Analysis of College Student's Satisfaction and Needs for Competency-based Curriculum of General Education －Focusing on the Revised IPA, Borich Priority Formula and Thematic Analysis

Abstract

As society changes in its demands of human resources with various competencies, the effort for improving the competency of college students is provided by centering the curriculum on a college general education. The purpose of this study is to confirm the satisfaction and needs of college students with a competency-based general education curriculum, and to list the implications of the organization and operation of such a curriculum.This study was conducted for students at K University using an online survey over the course of four weeks, involving the responses of 1,160 students. The results of this study are as follows: first, as a result of analyzing the satisfaction among students of the general education curriculum with the revised IPA analysis, both the satisfaction and the relative importance of the course composition in both stage and level were high. Second, as a result of analyzing the educational needs of general education courses, the demand for convergent, communication, utilizing information technology, career exploration, and career development domains were high. Also, we confirmed through open questions with thematic analysis that the demand for sports, engineering, foreign language, psychology, financial and economy-related subjects was high. Third, as a result of analyzing the educational needs of a competency-based general education curriculum, the demand for creative execution competency, open-minded inquiry, and citizenship was high.In conclusion, this study presented significant implications on what the faculty, the department and the college itself should consider in designing and operating a competency-based general education curriculum―one that provides curriculum-related education and one that outlines a mid to long-term road map.