1. Data, Decisions, and Telling YOUR Story
Lindsey K. Fields, M.S., M.Ed., LPC
Assistant Director for Residence Life

2. Goals of this session
Understand various data collection methods and processes
Better understand ways to use data to impact decision making
Learn the importance of sharing YOUR story as data drive decisions within your department

3. University of North Texas
Just under 38,000 total enrollment
14 Residence Halls
Approximately 6,300 residents living on-campus
180 Resident Life Advisor Student Staff
Resident Assistant
Housing Ambassadors
Facilities Assistants
24 Hall Director Staff
Hall Director, Assistant Hall Director, Graduate Assistant
75th largest public research university in the United States
Doubled the number of Residence Halls since 2000
25th largest on-campus residence hall population of a public university in the U.S.

4. UNT On-Campus Population

5. On-Campus Students Ethnicity
Difference
-0.043
-0.348
-0.229
-0.303
-0.227
-0.443
-0.340
All On-Campus
-0.246

6. Where do you go at your Institution for data?

7. Assessment can be Boring Overwhelming Intimidating Time-Consuming
Boring – think of those meetings and endless slides or long reports showing assessment results.
Overwhelming – with the focus on the details, we often lose sight of the big picture.
Intimidating – this is especially true for new professionals and those without assessment experience.
Time-Consuming – Learning and understanding the details requires the time that many do not have

8. Survey Cycle 1
Survey Students 2
Review Results 3
Take
Action

9. Step 1 = Survey Students Quality of Life –
Qualtrics,
October 2nd-23rd,
4 reminders,
no student incentive,
option to be anonymous
ACUHO-I Residential Assessment
Qualtrics – led to EBI portal,
April 14-May 15,
one invite,
no student incentive,
anonymous

10. ACUHO-I Residential Assessment
Administered in Spring 2015 and Spring 2016
Measures residents perception of their satisfaction and learning
Allows UNT to “select 6” schools to compare results to, as well as compares us to our Carnegie Classification and all institutions that participate in the survey that year
Spring 2015, N = 575
Spring 2016, N = 617

11. Step 2 = Review Results Results shared with: Central Housing Staff,
Hall Director Staff,
student staff,
and students
Student Portraits Symposium
Executive Summary to VP for Student Affairs

12. Factor Analysis allows researchers to investigate concepts that are not easily measured directly by collapsing a large number of variables into a few interpretable underlying factors.
What is a Factor Analysis?

13. Factor analysis helps us determine where we should invest our
Time
Resources
Energy

14. Crucial Elements The lower the level of satisfaction…
… the greater the opportunity to make improvements

15. Crucial Elements
Level of impact of a factor on overall satisfaction
Degree to which factor, if improved will impact overall outcome
High Impact factors, if improved, will do the most to improve Overall Satisfaction

16. ACUHO-I High Impact Factors
2015
2016
Category
1st Predictive Factor
Overall Program Effectiveness
Satisfaction: Hall Environment
Overall Satisfaction
Satisfaction:
Hall Environment
Overall Learning
Learning: Self-Management
Category
1st Predictive Factor
Overall Program Effectiveness
Learning: Personal Interactions
Overall Satisfaction
Satisfaction:
Hall Programming
Overall Learning
Learning:
Self-Management

17. ACUHO-I High Impact Factors on Overall Satisfaction
2015
2016
Factor
Contribution to Total Impact
Hall Environment
25.4%
Services Provided
11.7%
Hall Programming
9.8%
Factor
Contribution to Total Impact
Hall Programming
21%
Hall Environment
15.9%
Community Environment
12.4%

18. High Impact Factors for Overall Satisfaction
Hall Environment
Hall Programming
Community Environment
Your ability to study in your room
Variety of Programs
Respect your property
Your ability to sleep in your room
Quality of Programs
Respect your privacy
Your degree of privacy
Social/Educational/Cultural Programming
Respect your study time
The noise level of your floor/ community
Athletic/Recreational Activities
Respect your sleep time
Top performing are listed first, and down to last are least satisfied

19. ACUHO-I High Impact Factors on Overall Learning
2015
2016
Factor
Contribution to Total Impact
Self-Management
23.6%
Personal Interactions
19.6%
Alcohol & Drug Use
10.9%
Factor
Contribution to Total Impact
Self-Management
28.3%
Personal Interactions
25.4%
Alcohol & Drug Use
10.2%

20. High Impact Factors for Overall Learning
Self-Management
Personal Interactions
Solve your own problems
Living Cooperatively
Balance your social, work, and academic commitments
Meeting other people
Manage your time
Live a healthy life (e.g., sleep, exercise, diet)
Improving interpersonal relationships
Manage your money
Resolving Conflicts

21. Quality of Life Survey Administered October 2015
Measures satisfaction with areas of their residential living experience
Broken down by hall
Administered to 6,170 residents (N)
1,542 surveys were initiated
n = 1,286 completed (24.99% response rate!)

