Abstract
A final, optional open-ended question in the Academic Pathways of People Learning Engineering Survey (APPLES) that asked "Is there anything else you want to tell us that we didn't already cover?" elicited free form responses from 37 percent of the 4,266 survey participants. This paper explores their responses. After data cleaning, 880 responses were anonymized by individual and institution. The responses were rated on a numeric value (1-5) ranging from negative (criticizing) to neutral to positive (complementing). Responses were also coded using an emerging thematic coding scheme. The emergent topics were organized by whether the comments addressed school or individual issues. Topics suggested by the open-ended responses related to the School category were: Advising, Co-op, Gender, Social and Teaching (Curriculum) and Teaching (Language). These responses were mostly found to the extremes, both positive and negative, of the scale of positive/negative comments. Topics suggested by the open-ended responses related to the Individual Beliefs category were: (engineering as a) Calling, Challenge, Future, Lifestyle, Money and Understanding. These responses were mostly found to be neutral on the scale of positive/negative comments. Our analysis showed that the subjects' open-ended responses added qualitatively to student-voiced passions, concerns and experiences that could not be easily captured in a multiple choice question format.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Journal | ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings |
| State | Published - 2009 |
| Externally published | Yes |
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Keywords
- Open-ended survey responses
- Student academic experiences
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Engineering(all)
Cite this
More to say : Analyzing open-ended student responses to the Academic Pathways of People Learning Engineering Survey. / Lande, Micah; Parikh, Sarah; Sheppard, Sheri; Toye, George; Chen, Helen; Donaldson, Krista.
In: ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings, 2009.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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TY - JOUR
T1 - More to say
T2 - Analyzing open-ended student responses to the Academic Pathways of People Learning Engineering Survey
AU - Lande, Micah
AU - Parikh, Sarah
AU - Sheppard, Sheri
AU - Toye, George
AU - Chen, Helen
AU - Donaldson, Krista
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - A final, optional open-ended question in the Academic Pathways of People Learning Engineering Survey (APPLES) that asked "Is there anything else you want to tell us that we didn't already cover?" elicited free form responses from 37 percent of the 4,266 survey participants. This paper explores their responses. After data cleaning, 880 responses were anonymized by individual and institution. The responses were rated on a numeric value (1-5) ranging from negative (criticizing) to neutral to positive (complementing). Responses were also coded using an emerging thematic coding scheme. The emergent topics were organized by whether the comments addressed school or individual issues. Topics suggested by the open-ended responses related to the School category were: Advising, Co-op, Gender, Social and Teaching (Curriculum) and Teaching (Language). These responses were mostly found to the extremes, both positive and negative, of the scale of positive/negative comments. Topics suggested by the open-ended responses related to the Individual Beliefs category were: (engineering as a) Calling, Challenge, Future, Lifestyle, Money and Understanding. These responses were mostly found to be neutral on the scale of positive/negative comments. Our analysis showed that the subjects' open-ended responses added qualitatively to student-voiced passions, concerns and experiences that could not be easily captured in a multiple choice question format.
AB - A final, optional open-ended question in the Academic Pathways of People Learning Engineering Survey (APPLES) that asked "Is there anything else you want to tell us that we didn't already cover?" elicited free form responses from 37 percent of the 4,266 survey participants. This paper explores their responses. After data cleaning, 880 responses were anonymized by individual and institution. The responses were rated on a numeric value (1-5) ranging from negative (criticizing) to neutral to positive (complementing). Responses were also coded using an emerging thematic coding scheme. The emergent topics were organized by whether the comments addressed school or individual issues. Topics suggested by the open-ended responses related to the School category were: Advising, Co-op, Gender, Social and Teaching (Curriculum) and Teaching (Language). These responses were mostly found to the extremes, both positive and negative, of the scale of positive/negative comments. Topics suggested by the open-ended responses related to the Individual Beliefs category were: (engineering as a) Calling, Challenge, Future, Lifestyle, Money and Understanding. These responses were mostly found to be neutral on the scale of positive/negative comments. Our analysis showed that the subjects' open-ended responses added qualitatively to student-voiced passions, concerns and experiences that could not be easily captured in a multiple choice question format.
KW - Open-ended survey responses
KW - Student academic experiences
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M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85029068849
JO - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
JF - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
SN - 2153-5965
ER -