Google Docs Survey

Communication In My University Program

Survey Purpose

The purpose of my survey is to discover the best means of communication about important graduate school deadlines and responsibilities. Since many of the students in the M. Ed. program do not live in Fairbanks or regularly come to campus, I use electronic means to share this information. For years I have relied on email, but I struggle with having up-to-date email addresses as students wander in and out the program sometimes for up to 10 years before they graduate. I’m always looking for a better method to get the word out.

Thoughts on Using Google Survey

I have used Google Survey in the past and find it very user friendly. Google Survey’s main advantages include: 

• It’s easy to share a survey, especially with those who have a UA email account.
• It’s very easy to create and modify a survey.
• There are a variety of question types and lots of background styles from which to choose.
• Google Survey tallies the responses automatically in a spreadsheet.
• The automatic production of charts and graphs makes the data gathered immediately understandable. 

Disadvantages: I could not figure out how to have a question with rated answers-- this was really necessary for my questions about where students go for information about their programs. Also, I struggled with the spreadsheet a little.  Some of the questions loaded into it twice, then divided the answers in different columns which changed the graphs (I fixed this by deleting some response rows and re-entering them--something I would not do in a real survey for fear of changing the results). This could just be a one time glitch but with a free service like Google, there isn’t much to do if the product doesn’t work like you want it to.

I think surveys are a great way to gather information in a professional or educational setting.  I like anonymous surveys because I think respondents will be more honest. However without a way to block multiple submission from the same person, I understand why adding a name or email address to the questions might be necessary.  I’d like to include a survey as part of my Master’s research project. Before I go forward with any changes in my graduate student advising strategies, I’d like to know what will best serve our students. What better way to find out than to ask!

Major Findings

The major findings of my (very small; 8 respondent) survey indicate that students most prefer to look up information on websites rather than ask faculty or staff their questions. Most students think email reminders from the university are nice and some think them essential.  No one found them annoying (whew!).

Half the respondents would friend the UAF School of Education Grad. Program Facebook page but only 1/3 would follow a Twitter feed.

To the variety of questions about getting information through email, web self search or social networking-- email and web searching won overwhelmingly. Perhaps this is because once a Facebook feed passes by, users won’t go back to find the information again; while an email can sit in your inbox for weeks and not disappear.

I was hoping the Blackboard questions would tell me if putting effort in that realm was worth my time.  It’s inconclusive. Some respondents said they would not use that communication method, some said they would. Most were neutral.

This small survey indicates that my time would be best spent keeping an up-to-date webpage and continuing to email students with important information. 

Following is a spreadsheet containing (some) of the data I gathered with this survey along with 10 graphs representing the responses. The survey had numerous questions but to save space I only summarized the data for a sampling of them.  Below this is the tally spreadsheet of all responses.