The AAAS-IUSE initiative, funded by the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Directorate for STEM Education (IUSE: EDU) posted an interesting read last month. If you are not familiar – the AAAS-IUSE Initiative supports faculty, students, and the greater undergraduate STEM education community by disseminating research and knowledge about STEM teaching, learning, equity and institutional transformation.
The post that caught my eye discusses how traditional metrics for evaluating student success (like graduation rates) are insufficient because they only measure outcomes at the end of a student's academic journey.
It introduces what the authors are calling the student DELTA survey (s-DELTA) as a new tool to measure departmental culture from students' perspectives, with the goal of improving diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.
Key points:
- Departmental culture significantly impacts student experience, and departments often have more distinct cultures than institutions as a whole. This makes departments an effective focus for implementing change.
- The s-DELTA survey is based on six core principles, including student partnership, collective outcomes, data-informed decisions, collaboration, continuous improvement, and commitment to equity.
- The survey structure asks students to evaluate both their current department and their ideal department using a six-point Likert scale, allowing for comparison between reality and aspirations.
- Initial findings showed significant differences between current and ideal department ratings, particularly in areas related to equity and inclusion. Gender-based analysis revealed that women and men often had different experiences of departmental culture.
A great start. While the s-DELTA survey needs further psychometric testing, it can provide a valuable tool for:
- Tracking student perspectives over time
- Informing departmental policy development
- Supporting diversity and inclusion efforts
- Helping departments understand and improve their cultural impact on student experience
Worth a look for academics. Here’s a link if you are interesting in reading the original post: https://aaas-iuse.org/characterizing-student-perspectives-on-departmental-culture-the-student-delta-survey/
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