Running Head: THE EFFECTS OF WORKING

The Effects of Working On or Off Campus on Student Success

Brianne Baranowski

ETR 520- Summer 2016

Northern Illinois University

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Table of Contents

Introductory section

Title Page.1

Table of Contents.2

Body

I. Introduction

A. Statement of the Problem.4

B. Research Purpose.....4

C. Research question and hypothesis...5

D. Definition of terms..5

E. Brief overview of study...6

II. Background and review of related literature

A. Introduction..7

B. Research Studies..7

III. Procedures

A. Description of the research design...9

B. Description of sample....10

C. Description of the instruments...11

D. Explanation of the procedures followed12

E. Description of internal validity......12

F. Description of external validity.....14

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G. Description and justification of the statistical techniques or other methods of

analysis used..14

IV. Ethics and Human Relations

A. Possible threats to research participants15

B. Entry for data collection15

C. Research participant cooperation..16

V. Timeline

A. Timeline16

VI. References.18
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The Effects of Working On or Off Campus on Student Success

Statement of the Problem

The number of students who are employed while enrolled in college has steadily

increased over the past four decades (Riggert, Boyle, Petrosko, Ash, & Rude-Parkins,

2006). Employment opportunities are available for students both on and off campus

while they are pursing a degree. There are many inconsistencies and contradictions in the

research around student employment (Riggert, Boyle, Petrosko, Ash, & Rude-Parkins,

2006).

Understanding the impact of working on campus versus off campus is a topic that

has not been researched as much as the impact of working during college in general.

There has also been a lack of published research done in the past few years on the topic

of student employment (Perna, 2010). The data that is collected in this study will benefit

both students that need to work while enrolled in higher education and the staff that

employs them. The purpose of this study is to inform students and the individuals

employing them on what the impact of working will be on their success so that they can

make the best decisions moving forward. Understanding the impact of work on

education will allow supervisors to adjust workloads as needed and guide their student

employees. Students will be able to understand how working will impact their academic

success, and see how other students are fairing.

Research Purpose

The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a difference between working

on or off campus on student success levels in terms of grade point average, persistence,

and involvement on campus.

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Research Question and Hypothesis

The independent variable in this study will be where the student is working;

whether that be on campus or off campus. Three different dependent variables will be

examined as separate questions that will all focus on different aspects of student success.

The dependent variables are grade point average, persistence, and involvement on

campus. Extraneous variables that may skew results and that will be factored for are

academic predisposition, health/psychological state of participant, their support system,

and reason they are working. These extraneous factors could all be explanations for

varying levels of success or decreased success rather than the variable being examined.

The research question this study will examine is; is there a difference in success

levels between students who work on campus and those that work off campus while

enrolled in higher education? The hypothesis based on previous research is,

students that work on campus excel at a higher rate than students who work off campus.

The null hypothesis for the study is students that work off campus excel at a higher rate

than students who work off campus.

Definition of Terms

An individual will be considered to work on campus if their paycheck is received

from the institution where they go to school and they work on campus property. Off-

campus employment will be defined as a position that is paid from an entity that is not on

campus grounds.

Student success rates will be measured via three criteria. Grade Point Average

will be examined at the beginning of the academic term and at the end. Persistence will

be determined if they are on track to graduate on time or if they will be taking longer than
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the four-year degree completion that is predicted. Persistence will also be measured

based on a student continuing to enroll full-time from the fall semester to the spring.

Student involvement will be examined to see if the student does more than go to

class and work. Involvement was described by Astin (1977) as "the time and effort

expended by the student in activities that relate directly to the institution and its program"

(p. 21). This definition has remained consistent over time and is the most widely used

definition when looking at research focused on student involvement. Student

involvement can pertain to co-curricular activities such as athletic clubs, Greek

organizations, academic societies, volunteering, and more.

Overview of Study

This study will examine if there are different levels of student success between

full-time students that work on campus versus off-campus. Student success will be

determined in three different ways. Grade point average, persistence to graduation, and

involvement on campus will each be examined separately to determine where a student

stands in terms of the collegiate experience. Data will be collected from different four-

year institutions in Illinois. Student volunteers will be strategically placed throughout

each of the campuses in order to find a diverse population of students. These volunteers

will be given strict guidelines for administering an initial survey. The initial instrument

will be constructed by the researchers in order to pinpoint students that work on and off

campus and to determine the effects that this work has on their experience in higher

education. This study will be done using the casual-comparative methodology.

