notes on alumni survey:

• [x] "Did you enter Barnard planning on majoring in CS? What factors influenced your decision to major in CS?" These questions should be broken into two parts to make for easier tabulation of yes/no responses Asking compound free response questions often leads to the respondent answering only one part. The incomplete data becomes difficult to analyze (any chance you get to get multiple choice data you should get), suggestion: first yes/no. then next question: multiple choice with different factors and include other (interested in the coursework, good career outcomes, comradary with other students...) check all that apply
• [x] "How included did you feel in Columbia's CS community?" What does included mean? Can the question be more specific? One way to acknowledge that inclusion means many things is to specify whether the survey is asking about intellectual inclusion in the classroom; or social inclusion outside the classroom; or comfort speaking to faculty outside of class; etc. → what does included mean? felt included in classes, but not in social life, or vice versa. DEFINE INCLUSION...did you feel included in the columbia academic classroom? columbia cs social life. ask about academics, yes/no. another q on social life. invite them to add additional comments. PROMPT additional comments without conditions
• [x] "a colorful, more relaxed, feminine, "Barnardesque" programming space" TAKE OUT conditionals
• [x] "What would you say the ratio to women to men in your Columbia CS classes were? (Relatively speaking)" → What would you say the ratio of women to men in your Columbia cs classes was?” WHAT is this questioning getting at? i could just go back in course data and ask the registrar for that data. OR am i interested in what people felt that it was yes i am "can you please estimate what percentage of your classes were women?"
  • ranges of numbers
    • less than 10%
    • 11%-24%
    • 25%-50%
    • more than 50%
• [x] "How supported by professors and faculty in Columbia's CS department were you?" See above: similar concern with the question about feeling included. What does supported mean? It will likely have very different meanings to different individuals. Also is the language "professors and faculty" intentional? Should it be "Faculty and other instructors"? This should be clarified. supported?? what does this mean? how often did you visit professors in OH? how often did you ask questions in classes? behaviors...that demonstrate comfort and safety? rate your level of agreement with the following statement:
  • columbia professors cared about my academic success
• [x] how often did you wish that barnard had it's own CS department
  • never
  • rarely
  • sometimes
  • often
  • all the time

what are the most important questions for me to ask? what do i want to do with the data? what decisions are you trying to help inform? goals of the survey to help identify different possible solutions, but the survey could identify others...what kinds of inclusion questions get me to this goal

• WHO is the recipient of this data
• WHAT will they do with the data

matrix q:

i felt included as a woman at CU

i want data that is useful, not just interesting

this data is useful, and makes me want to do x

the interesting and the useful !!! we want both !!!