Student Satisfaction Survey

WHAT IS THE STUDENT SATISFACTION SURVEY?

About the Student Satisfaction Inventory

Copyright 2003, Noel-Levitz, Inc.
Approved for inclusion on this website

The Student Satisfaction Inventory measures students' satisfaction with a wide range of college experiences.Principles of consumer theory serve as the basis for the inventory's construction. Therefore, students are viewed as consumers who have a choice about whether to invest in education and where to enroll. In addition, students are seen as individuals who have definite expectations about what they want from their campus experience. From this perspective, satisfaction with college occurs when an expectation is met or exceeded by an institution.

Students rate each item in the inventory by the importance of the specific expecation as well as their satisfaction with how well that expectation is being met. A performance gap is then determined by the difference in the importance rating and satisfaction rating. Items with large perforamnce gaps indicate areas on campus where students perceive their expectations are not being met adequately.

Because the Student Satisfaction Inventory results in three different scores for each item, a significant amount of information is generated for institutional decision makers. Importance score ratings reflect how strongly students feel about the expectation (the higher the score, the more important it is to a student, hence the stronger the expecation). Satisfaction ratings show how satisfied students are that your institution has met the expectation (the higher the score, the more satisfied the student). Performance gap scores (importance rating minus satisfaction rating) show how well you are meeting the expectation overall. A large performance gap score for an item (e.g., 1.5) indicates that the institution is not meeting students' expectations, whereas a small or zero gap score (e.g., .50) indicates that an institution is meeting students' expectations, and a negative gap score (e.g., -.25) indicates that an institution is exceeding students' expectations. Please note that the above performance gap references are examples. What is defined as a large and small performance gap may vary by institution.

In addition to the information provided by the three measurements for each item, inventory composite scales offer a "global" perspective of your students' responses. The scales provide a good overview of your institution's strengths and areas in need of improvement.

The Items
The Student Satisfaction Inventory collects student feedback on over 100 items. Included are:

• 73 items of expectation for 4-year colleges and universities
• 10 optional items which may be defined by the institution
• 6 items that assess the institution's commitment to specific student populations
• 9 items that assess pre-enrollment factors
• 3 summary items that assess overall satisfaction with the institution
• 13 demographic items that identify demographic characteristics of respondents
• 2 optional items that further identify the demographic characteristics of respondents (you can have students record their major or program, plus one other demographic characteristic of your choosing).

The Scales
For 4-year colleges and universities, 73 items of expectation and 6 items that assess the institution's commitment to specific student populations are analyzed statistically and conceptually to provide the following 12 composite scales:

• Academic Advising Effectiveness assesses the comprehensiveness of your academic advising program. Academic advisors are evaluated on the basis of their knowledge, competence and personal concern for student success, as well as on their approachability.
  
  
• Campus Climate assesses the extent to which your institution provides experiences which promote a sense of campus pride and feelings of belonging. This scale also assesses the effectiveness of your institution's channels of communication for students.
  
  
• Campus Life assesses the effectiveness of student life programs offered by your institution, covering issues ranging from athletics to residence life. This scale also assesses campus policies and procedures to determine students' perceptions of their rights and responsibilities.
  
  
• Campus Support Services assesses the quality of your support programs and services which students utilize in order to make their educational experiences more meaningful and productive. This scale covers areas such as tutoring, the adequacy of the library and computer labs, and the availability of academic and career services.
  
  
• Concern for the Individual assesses your institution's commitment to treating each student as an individual. Those groups who frequently deal with students on a personal level (e.g., faculty, advisors, counselors, residence hall staff) are included in this assessment.
  
  
• Instructional Effectiveness assesses your students' academic experience, your curriculum, and your campus's overriding commitment to academic excellence. This comprehensive scale covers areas such as the variety of courses offered, the effectiveness of your faculty in and out of the classroom, and the effectiveness of your adjunct faculty and graduate teaching assistants.
  
  
• Recruitment and Financial Aid Effectiveness assesses your institution's ability to enroll students in an effective manner. This scale covers issues such as competence and knowledge of admissions counselors, as well as the effectiveness and availability of financial aid programs.
  
  
• Registration Effectiveness assesses issues associated with registration and billing. This scale also measures your institution's commitment to making this process as smooth and effective as possible.
  
  
• Responsiveness to Diverse Populations assesses your institution's commitment to specific groups of students enrolled at your institution, e.g., under-represented populations, students with disabilities, commuters, part-time students, and older, returning learners.
  
  
• Safety and Security assesses your institution's responsiveness to students' personal safety and security on your campus. This scale measures the effectiveness of both security personnel and campus facilities.
  
  
• Service Excellence assesses the perceived attitude of your staff toward students, especially front-line staff. This scale pinpoints the areas of your campus where quality service and personal concern for students are rated most and least favorably.
  
  
• Student Centeredness assesses your campus's efforts to convey to students that they are important to your institution. This scale measures the extent to which students feel welcome and valued.
  
  Some items on the inventory contribute to more than one scale. In addition, there are two items (numbers25 and 72) which are not included in any of the four-year scales.

Reliability and Validity
The Student Satisfaction Inventory is a very reliable instrument. Both the two-year and four-year versions of the SSI show exceptionally high internal reliability. Cronbach's coefficient alpha is .97 for the set of importance scores and is .98 for the set of satisfaction scores. It also demonstrates good score reliability over time; the three-week, rest-retest reliability coefficient is .85 for importance scores and .84 for satisfaction scores.

There is also evidence to support the validity of the Student Satisfaction Inventory. Convergent validity was assessed by correlating satisfaction scores from the SSI with satisfaction scores from the College Student Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSSQ), another statistically reliable satisfaction instrument. The Pearson correlation between these two instruments (r=.71; p<.00001) is high enough to indicate that the SSI's satisfaction scores measure the same satisfaction construct as the CSSQ's scores, and yet the correlation is low enough to indicate that there are distinct differences between the two instruments.

Permission to inculde this information on this website was given by Noel-Levitz.