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Background and Review of Related Literature

Introduction

The terms, student employment, student AND employment, term time

employment, campus employment and working while enrolled were used to find

studies that delved into the topic of student success in association with student

employment. In order to find a variety of literary sources, multiple databases and search

engines were used. The literature was obtained through the Northern Illinois University

Libraries access to ERIC via EBSCO, ERIC (ProQuest), JSTOR, and Google Scholar.

Particular attention was paid to the dates of the articles in order to find more recent

research. Articles that focused on part-time students were not included in the research.

The literature will be reviewed in sections that relate to each area of student

success that this study will be examining. This review will begin by navigating the

research that examines the impact student employment has on grades. Persistence to

degree completion will be examined secondly. Finally, the literature that examines the

effects that working has on the level of involvement on campus will be reviewed. The

findings from different studies often contradicted each other and limited consistencies

were found.

Research Studies

Academics. Research has shown conflicting evidence on grade point averages.

Dundes and Marx (2006) found that, working limited or many hours does not appear to

hurt GPA, while working 10-19 hours per week is associated with a benefit (p.112).

One study found that grade point average drops when an individual works more than

twenty hours a week (King, 2006). Wenz and Wu (2010) found that an increased number
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of hours worked had a negative impact on grade point average. Each researcher focused

on a different population and base questions, which led to the varied results. Some gave

information pertaining to academic success that lay outside the realm of grade point

average such as critical thinking, development, and the effects of stress on the ability to

preform academically. These factors combined with grade point average can lead

students to have disruptions in persistence, which will be examined below.

Persistence. Paying for the high cost of college is a common component that

leads to students stopping and dropping out (Beeson & Wessel, 2002). Bozicks (2007)

study found that working limited hours did not have an effect on students retention into

their second year while those working more than twenty hours saw negative impacts on

re-enrolling for a second year. Another study showed that students that worked one to

fifteen hours per week had the lowest levels of enrollment interruptions (Riggert, Boyle,

Petrosko, Ash, & Rude-Parkins, 2006). Work-study was found to have a positive impact

on persistence due to students having a, greater appreciation for what they have to pay

for themselves (Dundes & Marx, 2006, p. 117). Other research found that off-campus

employment had a negative influence on year-to-year persistence and working on-campus

lead to a positive impact on degree completion (Beeson & Wessel, 2002; Ehrenburg &

Sherman, 1987). Different studies examined the impact that working had on persistence

in different ways, including, examining hours worked, year in school, and location and

type of work. Similar areas were studied when research was focused on the impact of

being

There is limited research on the effects that campus employment has on the level

of involvement students have on campus. However, this is important because higher

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levels of engagement in different campus activities contributed to higher cumulative

GPAs as well as higher levels of perceived satisfaction with a students overall academic

experience (Webber, Krylow, & Zhang, 2013). One study found that students who work

are equally as likely to be engaged in school as those who do not work (Shanahan &

Flaherty, 2001). Balancing multiple role memberships can be beneficial in demonstrating

a students ability in tangible ways (McNall, & Michel, 2011). The effects of working

can be complex, negatively affecting the frequency of some experiences while also

positively delivering educational outcomes that correlate with outcomes derived from

student involvement experiences (Salisbury, Pascarella, Padgett, & Blaich, 2012).

Overall Summary. Student employment, when done in limited hours, can

positively affect grade point average and persistence to graduation. However, different

studies have examined variables such as the amount of time spent working, reason for

working, and the effects on student development but there has been limited research with

the main focus of working on or off campus. Many different researchers agreed that the

findings surrounding working while enrolled in college is complex with many mitigating

factors.

Procedures

Description of Research Design (Methodology)

The research methodology that will be utilized for this study is Casual-

comparative. This methodology was chosen because it allows researchers to investigate

the consequences of differences amongst groups of individuals (Fraenkel, Wallen, &

Hyun, 2012, p. 366). Researchers will examine similar groups with two different

variables, on-campus or off-campus employment, and attempt to determine results based

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on these differing variables. The two different groups can be examined because we are

choosing students that are already employed on or off campus and not putting them into

these situations. A casual-comparative research design was chosen over correlational

because we are looking at type of employment, which is a categorical variable. (Fraenkel,

Wallen, & Hyun, 2012, p. 368)

Description of the Sample

A purposive sample will be collected in order to select individuals that fall into

specific categories. This study will collect data from an equal number of individuals that

work on campus and off campus. The study will focus on full-time traditional students

with an average age range of seventeen to twenty-five. Questions on ethnicity will be

asked in order to look for correlations that may be found, however it will not be a focus

of the research and no student will be excluded or included based on terms of race or

ethnicity. An open-ended question will be asked in terms of gender in order to include all

students. An equivalent gender breakdown will be attempted, but will not be a keen

focus of the study.

