Preliminary Report
The Core Curriculum Student Opinion Survey
Preliminary Report
During the 1998 Fall semester the Core Curriculum Student Opinion Survey was developed. It was administered at the end of the 1998 Fall semester and the beginning of the 1999 Spring semester. Students were surveyed from a cross-section of university courses. Courses offered within each of the university's colleges and at all levels (100 through 400 level) were included in the survey. A total of 1455 undergraduate students participated with nearly equal proportions of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
The survey contained thirty-two questions.
- Eight questions (Q1-Q4, Q29-Q32) provided information regarding the student's class standing, history of core classes taken, gender, age, residency status, and current GPA.
- Sixteen questions (Q5-Q20) concerned student opinions regarding the goals of the core.
- Eight questions (Q21-Q28) concerned student opinions regarding the current core structure and leaning experiences in core classes.
Core Goals
The survey indicated over 90% of the students believe they have either a high or moderate
understanding of the goals of the core curriculum. The students then answered fourteen
questions regarding the level of influence those MSU core classes have had with respect
to specific core goals. The following table summarizes the core goals and the percentage
of students who responded positively (either 'greatly increased' or 'slightly increased').
Ability to use the skills and ideas from one course and apply them in other courses | 75% |
Intellectual curiosity | 71% |
Public-speaking skills | 71% |
Ability to reason mathematically | 69% |
Writing skills | 68% |
Ability to analyze written arguments | 66% |
Ability to think critically | 66% |
Ability to understand scientific concepts | 65% |
Respect of different points of view | 63% |
Decision-making abilities | 62% |
Ability to think independently | 59% |
Appreciation of other cultures | 58% |
Appreciation of visual arts and/or music | 52% |
Interest in current events | 46% |
Decisions when making ethical/moral choices | 40% |
For each of these fourteen questions the percentage of students who responded negatively
(a response of 'decreased') was very low ranging from 1% to 6%.
When the responses are analyzed by gender, a higher percentage of female students
responded more positively than male students for most questions. The following table
summarizes the percentages of female and male students who responded positively (either
'greatly increased' or 'slightly increased').
Female | Male | |
Ability to use the skills and ideas from one course and apply them in other courses | 80% | 72% |
Intellectual curiosity | 73% | 68% |
Public-speaking skills | 72% | 70% |
Writing skills | 69% | 66% |
Ability to reason mathematically | 67% | 70% |
Ability to analyze written arguments | 63% | 67% |
Ability to think critically | 67% | 66% |
Ability to understand scientific concepts | 66% | 64% |
Respect of different points of view | 67% | 59% |
Decision-making abilities | 60% | 64% |
Ability to think independently | 61% | 58% |
Appreciation of other cultures | 66% | 52% |
Appreciation of visual arts and/or music | 57% | 48% |
Interest in current events | 50% | 43% |
Decisions when making ethical/moral choices | 43% | 39% |
When the responses are analyzed by class standing, the percentage of students who
responded positively (either 'greatly increased' or 'slightly increased') is generally
higher for juniors and seniors than it is for freshmen and sophomores. The following
table summarizes the percentages for freshmen (Fr), sophomores (So), juniors (Jr),
and seniors (Sr) who responded positively regarding that core goal.
Fr | So | Jr | Sr | |
Ability to use the skills and ideas from one course and apply them in other courses | 68% | 77% | 79% | 77% |
Intellectual curiosity | 66% | 74% | 70% | 71% |
Public-speaking skills | 66% | 72% | 74% | 71% |
Ability to reason mathematically | 76% | 71% | 65% | 62% |
Writing skills | 59% | 69% | 71% | 71% |
Ability to analyze written arguments | 61% | 66% | 68% | 69% |
Ability to think critically | 62% | 69% | 68% | 65% |
Ability to understand scientific concepts | 68% | 66% | 60% | 66% |
Respect of different points of view | 62% | 57% | 66% | 64% |
Decision-making abilities | 63% | 63% | 63% | 59% |
Ability to think independently | 55% | 61% | 64% | 57% |
Appreciation of other cultures | 46% | 55% | 66% | 62% |
Appreciation of visual arts and/or music | 38% | 53% | 57% | 55% |
Interest in current events | 39% | 49% | 49% | 47% |
Decisions when making ethical/moral choices | 37% | 41% | 43% | 40% |
When the responses are further analyzed by class standing, there is an increasing
trend in the percentage for the response 'greatly increase' as students progress through
the core curriculum. That is, the percentage is lowest for freshmen, is somewhat higher
for sophomores, and then is highest for juniors and seniors. The following table summarizes
the percentages for freshmen (Fr), sophomores (So), juniors (Jr), and seniors (Sr)
who indicated a 'great increase' regarding that core goal.
