HEDS Surveys – Member and nonmember institutions
HEDS administers three surveys each year: the HEDS Research Practices Survey, the HEDS Alumni Survey, and the HEDS Senior Survey. The cost of a single four-week administration for each survey is $500 for HEDS members and $1,500 for nonmembers. All three surveys have been approved by the Wabash College IRB.
We provide sample surveys and discuss administration details for the three HEDS surveys in more depth below.
HEDS Research Practices Survey
Survey windows: July 1–October 10 and the last six weeks of your institution's 2012–2013 term
The HEDS Research Practices Survey is designed to assess information literacy, including student’s skills, attitudes, and approaches to using information sources in academic research.
When administered to incoming first-year students, the survey provides important comparative baseline information that faculty and librarians can use in developing pedagogies and materials to advance their students’ research and information literacy skills. When administered to both incoming and upper-level students, the Research Practices Survey can be used to assess the outcomes of liberal arts instruction in college-level research skills (longitudinally or cross-sectionally).
The HEDS Research Practices Survey is a 35-question online survey that takes about 15 minutes to complete. Since it was developed in 2004, the survey has been administered to more than 30,000 undergraduates at more than 60 colleges and universities.
See more detailed information on the HEDS Research Practices Survey.
See survey sample.
HEDS Alumni Survey
Survey window: October 1, 2012 to July 31, 2013
The HEDS Alumni Survey is designed to assess the long-term impact of teaching practices and institutional conditions on liberal education learning goals such as critical thinking, information literacy, and problem solving. The HEDS Alumni Survey also examines postgraduate employment outcomes, college debt, and college satisfaction. The survey is based both on Wabash National Study findings on effective teaching practices and the AAC&U LEAP learning outcomes. It connects longitudinally with the HEDS Senior Survey so that institutions can examine both immediate and longer term college outcomes.
The HEDS Alumni Survey is a 93-question online survey that takes no more than 15 minutes to complete. In 2011–12, the survey was administered to nearly 12,000 alumni from 34 liberal arts and research institutions across the United States. Although institutions can administer the HEDS Alumni Survey to alumni from any era, our comparison reports focus primarily on alumni five and ten years after graduation.
See more detailed information on the HEDS Alumni Survey.
See survey sample.
Survey window: the last six weeks of seniors' final term
The newly revised HEDS Senior Survey is designed to assess the immediate postgraduation impact of teaching practices and institutional conditions on liberal learning goals such as critical thinking, writing, speaking, and problem solving. Like the HEDS Alumni Survey, the HEDS Senior Survey is based both on Wabash National Study findings on effective teaching practices and the AAC&U LEAP learning outcomes. The HEDS Senior Survey also allows colleges and universities to gather information on seniors' postgraduate plans for employment, education, and service. HEDS has administered the Senior Survey since 1997. The HEDS Senior Survey is designed to be connected longitudinally with the HEDS Alumni Survey so that institutions can examine both immediate and longer term college outcomes. The HEDS
There are two versions of the HEDS Senior Survey: (1) the standard version of the survey has 87 questions and takes about 15 minutes to complete and (2) a longer version of the survey includes an additional 42 questions that provide a fine-grained assessment of students' satisfaction with the quality of their advising, in- and out-of-classroom experiences, campus services and facilities, and campus life.
See detailed information on the HEDS Senior Survey.
See a sample of the standard version and the supplemental questions on student satisfaction.