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Community College Survey of Student Engagement

St. Petersburg College

2015 Key Findings

Table of Contents Key Findings: A Starting Point 2 Benchmarks of Effective Educational Practice 3 Aspects of Highest Student Engagement 4 Aspects of Lowest Student Engagement 5 2015 CCSSE Special-Focus Items 6 CCFSSE 8

Key Findings: A Starting Point The Key Findings report provides an entry point for reviewing results from your administration of the 2015 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE ). The report provides college-specific data in an easy-to-share format including benchmark comparisons between the college, top-performing colleges, and the CCSSE cohort. It also highlights aspects of highest and lowest student engagement at the college, as well as results from five CCSSE special-focus items. Select faculty survey data are also highlighted.

Promising Practices for Student Success

In each annual administration, CCSSE has included special-focus items to allow participating colleges and national researchers to delve more deeply into areas of student experience and institutional performance of great interest to the field. In the 2015 administration, some institutions opted to add special-focus items concentrated on community college students’ participation in a defined collection of promising practices for which there is growing evidence of effectiveness in improving student outcomes such as course completion and persistence. The results of these findings are on pages 6-7 of this report.

Benchmark Overview by Enrollment Status

Figure 1 below represents your institution’s CCSSE benchmark scores by students’ enrollment status.

Figure 1

Less than full-time students

Full-time students

48.0

58.4

51.6

57.3

51.6

60.0

51.3

58.7

53.6

56.3

B e

n c

h m

a rk

S c

o re

Active and Collaborative Learning

Student Effort Academic Challenge Student-Faculty Interaction

Support for Learners

Benchmarks of Effective Educational Practice The CCSSE benchmarks are groups of conceptually related survey items that address key areas of student engagement. The five benchmarks denote areas that educational research has shown to be important to students’ college experiences and educational outcomes. Therefore, they provide colleges with a useful starting point for looking at institutional results and allow colleges to gauge and monitor their performance in areas that are central to their work. In addition, participating colleges have the opportunity to make appropriate and useful comparisons between their performance and that of groups of other colleges.

Performing as well as the national average or a peer-group average may be a reasonable initial aspiration, but it is important to recognize that these averages are sometimes unacceptably low. Aspiring to match and then exceed high- performance targets is the stronger strategy.

Community colleges can differ dramatically on such factors as size, location, resources, enrollment patterns, and student characteristics. It is important to take these differences into account when interpreting benchmark scores—especially when making institutional comparisons. The Center for Community College Student Engagement has adopted the policy “Responsible Uses of CCSSE and SENSE Data,” available at www.cccse.org.

CCSSE uses a three-year cohort of participating colleges in all core survey analyses. The current cohort is referred to as the 2015 CCSSE Cohort (2013-2015) throughout all reports.

CCSSE Benchmarks

★ Active and Collaborative Learning Students learn more when they are actively involved in their education and have opportunities to think about and apply what they are learning in different settings. Through collaborating with others to solve problems or master challenging content, students develop valuable skills that prepare them to deal with real-life situations and problems.

★ Student Effort Students’ own behaviors contribute significantly to their learning and the likelihood that they will successfully attain their educational goals.

★ Academic Challenge Challenging intellectual and creative work is central to student learning and collegiate quality. These survey items address the nature and amount of assigned academic work, the complexity of cognitive tasks presented to students, and the rigor of examinations used to evaluate student performance.

★ Student-Faculty Interaction In general, the more contact students have with their teachers, the more likely they are to learn effectively and to persist toward achievement of their educational goals. Through such interactions, faculty members become role models, mentors, and guides for continuous, lifelong learning.

★ Support for Learners Students perform better and are more satisfied at colleges that provide important support services, cultivate positive relationships among groups on campus, and demonstrate commitment to their success.

For further information about CCSSE benchmarks, please visit www.cccse.org.

Figure 2

*Top-Performing colleges are those that scored in the top 10 percent of the cohort by benchmark.

St. Petersburg College 2015 CCSSE Cohort 2015 Top-Performing Colleges*

51.0 50.0

59.4 53.2 50.0

58.0 54.0

50.0 56.6 53.5

50.0 58.9

54.4 50.0

59.8

B e

n c

h m

a rk

S c

o re

Active and Collaborative Learning

Student Effort Academic Challenge Student-Faculty Interaction

Support for Learners

Notes: Benchmark scores are standardized to have a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 25 across all respondents. For further information about how benchmarks are computed, please visit www.cccse.org.

