Learning with Peers: First-year students

Collaborating with others in mastering difficult material and developing interpersonal and social competence prepare students to deal with complex, unscripted problems they will encounter during and after college. Two Engagement Indicators make up this theme: Collaborative Learning and Discussions with Diverse Others. Below are three views of your results alongside those of your comparison groups.


Mean Comparisons

  UMD Your first-year students compared with
UMD Peers  UMD Competitors  NSSE Carnegie
Engagement IndicatorMean Mean 

Effect
size

   Mean Effect
size
   Mean Effect
size
Collaborative Learning32.330.4***.14 30.8**.11 29.4***.22 
Discussions with Diverse Others37.539.3**-.12 36.0*.10 36.2*.08 
Notes: Results weighted by institution-reported sex and enrollment status (and institution size for comparison groups); Effect size: Mean difference divided by pooled standard deviation; Symbols on the Overview page are based on effect size and p before rounding; *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001 (2-tailed).


Score Distributions

Notes: Each box-and-whiskers chart plots the 5th (bottom of lower bar), 25th (bottom of box), 50th (middle line), 75th (top of box), and 95th (top of upper bar) percentile scores. The dot represents the mean score.



Performance on Indicator Items

The table below displays how your students responded to each EI item, and the difference, in percentage points, between your students and those of your comparison group. Blue bars indicate how much higher your institution's percentage is from that of the comparison group. Purple bars indicate how much lower your institution's percentage is from that of the comparison group.

   Percentage point differencea between
your first-year students and
Collaborative LearningUMD UMD Peers UMD Competitors NSSE Carnegie
Percentage of students who responded that they "Very often" or "Often"... %         
1e.  Asked another student to help you understand course material54 +7 +4 +8 
1f.  Explained course material to one or more students53 +2 +1 +6 
1g.  Prepared for exams by discussing or working through course material with other students44 +3 +2 +5 
1h.  Worked with other students on course projects or assignments58 +5 +7 +8 
   
Discussions with Diverse Others   
Percentage of students who responded that they "Very often" or "Often" had discussions with...        
8a.  People of a race or ethnicity other than your own58 -12 +2 -3 
8b.  People from an economic background other than your own70 -0 +5 +5 
8c.  People with religious beliefs other than your own69 +1 +8 +8 
8d.  People with political views other than your own65 +0 +4 +9 
 
Notes: Refer to your Frequencies and Statistical Comparisons report for full distributions and significance tests. Item numbering corresponds to the survey facsimile.
a.Percentage point difference = Institution percentage – Comparison group percentage. Because results are rounded to whole numbers, differences of less than 1 point may or may not display a bar. Small, but nonzero differences may be represented as +0 or -0.

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