Fr | So | Jr | Sr | |
Ability to use the skills and ideas from one course and apply them in other courses | 14% | 21% | 23% | 26% |
Intellectual curiosity | 17% | 26% | 26% | 32% |
Public-speaking skills | 23% | 19% | 26% | 23% |
Ability to reason mathematically | 20% | 23% | 22% | 22% |
Writing skills | 11% | 16% | 18% | 21% |
Ability to analyze written arguments | 7% | 10% | 11% | 15% |
Ability to think critically | 12% | 16% | 16% | 20% |
Ability to understand scientific concepts | 14% | 21% | 19% | 30% |
Respect of different points of view | 13% | 12% | 20% | 21% |
Decision-making abilities | 11% | 13% | 19% | 18% |
Ability to think independently | 13% | 16% | 20% | 21% |
Appreciation of other cultures | 12% | 17% | 25% | 24% |
Appreciation of visual arts and/or music | 13% | 19% | 22% | 20% |
Interest in current events | 4% | 12% | 14% | 18% |
Decisions when making ethical/moral choices | 5% | 4% | 11% | 8% |
Current Core Curriculum Structure
The following survey results reflect student opinions regarding the current core structure (Q22-Q25).
- 66% of the students support a change in the core curriculum that would allow the number of core credits in each core area (e.g., Verbal, Humanities, etc.) to vary by major.
- 81% of the students do not support a requirement that all core credits be completed before entering senior status.
- 79% of the students support a continuation of the policy that majors and non-majors should be enrolled in the same sections of core classes.
- 49% of the students indicate they believe the number of core credits should remain the same. A similar percentage, however (48%) want the number of core credits to either be reduced or want the core eliminated. There is very little support (3%) to have the number of core credits increased.
Core Curriculum Learning Experiences
The following survey results reflect student opinions regarding learning experiences in core classes (Q26-Q28).
- 70% of the students, a strong majority, responded that they learned better in core classes where the enrollment is small, while 27% responded that class size makes no difference. The remaining 3% prefer large classes.
- 78% of the students had learning experiences with faculty members as instructors of core classes that were above average (either 'excellent' or 'good'), while 20% considered the learning experiences with faculty members as fair. Only 2% claim to have had poor learning experiences with faculty members as instructors.
- In contrast, only 40% of the students had learning experiences with graduate student instructors that were above average (either 'excellent' or 'good'), while 41% considered the learning experiences with graduate student instructors as fair. Unlike the experiences with faculty members, 19% of the students claim to have had poor learning experiences with graduate student instructors.
Core Goals by College
For the survey, 300- and 400- level classes were selected from within each of the
university's seven colleges. The students within each of these upper division classes
were exclusively majors within that college. The following table contains percentages
of the opinions for the 427 students in these upper division courses regarding their
understanding of the goals of the core curriculum.
Note: Due to non-response from all but one class in the College of Agriculture (7
responses), summaries from only 6 of the 7 colleges will be presented.
High | Moderate | Low | Responses | ||
Engineering | (ENG) | 60 | 33 | 7 | 59 |
Letters & Science | (L&S) | 36 | 55 | 9 | 188 |
Nursing | (NUR) | 35 | 58 | 6 | 30 |
Arts & Architecture | (A&A) | 30 | 62 | 8 | 66 |
Business | (BUS) | 23 | 75 | 2 | 31 |
Health & Human Development | (HHD) | 22 | 63 | 15 | 53 |
The following tables contain summaries of core goal responses by students surveyed in upper division classes across colleges. The percentages for Nursing and Business are consistently highest for the 'Increased' category while the percentages for Engineering are typically the lowest (with the exception of mathematical reasoning). The percents for Arts & Architecture also tend to be low.
Two curious cases were Arts & Architecture responses for Q10 (mathematical reasoning) and Q16 (understanding scientific concepts) which had atypically high percents (20% and 15%) for the 'Decreased' category.
