Child Care Needs Assessement Study

The 2010 Child Care Needs Survey evaluated the extent to which students, faculty, and staff with children have adequate child care, the effects of inadequate care on the achievement of goals and performance in the classroom and workplace, and the demand for on-campus child care at Utah Valley University. Two surveys, one of students and one of faculty and staff, were conducted in the summer and fall of 2010, interviewing more than 2,000 students and nearly 900 faculty and staff members. The survey showed that:

• Inadequate student care reduced student loads by approximately 7,400 credit hours and led another 300 students to withdraw completely from the university when they would have otherwise continued; total FTE was reduced by approximately 700 students. UVU lost approximately $1.1 million in resident tuition and fee revenue due to inadequate child care in Spring 2010 alone.
• In total, nearly 30 work days per year—more than one day every other week—are affected in some way by inadequate child care among full-time employees.
• Demand for child care is conservatively estimated at a minimum of 500 children, and may range to more than 1,600.
• The typical student who would likely use on-campus child care is married, under 30, and needs 27.3 hours of care per week.

Employer Satisfaction and Recruitment Practices Study

The 2010 Utah Valley Univeristy Employer Surveys evaluated employers’ general perception of UVU’s educational quality, the skills and performance of UVU graduates, and recruiting practices among employers. The surveys are based on phone interviews with two groups: 1,087 employers statewide identified from Department of Workforce Services public records and alumni self-reports on the 2008 and 2009 Graduated Alumni surveys, and 221 individual supervisors of UVU alumni identified on those surveys. The survey showed that:

• Employers have very favorable opinions of UVU’s educational quality and
  see the institution as comparable to WSU and SUU.
• UVU offers degrees that employers want, but there is demand for new
  programs in engineering, health professions, and business.
• Supervisors give graduates high marks in job skills and work habits, with
  weaknesses in math, leadership, and awareness of cultural differences.
• Education is a critical factor in supervisors’ employment decisions about
  graduates, especially for graduates with bachelor’s degrees.
• On-campus recruiting is largely irrelevant to business’ recruiting strategies.

Non-Returning Student Study

The Fall 2009 to Spring 2010 Non-returning Student Survey was designed to identify the major factors that led students registered in Fall 2009 to not register in Spring 2010, and to identify the plans and activities that those students pursued rather than studying at UVU. The survey canvassed all non-returning, degree-seeking students from Fall 2009. The margin of error was 2.0%, based on a sample of 1,544 respondents drawn from a population of 4,052 non-returning degree-seeking students. The survey found that:

• Students have embraced UVU as a full-fledged university and see it as more than a community college.
• Student persistence is a consequence of decisions under UVU's control or influence.
• Student attrition is largely among students who enrolled seeking degrees from UVU, rather among than those who had already planned to transfer to other institutions.
• The most important reasons for not returning were financial or work-related.
• Concerns about programs and courses are important motivations to transfer.
• Students want courses at a wide range of times, with strong demand in morning and evening.

Alumni Outcomes, 2005-2009

Utah Valley University annually surveys alumni in the second year after graduation. Jeff Johnson analyzed data from the 2005-2009 surveys. The studyrevealed a number of important findings about the university:

• Utah Valley University’s graduates consistently praise the quality of their education. UVU shows a consistent pattern of overall excellence, strong personal and intellectual growth in traditional academic fields and in preparation for the workforce, and satisfaction with academic programs.
• The expansion of UVU’s bachelor’s and graduate programs appears to have increased the likelihood that UVU graduates will return to UVU for further education. For every one percentage point increase in bachelor’s degrees awarded, the university can expect a 0.67 point increase in associate’s degree graduates who continue their education and a 1.4 point increase in continuing associate’s degree graduates that attend UVU within one year of graduation.
• Unemployment rates tracked fluctuation in the statewide unemployment rate but were generally higher and more volatile. A substantial number of graduates, however, are underemployed in their first-year after graduation. Both problems are likely to be short-term, life-cycle effects typical of those starting out in the professional job market.
• Strong gender gaps in income across a wide range of measures and controls strongly suggest that female graduates are disadvantaged by gender inequities in the workplace.
• Across a wide range of measures, graduates in Business, Education, Science and Health, and Technology and Computing have a distinct advantage in the job market over those in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and University College.
• Job preparation is most useful to graduates when integrated into academic programs. A majority of graduates saw no contribution to finding their current jobs from student services job preparation and placement programs.

Using Web Simulations of Extensive-form Games in Undergraduate Courses

Simulations and web-based tools are becoming increasingly common techniques for teaching in undergraduate courses. This study examines one approach to building such tools. By combining the parallel structures of extensive-form games, experiential simulations, and the simple language behind the World Wide Web, it is possible to combine content, pedagogy, and presentation into an effective approach to learning. The online simulation of an extensive-form game is a form of active learning understood as activities that require the student to participate in using a body of knowledge to accomplish some practical task. To test the effectiveness of simulations, we surveyed students in a course that used a simulation of the legislative process in the United States Congress in an introductory American government course and compared student reported participation in and preparation for the simulation to both self-reported and direct measures of student performance. Results show that students perceive improvement in performance, but this is contradicted by the direct measures, which show no evidence that simulations are effective means of improving student performance on assignments. While several reasons for this may be present, this study concludes that simulations, and active learning in general, more likely improve students’ affective orientation toward the course material, especially their confidence in their ability to use the material, than their achievement of specific traditional learning objectives.

On the Advantage and Disadvantage of History for Teaching Political Theory to Undergraduates

This paper argues that the standard approach to teaching the history of political thought does not serve the ultimate goals of political theory education, and that alternative approaches are needed to make the history of thought appropriate for undergraduates. A history of political thought for life ought to enhance a person’s capacity to act as a political animal in three ways: as a moral person, as a free person, and as a citizen. But the most common practices in teaching the history of political thought suffer from the same criticisms that have been leveled at contemporary research in political theory, thereby undermining the study of political theory for life. Teaching the history of political thought should be based on a model where classical texts serve as Socratic gadflies that provide alternative perspectives on the perennial questions posed by contemporary political practice. Two alternative models can integrate both traditional approaches to the history of political thought with contemporary political practice to produce a history of political thought for life that is appropriate to the purposes of undergraduate education in political theory.

Author Posting. (c) Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Political Science Education, Volume 4 Issue 3, July 2008. doi:10.1080/15512160802202748 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15512160802202748)