Aspects of Highest Student Engagement Benchmark scores provide a manageable starting point for reviewing and understanding CCSSE data. One way to dig more deeply into the benchmark scores is to analyze those items that contribute to the overall benchmark score. This section features the five items across all benchmarks (excluding those for which means are not calculated) on which the college scored highest and the five items on which the college scored lowest relative to the 2015 CCSSE Cohort.

The items highlighted on pages 4 and 5 reflect the largest differences in mean scores between the institution and the the 2015 CCSSE Cohort. While examining these data, keep in mind that the selected items may not be those that are most closely aligned with the college’s goals; thus, it is important to review all institutional reports on the CCSSE online reporting system at www.cccse.org.

Figure 3 displays the aggregated frequencies for the items on which the college performed most favorably relative to the 2015 CCSSE Cohort. For instance, 73.2% of St. Petersburg College students, compared with 64.9% of other students in the cohort, responded often or very often on item 4d. It is important to note that some colleges’ highest scores might be lower than the cohort mean.

Figure 3

St. Petersburg College

2015 CCSSE Cohort

73.2% 64.9%

10.6% 7.7%

82.0% 74.3%

61.1% 53.5%

45.4%

30.8%

A g

g re

g a

te d

P e

rc e

n ta

g e

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

100

4d Often or

Very often

4i Often or

Very often

9b Quite a bit or Very much

9c Quite a bit or Very much

13d1 Sometimes

or Often

Table 1

Benchmark Item

Number Item

Student Effort 4d Worked on a paper or project that required integrating ideas or information from various sources

Active and Collaborative Learning 4i Participated in a community-based project as a part of a regular course

Support For Learners 9b Providing the support you need to help you succeed at this college

Support For Learners 9c Encouraging contact among students from different economic, social, and racial or ethnic backgrounds

Student Effort 13d1 Frequency: Peer or other tutoring

Notes:

For Item(s) 4 (except 4e), often and very often responses are combined.

For Item(s) 9, quite a bit and very much responses are combined.

For Item(s) 13, sometimes and often responses are combined.

Aspects of Lowest Student Engagement Figure 4 displays the aggregated frequencies for the items on which the college performed least favorably relative to the 2015 CCSSE Cohort. For instance, 60.6% of St. Petersburg College students, compared with 65.2% of other students in the cohort, responded often or very often on item 4a. It is important to note that some colleges’ lowest scores might be higher than the cohort mean.

Figure 4

St. Petersburg College

2015 CCSSE Cohort

60.6% 65.2%

43.6% 50.2%

10.7% 11.3%

27.9% 29.6%

55.1% 61.7%

A g

g re

g a

te d

P e

rc e

n ta

g e

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

100

4a Often or

Very often

4f Often or

Very often

4q Often or

Very often

13b1 Sometimes

or Often

13h1 Sometimes

or Often

Table 2

Benchmark Item

Number Item

Active and Collaborative Learning 4a Asked questions in class or contributed to class discussions

Active and Collaborative Learning 4f Worked with other students on projects during class

Student-Faculty Interaction 4q Worked with instructors on activities other than coursework

Support For Learners 13b1 Frequency: Career counseling

Student Effort 13h1 Frequency: Computer lab

Notes:

For Item(s) 4 (except 4e), often and very often responses are combined.

For Item(s) 13, sometimes and often responses are combined.

2015 CCSSE Special-Focus Items

The Center adds special-focus items to CCSSE each year to augment the core survey, helping participating colleges and the field at large to further explore fundamental areas of student engagement. The 2015 special-focus items continue to elicit new information about students’ experiences associated with promising educational practices such as early registration, orientation, freshman seminars, organized learning communities, and student success courses. Frequency results from the first five promising practices items for your college and the CCSSE Promising Practices item-set respondents are displayed across pages 6 and 7.

Figure 5: During the current term at this college, I completed registration before the first class sessions(s).

