What constitutes a good response rate? What can institutions do about low response rates? Many factors influence response rates and successful administrations.

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Join us for a 30-minute Webinar presented by Jillian Kinzie, Associate Director, Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research and NSSE Institute. The number of participants is limited and registration often closes quickly, so we advise you to sign up as soon as possible.

Register now.

Find the new schedule and submit ideas for future Webinars.

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The 2009 schedule of NSSE Tuesday Webinars for faculty, administrators, institutional researchers, and student affairs professionals who want to better use and understand their NSSE data is now available, nsse.iub.edu/webinars/.  This year’s series includes new topics which focus on how to:

• integrate NSSE data with institutional data
• use NSSE in accreditation
• move beyond benchmark results
• dig deeper into your institutional results - a three-part series presented by NSSE research analysts

The 2009 series kicked off with a BCCSE session, “Using BCSSE Data: Understanding That Student Expectations Are Important.” The Webinar provided a quick overview of BCSSE administration and survey content, then moved on to explore the importance of understanding the expectations of entering first-year students. Due to some technical problems the live Webinar was not recorded, but a re-recorded session will soon be available in the NSSE Webinar archives, nsse.iub.edu/webinars/archives.cfm.

Webinars are scheduled for 3pm (Eastern) and are free but advance registration is required. NSSE will send e-mail messages to targeted audiences 2-3 weeks in advance of each Webinar with a link to the registration form on the NSSE homepage. Webinars fill up very quickly but all sessions will be available in recorded format shortly after the live session.

Webinars from last year’s series are also available for viewing on topics such as accountability, the First-Year Experience, the basics of using NSSE data, an introduction to BCSSE, and using NSSE-FSSE data.  We are happy to report that users have found the recorded Webinars useful and, to date, sessions from the Tuesday series have been accessed close to 500 times.  Please visit the NSSE Webinar archives at nsse.iub.edu/webinars/archives.cfm.

Join us for the spring Users Workshop on Wednesday, April 22, 2009. The NSSE Institute is partnering with Northern Kentucky University to continue our series of successful workshops for NSSE users.

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In spring a NSSE data user’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of…assessment…accreditation self-studies… strategic planning…multi-year data analysis?  The NSSE Institute is partnering with Northern Kentucky University to continue our series of successful workshops for NSSE users. Interested colleges and universities are encouraged to send teams to the one-day workshop to be held on Wednesday, April 22, 2009, from 8:00am-3:30pm, on the NKU campus in Highland Heights, KY.  The registration fee for the one-day workshop is $50, and includes two meals. We also encourage you to submit a proposal to present a session on how your institution is using its NSSE data. Registration fees are waived for workshop presenters.

NSSE workshops provide opportunities for participants to exchange ideas on their use of NSSE, FSSE, and BCSSE, to become more proficient in using results for accreditation and institutional improvement initiatives, to communicate results to different audiences, to gain insight into educationally effective practices, and to consult with NSSE staff members.

Find complete details on registration, session proposal submission, a tentative schedule, hotel accommodations, and travel information on the workshop Web site, http://www.nsse.iub.edu/links/spring09workshop.

We hope to see you at NKU in April!

Many institutions have used NSSE results in the "Student Experiences and Perceptions" section their Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) College Portrait.

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Many colleges and universities have made some or all of their NSSE survey results publicly available on their institutional Web sites.

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Many colleges and universities have made some or all of their NSSE survey results publicly available on their institutional Web sites. NSSE encourages public reporting of student engagement results in ways that serve to increase understanding of college quality and that support institutional improvement efforts. See NSSE’s position on public reporting of survey results.

We are highlighting examples of institutional Web sites that display NSSE results in support of the assessment, transparency and accountability initiatives in higher education. These sites align with NSSE’s policy against rankings and with guidelines for analyzing and interpreting results.

A caveat: NSSE does not endorse the layout or content of Web sites except to point out that no major issues were found in how the data are represented. We present the examples to our users as a resource on the varied ways institutions have posted their results.

Users seeking guidance on analyzing and interpreting results should consult the guidelines provided in the NSSE Institutional Report 2008, FAQs posted on our Web site, resources such as the Multi-Year Data Analysis Guide and Accreditation Toolkits, or consult NSSE staff.  

We will continue to expand the list as we review additional Web sites. If you would like to have your institutional Web site be considered for inclusion, please contact your Client Services Team.

Do you have a best practice example or advice to share about collaborating on assessment?

Contribute to the discussion from our SUNY Brockport workshop blog.

BCSSE 2009 Registration is Now Open.
The Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE, pronounced "bessie"), was officially launched on March 2, 2009.  This will be the third year of BCSSE administration. In the past two years, approximately 140,000 entering first-year students have completed the BCSSE survey at one of 198 institutions across the United States and Canada.

Where do I get more information about BCSSE?
Visit our Web site at: www.bcsse.iub.edu, e-mail us, bcsse@indiana.edu, or call our toll-free number: 866-435-6773.  We would be more than glad to help you with any questions you may have.

Missed the BCSSE Webinar?
On March 3, Jim Cole, Project Manager for BCSSE and NSSE Research Analyst, hosted a free Webinar, "Using BCSSE Data: Understanding That Student Expectations Are Important." Although, we experienced some technical difficulties with the live recording, the Webinar is being re-recorded and will be available soon in the Webinar archives at, nsse.iub.edu/webinars/archives.cfm.  A list of upcoming Webinars can be found at: nsse.iub.edu/webinars

Choosing a FSSE Survey Option
FSSE offers two survey options: course-based and typical student. Course-based items ask faculty to respond based on a single course they’ve taught during the current academic year, while the typical student items ask faculty to respond based on the typical student they see in their classrooms. The FSSE Web site has a decision guide designed to help institutions choose an option that will be most useful for their campus. Ultimately, the survey option decision should match the assessment needs of the institution. Below are a few reasons why past institutions have selected a certain option.

Course-based:

• Institution prefers questions structured around the classroom setting
• Option allows faculty who teach both upper and lower division courses to self-select their primary focus

Typical-student:

• Institution prefers questions based on individual students
• Option offers a focus on first-year versus senior students
• Option allows faculty to share perceptions of students across all courses they teach

For more information or assistance in selecting a FSSE survey option, please e-mail us at fsse@indiana.edu.

The Center for Postsecondary Research has been busy presenting at various conferences. Since last November we’ve participated in several opportunities to promote student engagement. The following are a few of the workshops we have conducted. We hope clients find these resources valuable and can use them to help their own survey administration and data use.

Click here to see what we've been doing!

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