Date of Graduation
2002
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
The study sought to determine if a relationship existed between the independent variable of student effort, and the dependent variables of perception of college environment and self-assessment of gains from the college experience for Glenville State College nontraditional student persisters. The study sought to determine if a relationship existed between scores of Glenville State College students for quality of effort and self-evaluation of gains from the college experience compared to the same scores for a normative group. The population included Glenville State College students at least 24 years old with at least 80 hours completed in a baccalaureate program in the fall of 2000 and the spring of 2001. The population also included Glenville State College graduates who were enrolled the fall of 1998 and at that time were at least 24 years old with least 80 hours completed in a baccalaureate program and graduates who were enrolled in the fall of 1999 who met the same criteria (N = 382). All were included in the study; 196 participated for a response rate of 51%. The data collection instrument was the College Student Experiences Questionnaire, 4th edition by Robert C. Pace. The findings revealed that the most effort and highest frequency of participation occurred in college experiences related to academic and scholarly experiences and informal personal and interpersonal experiences. This was consistent with the literature review that found that the profile of the college graduate reflects high levels of academic and social integration in the college experience and that nontraditional students will be more academically integrated with little or no time for group associations and utilization of college facilities beyond the classroom and library. The study's results indicated a statistically significant relationship between quality of student effort and the student's perception of the college environment, as well as between quality of student effort and the student's self-assessment of gains from the college experience. The results found that effort scores of the Glenville State College students are similar to effort scores for a normative group of nontraditional students, and that self-assessment of gains reported by the GSC students is equal to or higher than the same scores reported by the normative group.
Recommended Citation
Garrett, Marthenia Ellen, "The quality of student effort of nontraditional student persisters at Glenville State College." (2002). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 8894.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/8894