How it was done
B.C. Diploma, Associate Degree, and Certificate Student Outcomes Survey
The B.C. Diploma, Associate Degree, and Certificate Student Outcomes (DACSO) Survey is conducted annually province-wide, and asks former students to evaluate their post-secondary education and to report on further education and employment experiences.
The 2009 survey interviewed 15,856 former students. The findings are useful for prospective students making educational choices, as well as providing information to institutions for educational planning.
The DACSO survey is conducted with funding from the Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour Market Development in partnership with 20 B.C. post-secondary institutions. Former students were interviewed nine to 20 months after completing all, or a significant portion, of their educational program. The survey does not include students in baccalaureate degree programs, apprenticeship students or those in developmental programs such as ESL and adult basic education. The telephone survey was conducted in spring 2009 and achieved a 59 per cent response rate.
Several of the indicators were calculated from questions that offered four or five response categories (e.g. 5=very well, 4=well, 3=adequately, 2=poor, 1= very poor). The results are the average of the responses shown on a scale of 5 to 1 or 4 to 1 where a higher value indicates a more favourable rating.
The results also include data from a standardized index. Program mix, which varies considerably from one institution to the next, can affect how students evaluate their programs and directly relates to employment and further education. The DACSO survey has created a standardized index that allows results for an individual school to be compared to what would be the provincial value if all the schools in the system offered the same mix of programs as the school in question. This data includes results shown as percentages: higher, lower or—at 100%—equal to the provincial score.
When displaying the survey results, Maclean’s has ordered the colleges in descending order according to how each performs as compared to the provincial adjusted score.
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