Evaluation and the WBMHCC
An important aspect of the work of the Well-being and Mental Health Campus Collaborative is coordinated assessment and evaluation of well-being efforts. The Collaborative coordinates evaluation at the program level, as well as monitoring mid and high level campus metrics to better understand and improve well-being on campus. The Collaborative’s aim is to advance well-being by learning together, aligning, and integrating actions across campus to improve well-being for students, faculty and staff.
Program Level Assessment
Common Evaluation Questions
Programs offered on campus to impact or improve individual or organizational mental health and well-being should be evaluated for effectiveness. A priority of the UI Strategic Plan is to “evaluate the effectiveness of and recommend improvements to existing well-being programs” as a part of the Holistic Well-Being and Success pillar. To meet this goal, the Collaborative has developed common evaluation questions to implement across well-being programs and services. To learn more about these questions and how they can be used to evaluate your program, please contact martha-pierce@uiowa.edu.
Qualitative Data
To better understand the Collaborative’s mid and high level metrics, qualitative data should also be used to better understand the complexity of the campus community experiences of well-being. Two primary ways that the Collaborative collects qualitative data are:
- Common evaluation questions: There are two open-ended questions that are collected upon program completion that provide qualitative data.
- Focus Groups – focus groups are conducted to better understand specific experiences of well-being.
Mid-Level Metrics
Mapping mid-level metrics is important to showcase the various sources of already-existing data collected on the UI population.
The following surveys have questions that are related to measuring well-being on campus:
| Survey | Audience | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| National College Health Assessment (NCHA) | Students - undergraduate, graduate, professional | Every other year, on odd years |
| Personal Health Assessment (PHA) | Faculty and Staff | Ongoing |
| Senior Exit Survey | Students - Seniors | Yearly |
| Student Experience Survey | Students - undergraduate, graduate, professional | Yearly |
| Working at Iowa | Faculty and staff | Every other year, even years |
| Speak Out | Students - undergraduate, graduate, professional | |
| Excelling at Iowa | New undergraduate students | Weeks 3-5 of the student’s first semester |
High-Level Metrics
High level metrics have been identified by the Well-Being and Mental Health Steering Committee to track progress on priorities for the University of Iowa strategic plan.
| Question | Survey/Assessment Tools | Metric |
|---|---|---|
| I feel valued as an individual at the University of Iowa. | Working at Iowa (staff and faculty) Student Experience Survey(undergraduate, graduate, professional) | Percentage of [group] that feel valued at the University of Iowa. |
| I feel that I belong at the University of Iowa. | Student Experience Survey(undergraduate, graduate, professional) National College Health Assessment (undergraduate, graduate, professional) Excelling at Iowa (new/incoming students) | Percentage of students who feel like they belong at the University of Iowa. |
| feel that student health and well-being is a priority. | National College Health Assessment (undergraduate, graduate, professional) | Percentage of students who agree that student health and well-being is a priority at UI. |
| My supervisor supports health and wellness within my unit. | Personal Health Assessment (staff and faculty) | Percentage of employees whose supervisor supports health and wellness within their unit. |
| My physical work environment provides opportunities for me to make healthy choices | Personal Health Assessment (staff and faculty) | Percentage of employees whose work environment provides opportunities for me to make healthy choices |