It's all about Assessment!
- Taylor Renwick
- Oct 18, 2016
- 6 min read
Even in Ireland, assessment is huge! On 18/10/16 I was assigned my internship project, a review of the Orientation Leader Program at Maynooth University (MU). The project immediately reminded me of my assessment course at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) when I reviewed the First Year Seminar (FYS) program. Keeping my assessment class in mind, I developed a plan of action for completing my project in the two week timeframe. The first thing I did was meet with my supervisor, Ian Russell, to set expectations. After setting expectations, I started reviewing literature. For this project I will be following assessment steps.
1. Meet with the client
I met with Ian again for about an hour. This time we went over the assignment in great detail. The assignment was to complete a comprehensive assessment about the Orientation Leader Program; this includes marketing, recruiting, interviewing, and training of the leaders. Ian and I developed a plan of action as well as set specific internal deadlines. The plan was that I would begin researching Orientation Leader Programs and developing a survey while Ian added me to the MU Orientation Leader Facebook Group and emailed me previous marketing material, training agendas, Orientation Week schedule, and planning spreadsheets.
2. Research
While Ian emailed me material from the MU Orientation Leader Program (OLP), I researched OLPs from other schools in Ireland as well as general research about the structure of the program for first-year students, or freshers as they are called in Ireland. My research taught me that the process of transitioning from secondary to postsecondary education can be very complex and challenging. Literature suggests that the most successful way to ease the transition of first-year students is by establishing early connections between students, students and campus, students and faculty, as well as students and staff. One of the most successful ways “to achieve this goal of an early connection is through new student orientation programs” (Stewart, Brewer & Wright, 2006, p. 22). There are countless common experiences among freshers, such as campus navigation issues, making new friends worries, “confusion regarding university policies and procedures, financial concerns, and the need to find a good balance between their academic and social activities” (Stewart, Brewer & Wright, 2006, p. 23). Orientation plays a crucial role in helping students acclimate to their new environment by providing an introduction to academics, services, and activities through a series of events typically held during an Orientation or Welcome Week; However, Orientation Week is often overwhelming for incoming students due to information overload in an unfamiliar environment with strangers. To ease fears and create a welcoming, helpful environment, many institutions established specific posts, Orientation Leaders, to act as liaisons, mentors, and student leaders.
Orientation Leader Team - MU
Once I had a basic understanding of the importance of Orientation Leaders and Orientation Week, I dug a little deeper into the significance of training Orientation Leaders. Orientation Leaders are key players in the movement to enhance the freshman year experience by changing the way institutions acquaint incoming students with the university. Many researchers argue that orientation leaders are vitally important for the success and transition of first-year university students because they are peers, student-to-student relationships. Given the nature of their role, it is imperative that Orientation Leaders receive quality training and preparation. Unfortunately, many “new student leaders often lament that they have very little training in how to undertake the responsibilities of their newly acquired leadership positions” (Schroer, 2010, p. 431). The under preparedness of Orientation Leaders is what sparked the review of the OLP at MU. The purpose of the upcoming assessment is to determine what can be done to improve the overall marketing, recruiting, interviewing, and training experience of the Orientation Leaders so that they can better meet the needs of freshers.
3. Develop the Survey
After speaking with Ian and researching Orientation Leaders, OLPs, and Orientation Weeks, I devised a set of questions tailored to meet the needs of MU Student Services. The survey can be found via the following link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSexaRclgezHdy7vDhdlhW9FHIIIokfxrZpeg5ujrVDkbVAnDw/viewform#responses
The survey is a quantitative study designed to provide concrete data that will ultimately influence the future of the OLP at MU. Not only does the survey collect a significant amount of quantitative data, it also collects some qualitative data by asking several open-ended questions that warrant a lengthy response. The hardest part about creating the survey was phrasing questions in terms that the Irish students understand. For example, instead of referring to the Orientation Leader position as a job or position, it was imperative that I call it a post because that is what they call it at MU. Another example is spelling program the Irish way so that it reads programme. The last example I would like to reference is that they call majors, courses so in order to ask what their majors are, I had to ask "what is your course of study."
Ian encouraged me to ask these two questions because he felt like there was cognitive dissonance regarding how the post was described to the Orientation Leaders and how the post actually was in reality.
The second item that Ian wanted me to change was how I worded the question regarding gender. In the States I was told that the best way to ask someone his or her gender was to ask what is your biological sex and then provide male, female, and prefer not to answer as three options. Ian called someone that works closely with social justice topics to find out the best way to ask that question. The social justice officer indicated that the question should read what is your gender and the options should be male, female, and other (non-binary, etc.) I have outlined below the proper wording of the sex question based on political correctness of the country:
USA Ireland
What is your biological sex? What is your gender?
- Male - Male
- Female - Female
- Prefer not to say - Other (non-binary, etc.)
After making these changes, I launched the survey and posted the survey link in the MU Orientation Leader Facebook group. I was SHOCKED by how quickly the students started taking the survey. Within 18 hours of the survey being live, 24 of the 66 Orientation Leaders, or 36.36 percent, responded to the survey. My goal was to get a 50 percent response rate and I am confident that will happen because of the receptiveness of the students. I gave the students a deadline of noon on October 24, 2016. I cannot wait to see the final results and begin analyzing the data. Numbers and data excite me! I am thoroughly enjoying checking the survey results and interpreting the responses every couple of hours because I love data!
4. Analyze the Survey Data
This will happen on Tuesday, October 25, 2016 rather than Monday, October 24, 2016 because the Office of Student Services is taking a trip to Kilkenny to visit the Kilkenny Campus - Maynooth University. Ian told us that the campus is similar to a satellite campus in the States but that they do not call it a satellite campus in Ireland because it offends the students, faculty, and staff at that campus. They always refer to themselves as the Kilkenny Campus - Maynooth University. Ian also mentioned that the campus is much smaller than the campus in Maynooth and that it will resemble an American secondary school (high school). Once we return from Kilkenny I will analyze the data! Did I mention I love data?
5. Make Recommendations Based on Data
Once of the final steps in my assessment process will be to interpret the data and make well-informed recommendations regarding the OLP at MU.
6. Presentation
After analyzing the data and making recommendations based on the data, I will put together a presentation that summarizes the literature, outlines my assessment, presents the data, highlights my conclusions, and delivers my recommendations.
References
Rodionova, Z. (2016, May 18). [UK ranks as one of the worst countries in Europe for gender equality at work, Glassdoor finds] [Infographic]. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/uk-ranks-as-one-of-the- worst-countries-in-europe-for-gender-equality-at-work-glassdoor-finds- a7035176.html
Schroer, T. (2010). A day in the life of a college student leader: Case studies for undergraduate leaders. Review of Higher Education, 33(3), 431-432.
Stewart, G., Brewer, G., & Wright, D. B. (2006). Student services support of developmental education. NADE Digest, 2(1), 21-27.
Office Photos
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