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*Represented in percentages
(Q6) Ability to analyze written arguments (Q7) Appreciation of other cultures
Increase | Unchanged | Decreased | Increased | Unchanged | Decreased | |||
BUS |
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NUR |
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NUR |
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BUS |
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HHD |
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L&S |
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A&A |
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A&A |
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L&S |
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ENG |
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ENG |
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(Q8) Appreciation of visual arts/music (Q9) Decision-making abilities
Increase | Unchanged | Decreased | Increased | Unchanged | Decreased | |||
A&A |
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NUR |
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NUR |
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BUS |
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HHD |
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HHD |
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BUS |
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L&S |
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L&S |
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A&A |
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ENG |
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ENG |
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(Q10) Ability to reason mathematically (Q11) Respect of different points of view
Increase | Unchanged | Decreased | Increased | Unchanged | Decreased | |||
BUS |
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HHD |
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ENG |
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BUS |
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L&S |
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NUR |
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HHD |
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L&S |
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NUR |
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A&A |
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A&A |
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ENG |
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(Q12) Public speaking skills (Q13) Writing skills
Increase | Unchanged | Decreased | Increased | Unchanged | Decreased | |||
NUR |
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NUR |
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BUS |
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BUS |
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HHD |
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HHD |
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L&S |
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L&S |
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ENG |
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ENG |
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A&A |
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A&A |
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(Q14) Ability to think independently (Q15) Ability to think critically
Increase | Unchanged | Decreased | Increased | Unchanged | Decreased | |||
NUR |
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NUR |
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BUS |
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BUS |
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HHD |
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HHD |
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A&A |
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L&S |
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L&S |
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ENG |
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ENG |
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(Q16) Ability to understand scientific concepts (Q17) Intellectual curiosity
Increase | Unchanged | Decreased | Increased | Unchanged | Decreased | |||
NUR |
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BUS |
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L&S |
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NUR |
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HHD |
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HHD |
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ENG |
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L&S |
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BUS |
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A&A |
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ENG |
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(Q18) Ability to use the skills and ideas from (Q19) Interest
in current events
one course and apply them in other courses
Increase | Unchanged | Decreased | Increased | Unchanged | Decreased | |||
NUR |
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BUS |
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BUS |
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NUR |
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L&S |
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HHD |
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HHD |
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ENG |
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ENG |
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(Q20) Decisions when making ethical/moral choices (Q21) Overall rating of MSU core classes
Influenced | Not Influenced | Negatively Influenced |
Excellent | Good | Fair | Poor | |||
NUR |
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NUR |
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BUS |
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HHD |
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L&S |
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ENG |
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ENG |
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A&A |
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A&A |
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Summary of Opinions Regarding the Core Curriculum Structure by College
The following results reflect student opinions from the surveyed classes across colleges with respect to the current core structure (Q22-Q25).
- The percent of students who support a change in the core curriculum requirement that would allow the number of core credits in each core area to vary by major does not vary greatly across colleges (59% to 67%).
- The percent of students who support a requirement that all core credits be completed before entering senior status varies considerably across colleges (from 12% who support the requirement in Engineering to 45% who support the requirement in Nursing).
- The percent of students who support a continuation of the policy that majors and non-majors should be enrolled in the same sections of core classes also varies considerably across colleges (from 91% for Business who do support the policy to 70% for Letters & Science who do support the policy).
- The percent of students that indicated they felt the number of core credits should remain the same varies from 45% for Engineering to 62% for Nursing. At the same time, the percent of students who want the number of core credits to either be reduced or eliminated varies from 34% for Nursing to 49% for Engineering.
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(Q22) Credit requirements in each of the core (Q23)Credit requirements
should be
areas should be allowed to vary by major complete before entering
senior status
Yes
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No |
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NUR |
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NUR |
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ENG |
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HHD |
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L&S |
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BUS |
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HHD |
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L&S |
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A&A |
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A&A |
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BUS |
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ENG |
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(Q24) Majors and non-majors should... (Q25) The number of core credits should.
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Increase |
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Decrease |
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L&S |
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A&A |
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A&A |
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ENG |
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ENG |
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HHD |
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HHD |
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L&S |
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NUR |
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NUR |
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BUS |
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BUS |
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Summary of Opinions Regarding Core Curriculum Learning Experiences
The following survey results reflect student opinions regarding learning experiences in core classes across colleges (Q26-Q28).
- The percent of students who responded they learned better in core classes where the enrollment is small varies from 65% to 74% across colleges. The percent of students who responded the class size does not affect their learning experience in core classes varies from 22% to 33% across colleges.
- The percent of students who had core class learning experiences with faculty members as instructors that were above average (either 'excellent' or 'good') is consistently high across colleges (from 69% for Engineering to 81% for Letters & Science). The percent of students who had poor or fair learning experiences with faculty members in core classes is consistently low across colleges (from 32% for Art & Architecture to 19% for Letters & Science).
- Conversely, the percent of students who had learning experiences with graduate students as instructors of core classes that were above average (either 'excellent' or 'good') is relatively low across colleges (from 27% to 38%). The percent of students who had poor learning experiences with graduate students as instructors in core classes is relatively high across colleges (17% to 29%).
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(Q26) Learn better in core classes with (Q27) Learning experiences
in courses taught by
enrollment size faculty members
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L&S |
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L&S |
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ENG |
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NUR |
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BUS |
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ENG |
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A&A |
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A&A |
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HHD |
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HHD |
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(Q27) Learning experiences in courses
taught by graduate student instructors
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NUR |
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HHD |
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BUS |
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A&A |
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L&S |
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ENG |
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