GSND Student Survey · Apr 2026 · Question-by-question report

Twenty-six questions, thirty-five respondents, no consensus.

A Qualtrics survey of graduate students in Northeastern's Game Science & Design program. The full instrument is reproduced below with descriptive statistics, the non-parametric tests requested in faculty review, and an unedited verbatim appendix. Use the filter bar to view subgroups.

Year
Campus
AI use
Filtered 35 / 35 responses
01 / Sample

Sample & method.

Anonymous Qualtrics survey distributed via program channels in April 2026. Counts on the cards below reflect the active filter; demographic counts include partial responses where the respondent gave campus or year but did not finish.

02 / Affect

Why students engage and disengage.

Multi-select questions. Bars show count of respondents in the filtered group who selected each option; percentage is over respondents who answered the question.

03 / Use

Tools and tasks.

These three questions were shown only to respondents who use AI tools. Percentages denominate against AI users in the filtered subgroup.

04 / Acceptance

The acceptance line.

For each task, respondents selected the maximum AI involvement they would accept from a fellow GSND student. Sorted by mean — most restrictive on top. 1 = No AI · 2 = Student creates with AI assist · 3 = AI generates with student direction.

Task
No AI Student + AI assist AI + student direction
Mean
No AI Student creates with AI assist AI generates with student direction
05 / Policy

Policy preferences.

Closed-response questions on how GSND should handle AI in coursework, capstones, and program services.

06 / Career

Career and expectations.

How students see AI in their own path, plus the gap between what they want for the industry and what they think will actually happen.

07 / Stats

Group differences.

Three non-parametric tests on the per-respondent permissiveness score (mean of the 14 acceptance items, 1–3 scale). Mann-Whitney U is appropriate here: ordinal scale, n < 30 in subgroups, no normality assumed. Wilcoxon signed-rank is used for the within-subject ideal-vs-realistic comparison.

Tests are computed against the full sample (n=27 with complete acceptance ratings) and do not change with the filter, since the comparison is by group rather than within a single subgroup.
08 / Limits

Limitations and next round.

A faithful reading of these results requires acknowledging what the instrument cannot tell us, and what it should ask next time.

Caveats on this round
  • Small n. 35 total responses, 27 with full data; subgroup tests have limited power. The +0.34 difference between 1st- and 2nd-year permissiveness means is suggestive but not statistically distinguishable from chance at this sample size.
  • Self-selection. A program-wide opt-in survey on AI almost certainly over-samples respondents with strong views in either direction. The polarity of the open responses is consistent with that.
  • Boston-heavy. The Oakland subgroup is too small to analyze separately even with filtering.
  • Scale ceiling on Q4b. "Worried about academic integrity" is endorsed by most respondents including most AI users — the item conflates personal concern with concern about peer behavior.
Suggested instrument changes for the next round
  • Domestic / international student. A single closed item would let us check whether the AI-restrictive cluster is concentrated in any particular subgroup.
  • Career goal: academic vs. industry. Q26 measures attitude toward AI; a separate item on intended path would let us test whether the attitudes track with destination.
  • Specialization. Art / programming / design / production. Would clarify whether the dialogue/visual/voice-acting boundary is held by the whole program or driven by art-track students.
  • Disclosure-grading interaction. Q18 and Q19 are scored independently; pair them to surface joint preferences.
A / Q17

Verbatim — what students want to learn.

Q17: "What would you like to learn about AI through the GSND program?" Open-ended; reproduced unedited. Filter applies.

B / Q27

Verbatim — open comments.

Q27: "Is there anything else you'd like to share about AI in game design education, or changes you'd like to see in how GSND handles it?" Reproduced unedited; line breaks preserved. Filter applies.