenters above shared these activities that they have been able to implement:

Reducing campus run-around through campuswide initiatives to reduce the number of people a student must interact with to complete a task
Better lighting in the parking lots and cameras as residence hall entrances to improve safety and security
Campaign on campus to address the value proposition of the University to shift perceptions on tuition being worthwhile
Establishment of a Student Persistence and Success Academy to provide additional academic support to students
Improved course scheduling in response to concerns on the ability to register for classes with few conflicts

[Read more…]

Getting it done: Turning college student satisfaction data into action

February 20, 2018 by Julie Bryant, Associate Vice President for Retention Solutions, RNL Leave a Comment

How can you make greatest impact with your college student satisfaction data?

“What gets measured, gets done” is a famous quote attributed to Edwards Deming. I interpret this quote to mean if you are measuring something, you are in a better position to respond to that data to make improvements. It is a philosophy that I have shared with colleges and universities when making the case for conducting student satisfaction assessment.

However, I recognize that responding to college student satisfaction data to make improvements to the student experience—to actually “get it done”—can be challenging with the competing priorities on a college campus. Having guidelines and real-life examples can support efforts on individual campuses.

There are three key steps to follow after assessing student satisfaction on your campus:

1. Explore your college student satisfaction data more deeply

The results from the Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) identify top strengths and challenges for the institution, but what do the individual items really mean to your students? Exploring the data by looking at demographic subsets of the data can provide a clearer picture of where an item is more or less of an issue. Priority demographic groups include:

class level
full-time/part-time enrollment
student indicated majors/programs.

Is access to classes more critical to full-time students or to part-time ones? Are students more concerned with faculty proving timely feedback in business programs or nursing majors? Understanding these perspectives will help you to target your responses accordingly.

Another way to further explore the items is to conduct focus groups with students to talk with them about what they have experienced and what they suggest for improvements. You may find that the identified issue is much easier to resolve than you initially realized. Through focus group discussions, one campus discovered that the way students wanted the school to respond to the issue “Tuition paid is a worthwhile investment”—a big issue on the SSI—was to keep the printers stocked with paper and working correctly so they could print their syllabus and supporting material as expected. Many issues will not be that easy to solve, but it pays to investigate.

2. Respond with new initiatives to directly address student satisfaction issues

Once your college student satisfaction data provide a better idea what is at the heart of the issues that students have identified as priorities, it is important to make actual changes on campus. These changes may include new policies or procedures but they can also be activities to change student perceptions. Are there improvements that can be done immediately and easily, like extending hours for the business office or adding financial aid counseling triage services during peak times? Some items may require additional resources, so they may need to be added to your longer-term strategic plan. This may include such things as adding courses in high-demand areas or adding advising staff.

Keep in mind that student perceptions also play a significant role in student satisfaction, so look for opportunities to change perceptions with the information you are providing. This may mean improving information on financial aid steps or informing students that you have plenty of parking spaces, they just need to allow 15 minutes to find a spot and get to class! Taking a good look at the information you provide to students throughout their experience can help you to identify cost-effective opportunities to change perceptions, and ultimately satisfaction levels.

3. Inform the students of the actions taken

Too often, campuses assume that students are aware of the changes that have been made and why. However, I encourage you to be intentional in your communications with students. When you make a change based on your college student satisfaction data, tell the students: “You said this, and we did that in response, because we care about your experience.” Connect the dots for them so they know that you are paying attention and that their responses to the satisfaction survey matter because they are guiding decision making on campus.

These communications can be simple statements on posters around campus, done via social media, or short announcements in class. Closing the feedback loop is in important step, especially before you survey students again. If you are taking actions behind closed doors, and students are not made aware of the changes, you are unlikely to see satisfaction scores go up on your next satisfaction assessment.

Three opportunities to turn your college student satisfaction data into action

Are you looking for more ideas and opportunities to get real-world examples of what is working with using student satisfaction assessment data to “get things done?” I invite you to consider three opportunities to learn more:

Don’t miss our free webinar, Student Satisfaction Data: Overcoming Barriers and Facilitating Use, featuring three case study speakers sharing their experiences on campus with using satisfaction survey results.
Attend a free half-day event, Student Satisfaction Assessment Workshop: Making the Most of the Data You Gather. This workshop is taking place on the campus of Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas on the afternoon of Monday, April 23. The event is being held prior to the National Benchmarking Conference, but you don’t need to attend the conference to participate in the Ruffalo Noel Levitz pre-conference workshop. Learn more here.
If you will be attending the Association of Institutional Research Forum in Orlando this year, arrive a day early for a Ruffalo Noel Levitz pre-conference workshop, “Student Satisfaction Inventory: How to Best Use the SSI on Your Campus,” on the afternoon of May 29. Register for this event on the AIR Website.

I also have discussed specific examples for acting on your college student satisfaction data in a previous blog.

Student satisfaction has been linked to higher student retention and institutional graduation rates, but the difference between institutions that are seeing satisfaction levels improve and those that remain stagnant are the ones that are “getting it done” with exploring, responding, and informing students. I encourage you to learn from others on the best ways to do this and to identify will work on your campus.

Please contact me if I can answer any questions in this area.