Answers to General Education Questions
The following questions are ranked on a scale from one to five. The higher the score the student gave, the better they felt about the class. To see the students’ actual responses to the open ended questions please see the appendix.
Inquiry
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The answers to the achievement of the Inquiry objective were quite positive. The mean score was 3.58. It also had a standard deviation of 1.07 and median of 4.00.
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The students surveyed did not feel that the Inquiry objective was as important to their education as how well they achieved the objective. They gave the importance of Inquiry a mean score of 3.36, median of 3.00 and standard deviation of 1.21.
What were the learning activities that allowed you to meet the Inquiry objective?
|
Inquiry Class and Professors |
8.2% |
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Not Inquiry Class |
3.8% |
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Other Classes |
10.1% |
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Class Discussions |
19.2% |
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Readings, Speakers, Convocations |
9.1% |
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Small Class Sizes |
2.8% |
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Group/Class Projects and Activities |
9.4% |
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RA, RD, TA, Tutor |
2.8% |
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Life, Work, and Organizations |
15.7% |
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Other |
10.4% |
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Blank |
8.5% |
This table shows what activities students felt helped them achieve the Inquiry objective. The two most frequent answers were class discussions (19.2%) and life, work, and organizations (15.7%). Only 8.2% of the students replied that they achieved this goal through the Inquiry class while 3.8% said it was definitely not that class.
What were the important things you learned in the process of meeting the inquiry objective?
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Critical Thinking/Questioning Skills |
18.8% |
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Ways to Express Self and Better Communication |
16.3% |
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Developing an Open Mind |
13.9% |
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How to Learn and Study |
4.8% |
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Teamwork |
5.3% |
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Friends and Acquaintances |
3.8% |
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Sense of and How to Build a Community |
2.4% |
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Didn’t Like/ Already Knew |
7.2% |
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Other |
8.7% |
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Blank |
18.8% |
The top two answers to this question were Critical Thinking/Questioning Skills (18.8%) and Ways to Express Self Better and Better Communication (16.3%). Just behind those with 13.9% of the answers was Developing an Open Mind. It is also important to note that 7.2% of the students felt that they had previously achieved the Inquiry objective or did not like it.
Writing
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Only three students felt that they had not achieved the Writing objective. The median score for this objective was 4.00 and it had a mean of 4.05 with a standard deviation of 0.85. This question received the highest rating from students as well as the least deviation compared to the answers to all other objective achievement questions.
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As in the previous question, students felt quite highly about the importance of Writing to their education. They gave this question the highest mean (4.12) and the lowest standard deviation (0.86) of all questions regarding the importance of an objective. The median was 4.00.
What were the learning activities that enabled you to achieve the Writing requirement?
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College Writing and English Classes |
17.4% |
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Not College Writing |
1.4% |
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Education Courses |
4.5% |
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Biological Communications |
3.1% |
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Other Courses |
14.2% |
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Writing Papers and Lab Reports |
27.1% |
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Professors |
3.5% |
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Criticism and Proof Reading |
5.9% |
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English Major |
1.4% |
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Senior Seminar or Tutorial |
2.1% |
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UR, Extra Curriculars and Organizations |
2.1% |
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Reading |
2.4% |
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Other |
5.9% |
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Blank |
9.0% |
College Writing and English Courses (17.4%) and Writing Papers and Lab Reports (27.1%) were the two answers that received the most answers to this question.
What were the important things that you learned in the process of meeting the Writing objective?
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Better Writing and Grammar Skills |
30.3% |
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Paper Forms and Styles |
12.9% |
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Writing as a Communication Tool |
7.5% |
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Paper Organization |
6.0% |
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Own Style and Confidence |
6.5% |
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Research Skills |
3.5% |
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Importance and Effectiveness of Writing |
3.5% |
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Importance of Proof reading |
3.0% |
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Other |
13.4% |
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Blank |
13.4% |
The top two answers to what students learned through the Writing requirement were Better Writing and Grammar Skills(30.3%) and Paper Forms and Styles (12.9%). This table also shows that the Writing objective helped students achieve their own style and more confidence in their writing. This answer was given 6.5% of the time.
Computing
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Only 17% of the students felt that they did not achieve the learning objective of Computing. The mean score for this objective was 3.40 with a standard deviation of 1.06. It also had a median of 3.00.
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The importance of Computing to the students’ education received a mean score of 3.79 (standard deviation of 0.99). The median score was 4.00 meaning that at least half of the students felt that Computing was more than moderately important to their education.
What were the learning activities that enabled you to achieve the Computing requirement?
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Computer Science Class |
23.8% |
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Not Computer Science Class |
11.1% |
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Other Classes |
13.0% |
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On Own |
9.3% |
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E-mail and Internet Use |
19.0% |
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Writing Papers/word Processing |
5.2% |
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Internship or Job |
3.3% |
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Other |
5.6% |
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Blank |
9.7% |
About 11%of the students’ answers stated outright that the Computer Science classes did not help them to achieve this objective. The two things that helped them most were Computer Science Class (23.%) and E-mail and Internet Use (19.0%).
What were the important things you learned in the process of meeting the Computing objective?
