College of The Albemarle’s results from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) indicate that we excel in student-faculty interaction. Not only do we outperform the national average measures of student-faculty interaction, but we also exceed the NCCCS institutions’ results for student-faculty interaction. The student-faculty interaction benchmark represents a set of questions measuring the type and frequency of personal communication between college students and instructors.

Over 400,000 students at nearly 700 community colleges represent the 2011 CCSSE cohort, including over 12,000 students from 23 other North Carolina community colleges. In April, COA administered the CCSSE survey to over 500 students in more than 60 randomly selected classes across all campuses.

Some highlights of the survey results include the following:

• 74% of our students receive prompt feedback from their instructors often or very often, compared to 57% of students at two-year institutions across the United States and 63% at the NC community colleges.
• 71% of COA students use email to communicate with faculty often or very often, compared to 58% of students at colleges nationwide and 61% of students at other NCCCS colleges.
• 31% of our students discuss career plans with faculty or advisors often or very often compared to 26% nationally and 30% at North Carolina two-year institutions.
• 21% of COA students discussed ideas from readings or classes with instructors often or very often outside of regular class time. In comparison, 17% of students nationally and 18% of students across the state discussed with their instructors outside of class.

Althea Riddick, Vice President of Learning, said “COA is proud of the commitment of time and energy expended by our faculty as they work to meet the needs of students outside of regular class contact hours. Now we have the CCSSE as validation of their efforts. This high level of student engagement may be an important variable that has contributed to the success rate of students on licensure exams and the positive results of the college's NCCCS performance levels related to student learning and success. This also speaks very highly of our students taking the initiative to ask faculty for help and advice outside the classroom.”

Research shows that the more actively engaged students are—with college faculty and staff, with other students, and with the subject matter—the more likely they are to learn and to achieve their academic goals. CCSSE’s national benchmarks of effective educational practice in community and technical colleges address these five issues: (1) Active and Collaborative Learning, (2) Student Effort, (3) Academic Challenge, (4) Student-Faculty Interaction, and (5) Support for Learners. CCSSE benchmarks focus on institutional practices and student behaviors that promote student engagement and that correlate highly with student learning and persistence. The CCSSE survey instrument—administered directly to community college students at participating colleges—is a tool that helps participating institutions assess quality in community college education, focus on good educational practice, and identify areas in which they can improve programs and services for students.

COA’s survey results for the other benchmarks were slightly above the national average for student effort and support for learners, and slightly below the national average for active and collaborative learning and academic challenge. One noticeable area for improvement is the benchmark for active and collaborative learning. COA students participate in group projects or worked together on assignments outside of class less frequently than students at community colleges nationwide.

For more information about CCSSE, please visit www.ccsse.org.

College of The Albemarle serves the seven-county area of northeastern North Carolina by improving lives through academic opportunities, economic development, and cultural enrichment.

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