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The concept of student engagement
is accessible, understandable, and congenial with the
language of teaching and learning.
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color PDF version of the report is now available for
download. |
The NSSE database now includes
information from institutions that represent more than
half (52 percent) of all undergraduates attending four-year
colleges and universities. Our original goal was to enroll
250 schools per year. With 276 schools in 2000, 321 schools
in 2001, and 366 schools participating in the 2002 national
program, we’ve substantially exceeded the planned
workscope. As I write, over 400 institutions are registered
for 2003.
Four factors contribute to NSSE’s success. First,
the demand for meaningful and usable assessment data continues
unabated. Most schools recognize the need for information
that can help improve student and institutional performance
and also responds to external demands for evidence of
student learning.
Second, a superb crew at the Indiana University Center
for Survey Research administers NSSE using state-of-the-art
professional survey methods. Because the NSSE survey process
is customized to a degree for each school, it’s
the equivalent of annually sending out 300-plus different
surveys to random samples of undergraduates.
Third, participating institutions give us high marks for
the quality of reader-friendly NSSE reports and other
products. The highly skilled, productive NSSE staff prepares
and presents student engagement results in multiple formats
so that faculty members, administrators, and others with
different levels of understanding of assessment and institutional
improvement approaches can meaningfully interpret and
use their findings. In addition, we continually seek and
incorporate suggestions for improving our processes and
materials.
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Finally, schools are profitably
using their results. In large part this is because the
survey questions have compelling face validity with different
groups, tapping many of the behaviors faculty members
and others know are important to student learning. Moreover,
virtually all the NSSE items represent activities that
research studies show are linked to desired outcomes of
college. These factors, along with an increasingly inquisitive
public searching for good information about colleges,
make NSSE the right tool for the times.
NSSE is only one source of information about the student
experience. Among its virtues is that NSSE is a window
into areas of student and institutional performance that
virtually all colleges and universities espouse to be
important, but about which few have solid information.
The concept of student engagement is accessible, understandable,
and congenial with the language of teaching and learning.
Moreover, NSSE results point to aspects of student and
institutional performance where improvement is both desirable
and possible, be it persistence, success in major field
courses, and so on.
We’re proud to be a part of a growing national movement
to re-focus talk and action on key aspects of the undergraduate
experience that really matter to collegiate quality. Along
with our partners in this worthwhile endeavor, we welcome
your participation, support, and suggestions for strengthening
institutional responsibility for student learning.
George D. Kuh
Chancellor’s Professor of
Higher Education
Indiana University Bloomington
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