President@NOVA

March 4, 2025 / @NOVA

On behalf of its membership, the Teaching Faculty Caucus Executive Committee requested that NOVA survey all students on their desired course modality. Respecting this request, I asked the Office of Strategic Insights to develop the survey. My thanks to Director for Data Analytics Melanie Jenkins for her work on developing the survey and compiling the results that I share today.

All program placed NOVA students (30,960) received the survey via an email from Vice President for Student Affairs Joel Frater on Feb. 4 and 5, in two administrations, with reminder emails on Feb. 10 and 11 to the two groups. A final reminder was sent on Feb. 28 (the date the survey closed).

1,080 students responded to the survey, a response rate of 3.5%.

Of those responding, 86% indicated that they intend to enroll in fall 2025 classes.

  • 586 (65%) indicated they would be taking most of their classes in-person on a NOVA campus
  • 174 (19%) indicated they would be taking most of their classes remotely via Zoom
  • 141 (16%) indicated they would be taking most of their classes through NOVA Online

The students’ responses on modality align favorably with the direction of actual student enrollment last fall, which was approximately 57% in-person, 15% Zoom and 28% NOL. While the return rate was small, one possible inference from the survey results is that some of the NOL enrollment last fall may have come from students who would have preferred on-campus classes but could not find such sections.

Asked when they planned to take their classes, students indicated a continuing preference for primetime 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. classes, but showed a fairly strong interest in late afternoon and evening courses, too:

  • 8 – 11 a.m. – 468
  • 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. – 570
  • 2 – 5 p.m. – 322
  • 5 – 8 p.m. – 304

(Note: Because students could select more than one time block, the response numbers above exceed the total number of student participants.)

As I committed to the Teaching Faculty Caucus Executive Committee, the results of the survey have been shared with the provosts and academic deans to help inform the development of the fall 2025 schedule. The survey results will be used alongside data on fall 2024 course fill rates and cancellations; the Fall 2024 Semester Look Back Report previously shared with the NOVA community through The Daily Flyer; and insights from Ad Astra analyses of NOVA’s fall 2024 course schedule.

In the past, NOVA has declined to survey students on their enrollment plans due to concerns about low participation. Given that the response rate to this semester’s survey was just 3.5%, I have asked the provosts to work with the academic deans to give their feedback on the usefulness of the results before we run the survey again next fall.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you would like to see answered in the monthly @NOVAPresident column.

Kind regards, Anne