Research Practices Survey

Survey Date:   2009, 2011, 2012, 2015

Population Surveyed:  First year students and upper-class students in select research seminars

Instrument Type:  National - HEDS Consortium

The HEDS Research Practices Survey (RPS) is a 15 minute online questionnaire designed to assess undergraduate students’ experiences, dispositions and proficiencies in conducting college-level academic research. The survey includes several embedded performance tasks (e.g., asking students to identify most efficient search techniques or to correct citations) and thus provides direct measures of students research knowledge. 

At St. Lawrence, the survey has been used extensively to assess the impact of the first year on gains in information literacy. The survey has also been used by select department to assess research skills of their majors. 

For survey findings, please visit the assessment website.