Students working an average of five to twenty-nine hours a week, falling into the

part-time employee classification, will be selected for this study. This study will not be

examining data from full-time employees as those individuals fall under the non-

traditional student categorization.

Students will be surveyed from a variety of four-year institutions throughout

Illinois. Surveys will be handed out in order to get an initial sampling and then based on

this sampling an equal portion of on-campus and off-campus students will be selected in

order to have an equal proportion of individuals in both variable brackets. Individuals

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will be selected in order to have a similar makeup in each category. The goal of the study

is to get fifty to one hundred students from each campus. The larger population size will

allow for individuals that do not complete the study and allow for a wider range of

student backgrounds to be included. This wide of a sampling will be done in order to

relate the data to a wider range of populations and states instead of classifications simply

based on the demographics of one institution.

Students will be classified after their initial survey is completed and will be

selected in order to have similar populations of students that work on campus and off

campus. This classification will be done so that students are selected blindly in order to

alleviate as many errors in judgment as possible.

Description of the Instruments

An initial survey will be delivered on campuses that ask students if they work on

or off campus, how often they work, and for other key factors such as gender, year in

school, and how many credit hours they are enrolled in. Once this data is collected and

the sample is selected, the main survey will be sent to participants.

The survey will be delivered electronically through qualtrics. Questions will be

asked pertaining to average hours of work each week, location and type of work, reason

for working, and overall feelings about their job. Questions pertaining to academics will

be asked in regards to cumulative grade point average, year in school, time to degree

completion, grade point average in high school, and will also ask for any other factors

that may effect their academic performance this semester. The next section of questions

will focus on student involvement. Questions will be asked about what organizations

students are involved in, how many hours a week they spend on co-curricular activities
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besides work, if they have a leadership position on campus, and if their level of

involvement would be different if they did not work.

Explanation of the Procedures

Data will be collected from each four-year institution in Illinois; both private and

public. Student volunteers will be strategically placed throughout each of the campuses

in order to find a diverse population of students. These volunteers will be given strict

guidelines for administering an initial survey. The researchers will construct the initial

instrument in order to pinpoint students that work on and off campus.

From this initial survey purposive sampling will be used to find the population

that will be surveyed at the beginning, middle, and end of the Fall and Spring terms. The

surveys given will all be the same so that the participants can expect what is going to be

asked. The repetition of data will let us detect patterns that may arise and give a better

overview of the true impacts of employment throughout the year and not based on one

moment in time. Surveys will be delivered electronically after the population is selected.

According to Fraenkel, Wallen, and Hyun (2012), the results of casual-

comparative relationships must be interpreted with caution (p. 374). Keeping this in

mind, both the hypothesis and the null hypothesis will be investigated. The researchers

will also take a keen interest in the background of the individuals and make sure to note

any outliers or special circumstances that could skew the data.

Description of Internal Validity

Subject Characteristics are a threat because students that work come from a

variety of different backgrounds. Some students may be generally more inclined to get

involved while others do not have a desire to, so work would not be a factor in that aspect
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of achievement. Another way that subject characteristics can have an effect on the study

is based on the academic prowess of the different students. This could be curtailed by

factoring in the students GPAs in high school and asking questions that get to the root of

why students make the decisions they do, such as True or False; If I had more free time, I

would get more involved on campus., etc. This threat will also be addressed by reporting

on as many of these different characteristics as possible and comparing the two groups to

show that they are similar.

The second threat that the study will encounter is location: Due to collecting data

from participants at different schools throughout the state we will experience that the

atmospheres change from location to location. It could be hard for us to control for

weather and current events. We can help by making sure each school is delivering the

survey on the same day in similar locations on each of the campuses.

Instrumentation may pose a threat because we are having different student

volunteers deliver the survey at each different campus. The study can make sure this

threat is negated, by providing training for all of the volunteers at the same time giving

the volunteers the exact same information in the exact same way. Providing a precise

script and detailed instructions for frequently asked questions will help streamline what

participants are hearing.

The next threat to internal validity that will be curtailed is the attitude participants

have to the topic or questions. Some students may be defensive about answering

questions about their grades, and success in school. It could be easy for someone to

mislay information about their status or be defensive. We will try to detract from any
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biases in question framing and make sure that we are not leading participants to any

conclusions.

Description of External Validity

The results of this study will be generalized to traditional students working part-

time in similar demographic settings. Institutions throughout Illinois will be used in

order to have a wider range of external validity, also allowing this study to be generalized

to students enrolled in Illinois four-year institutions. Due to selecting students at both

public and private four-year universities, this study should be able to be utilized by other

states and as a decent view on the overall impact of on campus versus off campus

employment. Purposive sampling will be done in order to garner a wide range of

students in similar situations across the two independent variables. The use of similar

data collection techniques and utilization of the same instruments will allow this study to

be replicated in order to increased generalizability.

