Trident Technical College Saves $80K with the Use of Inquisite

Trident Technical College has an ongoing initiative to provide top notch, diverse education and to be the leader amongst two-year colleges. With 12,000 students this can be a challenging goal.

The Institutional Research Department at TTC implemented and started using Inquisite web surveys one year ago to conduct faculty and course evaluations. Although the research department uses Inquisite for many other purposes, these evaluations are the primary focus.

Two surveys go out each year – one per semester. The survey data empowers the research department to proactively improve TTC's curricula so that it meets the students' expectations. The improvements also help make the college appealing to potential students. With the ability to easily obtain the students' feedback through the use of Inquisite, the research department will help TTC rise above other colleges year after year.

Prior to Inquisite, TTC's research department used the standard paper and pencil methodology, which can be extremely expensive and time consuming. They used to print 40,000 printed surveys per semester. These surveys then had to be sorted, put into envelopes, and distributed. Once the feedback was received, the data had to be logged, scanned, and transcribed before it could be printed and presented. Completing this process took approximately five months.

Today, the research department is able to create and conduct a survey as well as report its findings within two weeks. "Inquisite has played a significant role in our department being more economical. We have been able to eliminate the dollars spent on paper surveys, which is approximately $80K a year, as well as decrease the labor needed to conduct them," said Phyllis Myers, Director of Institutional Research.

Because Inquisite has helped TTC's research department reduce the amount of time it takes to conduct a survey, more time can be spent on developing the content for their surveys that will go out in this coming fall semester. Inquisite is being utilized this summer to gather faculty and student opinions in regard to the survey design and questions. Once the evaluations are complete, the research department will present the data to an internal group comprised of deans, administrators, information technology folks and research department folks who will analyze and act on the information presented to them. With more time to focus on survey content, the research department will be able to collect more intuitive data and conduct a more effective evaluation of their courses and faculty.