22. Overall Satisfaction: Multiple Areas – All Halls
Resident Assistants
Front Desk Staff
Hall Director Staff
Programming
Caution – what do you see as a trend in this slide?
Who do you encounter more frequently?
1 = Strongly Disagree
3 = Neutral/Neither
5 = Strongly Agree

23. Hall Director and Personal Interaction Items & Means
Please share with us how satisfied you are in regards to your satisfaction with your Hall Director in the following areas:
Professionalism exhibited in the halls
Providing a welcoming environment
Serving as a source of helpful information
Providing information regarding Housing and UNT
Resolving issues I bring to their attention
Interacting with me in non-disciplinary situations

24. Resident Assistant and Personal Interaction Items & Means
Please share with us how satisfied you are in regards to your satisfaction with your Resident Assistant in the following areas:
Treating everyone with respect
Interacting with me in non-disciplinary situations
Availability to see me
Helping me with problems
Fairly enforcing policies throughout the building
Resolving issues I bring to their attention
Help me connect with others within the hall
Demonstrating commitment to my academic success

25. In statistics, the correlation coefficient r measures the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two variables on a scatterplot. The value of r is always between +1 and –1. To interpret its value, see which of the following values your correlation r is closest to: 0.  No linear relationship   A weak uphill (positive) linear relationship   A moderate uphill (positive) relationship   A strong uphill (positive) linear relationship Exactly +1. A perfect uphill (positive) linear relationship
What is a correlation?

26. RLAs and Hall GPAs
.39 correlation
Weak positive relationship

27. Hall Director and Personal Interaction Items & Correlation with Sense of Feeling a Part of a Residence Hall Community
Please share with us how satisfied you are in regards to your satisfaction with your Hall Director in the following areas:
Correlation with sense of
Res. Hall Community
Professionalism exhibited in the halls
.783
Providing a welcoming environment
.763
Serving as a source of helpful information
.858
Providing information regarding Housing and UNT
.846
Resolving issues I bring to their attention
.790
Interacting with me in non-disciplinary situations

28. Resident Assistant and Personal Interaction Items & Correlation with Sense of Community
Please share with us how satisfied you are in regards to your satisfaction with your Resident Assistant in the following areas:
Correlation with Sense of Community
Availability to see me
.840
Helping me with problems
.867
Help me connect with others within the hall
.927
Fairly enforcing policies throughout the building
.769
Demonstrating commitment to my academic success
.903
Treating everyone with respect
.765
Interacting with me in non-disciplinary situations
.834
Resolving issues I bring to their attention
.880

29. Correlation
Let’s look at a scatter plot when it comes to the Correlation with Resident’s sense of belonging to a community and the Average RA score in response to “my RA helps connect me with others.”
STRONG CORRELATION of .927
These two items have a STRONG RELATIONSHIP

30. Step 3 = Take Action
What have we done so far? What do we have left to do?

31. Steps Our Department Has Taken Based on Quality of Life Survey
All Hall Directors had:
Read student comments/concerns
Addressed concerns in-hall
Central Housing Staff & Dining have:
Read all hall averages
Addressed immediate concerns within halls
Begun steps for improvements

32. Conclusions Drawn
Residents are least satisfied in the area of Hall Director non-disciplinary interactions, and it correlates to their sense of community.
Residents are least satisfied in the area of Resident Assistants helping them connect with other people in the hall, and it correlates to their sense of community.
Our Residents need help in the areas of Personal Interactions and Self-Management as these are High Impact Factors contributing to Overall Learning.

33. Steps Our Department Has Taken Based on ACUHO-I Residential Assessment
Implement Student Success Meetings
Goal: to have every Hall Director will meet with every FTIC and New Undergraduate Transfer student during the Fall 2016 semester
Guided discussions related to self-management and personal interactions
Community Development Model Changed
From heavy programmatic model to B.A.S.I.C. 2.0 Community Development model based on personal interactions between RA and Resident

34. How did I walk you through our Story?
Started with descriptive information of our population
Walked you through two survey results
Taught you about Factor Analysis and Correlations
Walked you through how conclusions were drawn
Connected how results/conclusions are being used in the department

35. Why Storytelling? Engage your audiences
Connect assessment to their existing knowledge
Provide a structure we can all relate to
Provide charts and ask for descriptive examples (qualitative)

36. What questions do you have?
I challenge you to revisit your assessments:
Does each question have a purpose?
Do you have a plan to reach enough of a representative sample?
Do you need to compare your results to other institutions?
Who needs to know this information and what will THEY do with the results?
Are you telling YOUR story to enough people?
Assistant Director for Residence Life