From participation and satisfaction to performance - An evaluation of the impact of the student-assistant pilot project on bachelor students

Details

Supervisors

Frenay, Mariane

Faculty

Faculté des sciences de l'éducation

Degree label

Master complémentaire en pédagogie universitaire et de l'enseignement supérieur (horaire décalé)

Abstract

Three observations have mainly led to the birth of a new project needing evaluation. First, literature as well as an alumni survey point to the growing importance of social skills and the scanty inclusion thereof in some of our master programmes. Second, increasingly diverse groups of bachelor students call for a more tailored approach for several low success rate courses, while at the same time, the growing numbers of bachelor students put the student-staff ratio under pressure. Third, university policy wishes to emphasise more the development of students in diverse roles, such as student-ambassador, student-entrepreneur and student-researcher. The student-assistant project was set out to include master students in the guidance of bachelor students. A pilot of this project was designed in the spring and summer of academic year 2016-2017 and launched during the first semester of academic year 2017-2018. In the best-case scenario, the newly and carefully designed activities in this project could increase a specific set of practical and social skills for master students, while also providing additional guidance for bachelor students. The project is also designed in line with the overall vision and strategy of the university. Even though this potentially sounds quite positive, we need to verify whether the project reaches its goals as well as gain insight in the effects on the diverse stakeholders and thus link back to the importance of evaluation and continuous finetuning. As the project indeed involves multiple stakeholders, a sound assessment considers the various impacts for all groups affected. This would, however, lead us too far and outside the scope of this master thesis. Careful consideration directs the focus of this research to an in-depth study of the effects for bachelor students. More specifically, three dimensions are assessed. The study first reviews participation of bachelor students to the new activities. Next, it evaluates the satisfaction of bachelor students regarding these activities. Finally, a potential result impact is discussed. For a balanced perspective, we take a mixed-method approach combining qualitative and quantitative elements (Kelle and Buchholtz, 2015; Punch and Oancea, 2014). Data collection builds on a survey as well as on focus groups. The analysis of the survey constitutes of descriptive statistics as well as of quantitative econometric models. The results thereof are then further reviewed and analysed using input from the focus groups. In a nutshell, the results indicate that participation in the new activities as well as satisfaction are mostly determined by students’ perceptions regarding these activities. However, performance is to a large extent controlled by a student’s background. While a migration context significantly influences the results downward, extensive experience with mathematics in high school boosts math performance in higher education. These two background variables do not carry all explanatory power and hence, not everything is determined at the starting line. Activity levels during the semester are also important. Additional activities attract students when they notice a clear link with tests or exams. Feeling better prepared for the exam provides the strongest incentive for students to value the activity. As participation and satisfaction regarding activities is mainly based on students’ perception thereof, we emphasise the importance of carefully designing and communicating activities. This enhances participation and can thus in turn positively influence students’ performance. Other evaluation perspectives are still to be added in future research. The information found will help to finetune the project during the upcoming years, but the insights will hopefully also contribute to the literature and inspire other research and projects.