Description and Justification of the Statistical Techniques or other Methods of

Analysis Used

The dependent variable, student success, will be broken into three different

categories. Grade Point Average, a quantitative variable will be measured via mean,

median, standard deviation, and frequency. This will be displayed via boxplots and

histograms. The two categorical dependent variables in this study are student

involvement and persistence. Percentages and frequencies of these variables will be

shared. Other variables that will affect student success while working will be examined

as well. The categorical variable, reason students work, will be displayed in a bar graph

based on frequency. The quantitative variable, how many hours worked, will be
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examined via mean, median, and standard deviation. The number of hours worked will

be displayed via histogram and box plots. A t-test will then be used to determine if there

is a significant statistical difference in the grade point average of students that work on

campus compared to students that work off campus.

Ethics and Human Relations

Possible Threats to Research Participants

All data that is collected, such as names, specific places of employment, and

student identifiers, will be kept anonymous. Due to the anonymity of the study there will

be no social, legal, or economic harm. There is no physical harm that could come to the

participants from filling out the survey. The only psychological harm that is foreseen is

the questions triggering issues that students are struggling with such as stress, anxiety,

etc. The researchers will attempt to eliminate these triggers in the way that questions are

phrased, by using a trigger warning at the beginning of the survey, and by training the

data collectors in how to respond to student issues during data collection.

Entry for Data Collection

Institutions will be contacted the spring before data collection will begin. This

timeframe will allow for multiple follow-ups if needed. Volunteers will be recruited from

different higher education graduate programs, research classes, and through different

suggestions based on each institutions unique factors. The differing backgrounds of the

volunteers will not lead to bias because specific training will be given.

Research Participant Cooperation

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Informed consent will be gained through an informed consent document that

participants sign. It will give information on what will be asked in the study, why it is

being asked, what the risks are, and will state that they can discontinue at any moment.

Timeline

Timeline

In the spring semester before the study is set to begin, Universities will be

contacted in order to gain permission to enter campus for data collection. Once

permission is attained, recruitment emails will be sent to graduate students on each

campus asking for volunteers to assist with the initial data collection. The

instrumentations will be finalized and reviewed by reputable peers in the academic

community.

During the summer before the study begins, a workshop will be developed in

order to train the individuals that will be collecting data. This initial training will take

place via Zoom online. Zoom is a group video conferencing tool that will allow for face-

to-face training and interaction without making individuals travel across the state. This

training will be required for each surveyor and will cover the initial protocols, expected

frequently asked questions, and specific instructions on how to interact with students.

Precise locations and events will be determined for each university in order to gather data

from a variety of students on each campus.

During the first week of the fall semester on each campus, the surveyors will

deliver the initial survey in order to gather as many prospective participants as possible.

The researcher will enter the data and use purposive sampling to pinpoint a sample from

each campus that match certain criteria and have similar characteristics between the
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students working off campus and on campus. Participants will be selected by the third

week of the semester

Once this initial sampling group is selected, the survey will be sent out with

detailed instructions on the procedures for the setting and expectations as a participant.

This survey will be due within a week. The same survey will then be sent out half way

through the semester, and after the semester concludes on each campus. Each time the

semester is sent out, they will have one week to complete the survey. Qualtrics will be

utilized in order to store the data and utilize the many tools available.

The same surveys will be sent to students at the beginning, middle, and end of the

spring semester. This data will then be utilized in conjunction with the fall data to track

historical changes as well as overall effects on grade point average, persistence from

semester to semester, and involvement on campus.

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knowledge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Beeson, M. J., & Wessel, R. D. (2002). The impact of working on campus on the

academic persistence of freshman. NASFAA Journal of Student Financial Aid,

32(2), 37-45.

Bozick, R. (2007), Making it through the first year of college: The role of students'

economic resources, employment, and living arrangements. Sociology of

Education, 80(3), 261-284.

Dundes, L., & Marx, J. (2006) Balancing work and academics in college: Why do

students working 10 to 19 hours per week excel? Journal of College Student

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Ehrenberg, R. G. & Sherman, D. R. (1987). Employment while in college, academic

achievement, and postcollege outcomes: A summary of results. The Journal of

Human Resources, 22(1), 1-23.

Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E., & Hyun, J. H. (2012) How to Design and Evaluate

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King, J. E. (2006) Working their way through college: Student employment and its

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Shannon, M. J., & Flaherty, B. P. (2001). Dynamic patterns of time use in adolescence.

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