Data Analysis-Factors That Impact the Academic Success of College Students - Essay Sample

Introduction

Research is key to successful academic learning and plays a significant role in increasing overall knowledge which is the primary objective of attending college education. Data is collected, organized and analyzed to deduce new knowledge and expand on existing knowledge (Richmond, 2006). Data analysis is a method used to evaluate collected data using analytical and statistical instruments to establish useful patterns within the data. Data analysis methods differ depending on the type of data and the purpose of the research (Richmond, 2006). Text analytics, data mining and data visualization are the typical data analysis approaches that are used to organize research data into systematic content (Richmond, 2006). This essay will assess the factors that impact academic success for college students by evaluating an existing data set on academic advising to establish how it can inform current research and its implication on academic success for students in colleges.

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Data Set Importance on Existing Research on Academic Advising

Academic advising is an essential service that is offered by institutions of learning to help students to pursue viable academic courses based on their strengths as well as the market value of the course (Drake, 2011). The data set presents data from different learning institutions which seek to establish the perceptions of students towards an existing service offered by schools to improve learning and students' academic satisfaction by ensuring that students pursue courses that are valuable and where they can do best based on their qualifications and capacity of learning. The data set covers a wide range of respondents within the college environment such as different levels of education, gender, and institution. This aspect of the data set makes it highly representative and raises its reliability level.

Dataset Significance to Academic Advising Research

The data set shows that different Doctoral Universities, master's Colleges, students and institutions based on a Carnegie classification framework to identify interest groups within the learning environment to provide comparable information on academic advising. All the participants were in post-secondary institutions in the United States of America pursuing a bachelor's degree. The dataset can inform existing research on the importance of academic advising by assessing the perceptions of the students who have used the service to determine how it has been of importance to them which can help to evaluate the suitability and sustainability of academic advising programs.

Dataset Impact on Academic Advising Research

The first research question seeks to establish how often male and female students seek out academic advisers to discuss academic interest, performance, and course selection. The data set shows that in both first-year group of students and the senior's female students are more likely to seek academic advisors on all response options. However, the data set shows that in both groups at senior level the number of students seeking academic advisors increase exponentially compared to the first year learning level. In the second question, the data set aims to establish the availability, reliability and the ability of academic advisors to respond to student queries. In all the options, female student's shows positive feedback on the academic advisor's availability, ability to listen, responding to students queries and being able to guide students compared to male students. These findings show a significant deviation on the perception of academic advisors between female and male students as well as first-year students and seniors. The study shows that female students at both first year and senior level view the academic advisors as reliable compared to the males with more females than males seeking academic advisor's services. This indicates the need for encouraging male students in the post-secondary level of learning to use academic advisors services to get academic counseling to be able to pursue courses that are marketable and to quickly solve academic problems using their counsel.

Conclusion

Data analysis, in this case, is used to identify the perception of different groups on academic advisors which has a significant impact on the overall learning experience and success. The data set to establish a gap in academic advisors utilization between male and female students as well as first-years and seniors which indicate the need to create awareness on academic advisors role in academic success at first-year learning level as well as male students who underutilize the services of academic advisors.

References

Drake, J. K. (2011). The role of academic advising in student retention and persistence. About Campus, 16(3), 8-12. Retrieved from http://advising.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/jaynearticle%20(3).pdf

Richmond, B. (2006). Introduction to Data Analysis Handbook. Academy for Educational Development. [Internet Source]. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED536788.pdf