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Knowledge of Computers and Computer Programming |
13.0% |
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How to Use Programs |
12.5% |
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Changes in and the Importance of Technology |
10.2% |
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5.6% |
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Internet Use |
8.3% |
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Classroom Uses of Computers |
3.2% |
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Applications to the Real World |
2.3% |
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Other |
18.1% |
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Blank |
26.9% |
The answers to this question were quite spread out and diverse. Knowledge of Computers and Computer Programming (13.0%) and How to use Programs (12.5%) were the top two responses.
Foreign Language
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Students did not feel quite as positive about the Foreign Language objective as they did the previous objectives. They gave this question a median score of 3.00, median of 3.03, and 1.24. This was the lowest mean and highest standard deviation answers given.
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As in the previous question, students did not feel that the Foreign Language requirement was very important to their education. In fact, almost 25% of them said that it was not at all important giving this objective the lowest importance rating of all objectives. The mean score for this question was 2.66with a standard deviation of 1.34. The median was 3.00.
What were the learning activities that enabled you to achieve the Foreign Language requirement?
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Spanish, German, or French class |
25.4% |
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Sign Language |
2.6% |
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Other Language Classes |
2.6% |
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Reading and Writing |
9.2% |
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Listening and Speaking |
15.8% |
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Language Lab |
1.8% |
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Did not take/Tested out |
22.4% |
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Other Classes |
2.2% |
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Student teaching/ELTAP/Study Abroad |
4.4% |
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Blank |
13.6% |
Just over 30% of the students surveyed said that they achieved the Foreign Language objective through some type of language class. The other most frequent answers were using the language in conversation, reading, and writing.
What were the important things you learned in the process of meeting the Foreign Language requirement?
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Better Foreign Language skills/ basics |
19.6% |
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Knowledge of Culture/Cultural Differences |
15.1% |
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Importance of a Second Language |
4.5% |
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Wish to or Importance of Travel |
2.5% |
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Knowledge and Appreciation of English |
4.0% |
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Difficulty of Foreign Language |
4.0% |
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Blank |
31.2% |
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Other |
9.0% |
The most frequent answer to what students learned in the process of meeting the Foreign Language objective was learning that language better. Just behind that came a better knowledge of the foreign culture and cultural differences. Other answers were a will to travel, knowledge and appreciation of English, and the difficulty of a foreign language.
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Students felt that they had achieved the objective of the Self with a mean score of 3.72 (standard deviation was 1.10). The median was 4.00.
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Only 8% of students felt that the objective of the Self was not important to their education. They gave this question a mean score of 3.54, standard deviation of1.18, and a mean of 4.00.
What were the learning activities that enabled you to achieve the Self requirement?
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Psychology Classes/Lab |
26.4% |
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Other Classes |
22.3% |
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Social Interactions/Life |
13.6% |
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Education Classes |
2.7% |
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Organizations/TA |
1.8% |
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Writing |
1.4% |
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Study Abroad |
0.9% |
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Other |
6.4% |
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Blank |
24.5% |
Over one-fourth of the surveyed students felt that they had achieved the objective of the Self through Psychology classes and labs. Another 23% felt that they accomplished it through other classes. It is also important to note that 13.6% of the students answered that they had not achieved it through school, but through social interactions and life instead.
What were the important things you learned in the process of meeting the Self objective?
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Knowledge of Self |
18.2% |
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Open Mind and Better Communication |
12.5% |
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Science behind Psychology |
8.9% |
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Understand/Predict Behavior |
7.3% |
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Disappointed |
3.62% |
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Other |
9.4% |
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Blank |
40.1% |
The most frequent response to what important things students learned while achieving the objective of the Self was knowledge about themselves. Twenty-six percent of the students answered this way. Slightly behind this response was better communication and open mind (12.5%) and the science behind psychology (8.9%). A full 40% of the students failed to answer this question which may affect the results.
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3.57 was the mean score for this question with a standard deviation of 0.93. The median was 3.00.
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The Historical Perspectives objective was moderately important to the seniors. They gave it a mean score of 3.33, standard deviation of 1.07, and median of 3.00.
What were the learning objectives that enabled you to achieve the Historical Perspectives objective?
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History Classes |
29.8% |
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Other Courses |
16.8% |
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Lecture/discussion |
11.8% |
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Reading and Writing |
10.1% |
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Campus Events |
1.3% |
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Other Coursework and Projects |
1.7% |
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Other |
5.1% |
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Blank |
23.5% |
Almost one-third of the students replied that they achieved the Historical Perspectives objective through some type of History class. 16.8% of them said that it was some other type of class. The other two categories that scored fairly high were Lecture/discussion (11.8%) and Reading and Writing (10.1%).
What were the important things you learned in the process of meeting the Historical Perspectives objective?
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Knowledge and Understanding of History |
25.4% |
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Understanding of the Present and the Future |
10.7% |
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Cultural Similarities and Differences |
9.6% |
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Learn From Past |
4.1% |
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History Repeats Itself |
4.1% |
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Not Much/Not Applicable |
2.0% |
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Other |
6.6% |
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Blank |
37.6% |
Knowledge and Understanding of History was the most frequent answer to this question (25.4%). The other two answers that were fairly frequent were Understanding of the Present and Future (10.7%) and Cultural Similarities and Differences (9.6%).
This web page was created by Engin Sungur and Kim Adams