Student and Alumni Survey Results

The Priorities Survey of Online Learners (PSOL; Ruffalo Noel-Levitz, 2001) is a survey designed to evaluate what students believe is important about their education experience, as well as how satisfied they are with their experiences. Excelsior University has administered the PSOL to a sample of its enrolled students every two years since 2010, allowing for longitudinal comparisons as well as comparisons with national benchmarks and 10 peer institutions identified by stakeholders throughout the college.

For the year 2022, a total of 961 survey responses were obtained from the students. The primary findings from the PSOL 2022 administration are summarized as follows:

• Overall, the results suggest that students are generally satisfied with their educational experience at Excelsior University. More specifically, 92% of respondents indicated that Excelsior met or exceeded their expectations; 83% are satisfied with their experience at Excelsior; and 82% would enroll at Excelsior again. All of these scores are an increase from the PSOL 2020 results.
• On these items, Master’s degree students reported higher satisfaction with their experience than Associate or Bachelor’s degree students.
• In comparison to the National Online Learners group, Excelsior University received slightly lower satisfaction scores on the summary items described above, with a significantly lower score on the “Enroll Again” item. Excelsior scored significantly lower than the peer comparison group on all three summary items.

The 26 standard PSOL items represent five scales: Institutional Perceptions, Academic Services, Instructional Services, Enrollment Services, and Student Services. Average scores on all of these items were higher than 5 on a 7-point Likert scale, indicating satisfaction. On all five scales, Excelsior’s performance for the year 2022 is consistently higher and not statistically different from the year 2020 results. When compared to national benchmarks, Excelsior is exceeding scores in the areas of Academic Services, Instructional Services, and Student Services. Compared to the peer institutions groups, Excelsior’s performance for the year 2022 is higher on the Instructional Services scales.