JISC Making the most of Course Information Project Elaine Garcia & Kerry Dungay [email protected] [email protected]
Jun 21, 2015
JISC
Making the most of Course Information Project
Elaine Garcia & Kerry [email protected] [email protected]
Stage 2 – Dissemination of Research from Stage 1
• Survey included 29 Questions designed from pilot open ended question
• 2 week window to respond• Utilised surveymonkey• 94 HE Students responded• 29 FE Students responded
• Questions such as…..
When you first thought about choosing a course how important were the following factors to you……
First place students looked
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
99
6 6
3
2 2 2
1 1
FE Students
UCAS
The w
ebsit
e
Online
College
Prosp
ectus
Onsite
Word
of mouth
Open day
Profes
sional
referr
al
GoogleOther
Alread
y studyin
g at c
ollege
Leflets
/new
spap
ersRad
io0
5
10
15
20
25
3026
2421
12
97
5 4 4 3 3 2 1
HE Students
When first thinking about choosing a course, factors that were important.
FE Students• The most important factor was
course content
• Other important factors were facilities and resources, atmosphere and career related issues
• No one found course content unimportant
HE Students• Almost 100% of respondents
said that course content and facilities and resources were very important
• Atmosphere and career related issues were also very important
Location, Location, Location
FE Students
Close to home
Cost of tr
avel
Commuting/trav
el time
Ease
of trav
el
Locati
on not importa
nt
Wan
ted to
study i
n a cit
y
Wan
ted a
studen
t area
Alread
y studied
here
cultu
ral en
vironmen
t
Frien
dly en
vironmen
t0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
What was important about location
HE Students
Close to home
The c
ity its
elf in
cluding o
pportunity
/socia
l etc
Close to fa
mily/fr
iends
Didn't wan
t to m
ove out/a
way
Have d
epen
dants
Close to th
e coast
Easy
of trav
el/co
mmute to co
llege
New ex
perien
ces
Easy
of getti
ng aro
und
Closeness
of colle
ge
Costs of li
ving
Wan
ted a
studen
t city
Cost of tr
avel/
commute
to trav
el0
5
10
15
20
25
What was important about location
Changing my mind….
• HE STUDENTS
o Yes 33%
o No 67%
Have any of the factors that you thought were important / unimportant changed as you are getting closer to making a decision about where and what you wanted
to study next?
• FE STUDENTS
o Yes 31%
o No 69%
What changed?
FE Students
• Costs and course tutors became a more important factor
HE Students
• Tutors and course content became more important.
• Moving away and reputation became less important
I needed to know about...
HE Students• 79% said they did not need more
information• Extra information on module
information was the highest on the information agenda
When you have been thinking about a course is there any information that you would have liked to have had relating to the course or institution that you have
been unable to access so far?
FE Students • 72% said they did not need
more information. • Types of information required
included:
o Financial
o Learning outcomes
o Hours spent with staff and self study
Who’s opinion really matters?
FE Students
• Almost half the respondents place importance on the opinion of their parents
• Careers advisor opinion was largely fairly important
• Followed by girlfriend/partner/
boyfriend
HE Students
• 94% said that previous students’ (not on same course) opinion was fairly important
• 83% said that parents were fairly important
• Students’ opinions already on the course were also rated as important
Important information sources
FE Students
Web
site
Open Day
Prosp
ectus
Leaflet
Word
of Mouth
Intervie
w
Comments
on Socia
l Netw
orking S
ites (
Faceb
ook, etc
)
Leagu
e Tab
les0
5
10
15
20
25
How important were the following sources of in-formation to you when you were trying to find in-
formation about a course or institution? (FE)
Very Impor-tant
Fairly Impor-tant
Neither Im-portant or Unimportant
Fairly Unimpor-tantVery Unimpor-tant
HE Students
Web
site
Open Day
Prosp
ectus
Leaflet
Word
of Mouth
Intervie
w
Comments
on Socia
l Netw
orking S
ites (
Faceb
ook, etc
)
Leagu
e Tab
les0
10203040506070
How important were the following sources of in-formation to you when you were trying to find in-
formation about a course or institution? (HE)
Very Important
Fairly Important
Neither Impor-tant or Unim-portant
Fairly Unimpor-tant
Very Unimpor-tant
When can we meet?
• 58% of FE Students felt it was very important and 38% fairly important
• 76% of HE students felt it was very important and 23% fairly
• Neither group considered it unimportant.
From your experience how important do you think it is to meet the course team / people who will be teaching you before you make the decision about what /
where to study?
• Highlighting important information to students:– Course Content– Tutors experience– Tutors research and experience
– Utilising GuildHE CREST Mahara System and working with ULCC to link aspect of staff portfolios to fields within XCRI-CAP and provide students with a greater range of information so they can choose the most appropriate course and are more likely to make the right choice
What this means for our Stage 2 Project