St. Petersburg College (N=1,178) 2013-2015 Promising Practices Respondents (N=400,356)

92.1% 89.4%

4.1% 6.3% 2.8% 2.4% 1.0% 2.0%

P e

rc e

n ta

g e

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

100

Yes; I was registered for ALL of my courses

before the first class session(s)

Mostly; I was registered for MOST of my courses

before the first class session(s)

Partly; I was registered for SOME of my courses

before the first class session(s)

No; I was NOT registered for ANY of my courses

before the first class session(s)

St. Petersburg College (N=1,168) 2013-2015 Promising Practices Respondents (N=398,894)

24.0% 12.4%

36.4% 43.3%

6.7% 8.5% 18.6% 18.5% 14.3% 17.3%

P e

rc e

n ta

g e

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

100

I took part in an online orientation prior to the beginning of classes

I attended an on-campus

orientation prior to the beginning of classes

I enrolled in an orientation course

as part of my course schedule

during my first term at this college

I was not aware of a

college orientation

I was unable to participate in orientation due to scheduling

or other issues

Figure 6: The ONE response that best describes my experience with orientation when I first came to this college is:

Figure 7: During my first term at this college, I participated in a structured experience for new students (sometimes called a "freshman seminar" or "first-year experience").

St. Petersburg College (N=1,146) 2013-2015 Promising Practices Respondents (N=389,351)

28.0% 25.1%

3.4% 3.2% 3.0% 4.5%

65.6% 67.2%

P e

rc e

n ta

g e

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

100

Yes, in my first term

at this college

Yes, in my first AND in at least one other term

at this college

Yes, but NOT in my first

term at this college

No, I did not

St. Petersburg College (N=1,130) 2013-2015 Promising Practices Respondents (N=385,834)

9.0% 8.5% 5.2% 3.9% 2.7% 3.2%

83.1% 84.4%

P e

rc e

n ta

g e

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

100

Yes, in my first term

at this college

Yes, in my first AND in at least one other term

at this college

Yes, but NOT in my first

term at this college

No, I did not

Figure 8: During my first term at this college, I enrolled in an organized "learning community" (two or more courses that a group of students take together).

St. Petersburg College (N=1,136) 2013-2015 Promising Practices Respondents (N=385,965)

25.8% 18.5%

2.4% 3.2% 4.5% 5.4%

67.2% 73.0%

P e

rc e

n ta

g e

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

100

Yes, in my first term

at this college

Yes, in my first AND in at least one other term

at this college

Yes, but NOT in my first

term at this college

No, I did not

Figure 9: During my first term at this college, I enrolled in a student success course (such as a student development, extended orientation, student life skills, or college success course).

CCFSSE The Community College Faculty Survey of Student Engagement ( CCFSSE ), designed as a companion survey to CCSSE, elicits information from faculty about their teaching practices; the ways they spend their professional time, both in and out of class; and their perceptions regarding students' educational experiences. Many of these results can be viewed alongside the corresponding CCSSE item results to reveal interesting differences between students' reported experiences and faculty members' perceptions of those experiences—and can serve as an excellent starting point to engage faculty in conversations about engagement.

Figure 10

Don't Know Never Sometimes Often Very Often

P e

rc e

n ta

g e

100

How often do students talk about career plans

with an instructor or advisor?

How often do students receive prompt feedback

(written or oral)?

How often do students skip class?

How often do students come to class without completing readings

or assignments?

How often do students ask questions in class or

contribute to class discussions

Faculty N= 426

Students N= 1,292

Faculty N= 427

Students N= 1,291

Faculty N= 420

Students N= 1,293

Faculty N= 424

Students N= 1,293

Faculty N= 434

Students N= 1,310

Table 3

How often do students

talk about career plans

with an instructor or advisor?

How often do students

receive prompt feedback

(written or oral)?

How often do students

skip class?

How often do students

come to class without

completing readings

or assignments?

How often do students

ask questions in class or

contribute to class discussions

Response Faculty Student Faculty Student Faculty Student Faculty Student Faculty Student

Don't Know N/A N/A N/A N/A 4.3% N/A 1.9% N/A N/A N/A

Never 2.8% 21.7% 0.2% 6.4% 14.3% 48.9% 5.0% 36.4% N/A 3.3%

Sometimes 49.1% 44.7% 4.4% 29.3% 67.9% 45.3% 58.3% 49.5% 15.9% 36.1%

Often 24.6% 20.5% 34.0% 38.5% 9.5% 4.1% 24.1% 9.0% 30.4% 32.7%

Very Often 23.5% 13.2% 61.4% 25.8% 4.0% 1.7% 10.8% 5.0% 53.7% 27.9%

Faculty responses reference a selected course. Student responses are weighted and reference the entire year.