Evaluating the college experience of graduating seniors in the Texas Tech agricultural communications degree program

Abstract

The Texas Tech agricultural communications has been around for 44 years and has the goal of teaching students about skills to serve the industry as well as professional skills (Ahrens & Gibson, 2013). The assessment of the satisfaction and the success of the program is a valuable aspect to creating better programs. Understanding how a program prepares students to work in the industry post-graduation improves how the program teaches students and promotes aspects of the college experience. This qualitative study used interviews of students to develop an instrument to evaluate and asses the program as students graduate.

This study used the Astin’s (1993) Inputs-Environments-Outcomes model to create the instrument evaluating the elements of student satisfaction with the program. This lead to the findings of: distinguished program, personal connection, sense of belonging, active learning, comfort in surroundings, applicability of education, and level of preparedness.

Future research will need to pilot test for reliability and validity in order to use the instrument designed from this study. Practitioners should continue to require internships experiences as well as encourage involvement in organizations, student abroad experiences and undergraduate research to help students receive the most out of their college experience.