Resources
RAP Resources is devoted to sharing sample instruments, common knowledge items and best practices within the UNT assessment community. It is our hope staff within the Division of Student Affairs turn to this area to improve their understanding and effective use of assessment tools.
Please note that this site will be continually enhanced with additional resources as they become available. If you discover an additional resource which you believe would be helpful to post here please email pasd@unt.edu with a sample of the resource and a short description of the tool and/or document.
- UNT Peer Institutions
- Internal Resources
- External Resources
- Presentations
- Research Tips
- Sample Surveys
- Learning Outcomes
- Institutional Review Board
- Bibliographical References & Literature
- Sample Size Calculators
- Annual Reports
UNT Peer Institutions
In benchmarking it is common practice to use a list of institutions of similar background, population and makeup. This list of institutions is helpful to UNT for over-arching comparisons. For specific departments within the Division of Student Affairs, additional institutions sharing closer comparable data may be included in benchmarking. It is the responsibility of the Director of each department to accurately determine specific instances when additional peer institutions should be considered. For a list of UNT Peer Institutions, please click here.
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Internal Resources
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External Resources
(see External Resources)
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Presentations
The following presentations are included here as a resource to enable the promotion and adaption of assessment related reports. If you intend to use any of the following presentations for official business, please email pasd@unt.edu so that we may track and collect information on usage and relevance.
Furthermore, if you intend to use specific slides from these presentations as part of a larger or new presentation please be sure to specifically quote the source of the presentation, the author and include the following phrase in the references section of your new presentation "Used with permission from the Division of Student Affairs Planning and Assessment Department."
Finally, to expand the resources under this section please send a final electronic copy of your new presentation to pasd@unt.edu so that we may include it within out library. Users understand that by sending a copy of the presentation they agree to allow others the right to utilize and disseminate this information.
- ACPA 2009 CAS Practices at UNT [ppt]
- CAS Standards Presentation [ppt]
- Planning and Assessment in Student Affairs [ppt]
- What is Qualitative Research?: A Primer [ppt]
- ACPA 2008 CAS Practices at UNT [ppt]
- Assessment 101 [ppt]
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Research Tips
Quantitative and Qualitative research methodology consists of a long and diverse history. Numerous pitfalls, hurdles and researcher-based opportunities for error exist. It is our hope that this section will provide users with the tools and analysis to make better informed strategic decisions regarding their assessment projects at UNT. Whenever possible we have culled the best resources from diverse sources to aid you in your work. Our ultimate goal for the quality and integrity of our assessment activities at UNT is to be first class, we believe this section is an important tool in this success.
Qualitative Research
- NSF Workshop on Scientific Foundations of Qualitative Research [pdf]
- Designing Qualitative Research [pdf]
- 5 Misunderstandings About Case Study Research [pdf]
Quantitative Research
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Sample Surveys
National Survey Instruments
When discussing the results and outcomes of national survey instruments it is very helpful to be able to observe the original instrument. This section contains the latest samples of the surveys utilized by UNT students as part of our larger assessment strategies. Please remember these instruments are copyright protected and we are unable to edit, adapt or utilize them for other purposes beyond their original design.
- CIRP Freshman Survey [pdf]
- Noel-Levitz™ Student Satisfaction Inventory [pdf]
- National Survey of Student Engagement (2008) [pdf]
UNT Survey Instruments
Secondly, starting from scratch on a new instrument is very time consuming. Therefore, the staff within the Planning and Assessment Department includes a list of internal studies below. It is an expectation that all instruments originating from a Division of Student Affairs Unit follow similar design standards, question formulations and scales. Please use these instruments below to build your new survey. The Planning and Assessment staff is open and willing to work with all members of the Division to design surveys. Please be sure to build time into your assessment calendar to enable this critical step to take place.
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Resources for Establishing Learning Outcomes
The following resources may be useful in guiding the establishment of student learning outcomes for services and programs offered through the Division of Student Affairs. If you discover or create additional learning outcomes tools which you believe would be helpful to post here please email pasd@unt.edu with a copy of the resource and a brief description.
- Learning Outcomes Workshop 2007 [pdf, ppt]
- Learning Outcomes Workshop (Annotated Notes) [pdf]
- Learning Outcomes Sample Worksheet [pdf]
- Assessment of Learning Outcomes Checklist (Graduate Assistants) [pdf]
- Assessment of Learning Outcomes Checklist (Student Assistants) [pdf]
- GA Learning Outcome Enhancement Plan [pdf]
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Institutional Review Board
Many of the studies undertaken by Student Affairs staff may offer professional Affairs opportunities including journal publication, conference presentation and data for theses or dissertations. Please be advised that any research, including surveys and focus groups, conducted on human subjects that will to be published, presented external to UNT, or used in theses must be approved by the Institutional Review Board and require documentation of voluntary consent by participants. In addition, all researchers conducting studies involving human subjects must be certified through the free online NIH tutorial. More information about IRB, relevant forms, and NIH human subjects training can be found at http://research.unt.edu/faculty-resources/research-integrity-and-compliance/use-of-humans-in-research
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Bibliographical References & Literature
The links below contain bibliographical sources, databases and reports that may be useful for literary reference or collecting data.
- Educational Resource Information Center — A database for education-related articles.
- National Center for Education Statistics Report Center — This is a source for statistical, government researched reports on a variety of education-related topics. The "Publications Search" on this site doesn't always yield the best results, so also try the "Search" field at the top right corner of the page.
- Ed Pubs — A source for free printed copies of government reports.
- A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education [pdf] (also known as "The Spellings Report")
- Assessment Reference Sources [pdf]
- HR 4137 Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act
- Higher Education Research Institute Report Center contains numerous research reports, conference proceedings, posters and briefs on various topics in higher education and publications using HERI data.
- National Survey of Student Engagement Report Center lists current and past reports on data from the National Survey of Student Engagement. The reports from different years emphasize various topics on student engagement and educational experiences.
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Sample Size Calculators
These are free online sample size calculators to determine the sample size required to obtain statistically significant results when conducting quantitative survey research. The calculator websites listed below should all generate the same results, but have slightly different user interfaces, so select the one you prefer. In order to calculate your sample size, you must have a sense of your population size, confidence level and confidence interval. Alternatively, if you know your sample and population sizes, you can determine the confidence interval. Most survey researchers use a confidence level of 95% and a confidence interval of 5%.
Click here for definitions of population, sample size, confidence interval and confidence level. Several of the sample size calculator sites also have definitions of these terms listed.
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Annual Reports
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