Volume 6, Issue 2 November 2006

NSSE E-News is a bimonthly electronic newsletter created for the perusal of current and previous NSSE participants. The intention of this resource's distribution is to share with clients information regarding that which relates to NSSE, including newly available NSSE website resources; media coverage of the NSSE; updates on the administration/data usage of the NSSE family of surveys (FSSE, LSSSE, and BCSSE [coming in January]); usage of NSSE data for institutional research and student affairs; Users Workshop & Conference highlights; and timelines on NSSE presentations/conference participation.

Web Site Resources
NSSE in the News
LSSSE Updates
Featured School
Users Workshop
FSSE Updates
NSSE Roadshow

Web Site Resources

Sharing Your NSSE Results with Campus Stakeholders Made Easier!

NSSE has introduced a new user resource, "Working with NSSE Data: A Facilitator's Guide," to help institutional leaders guide campus groups in facilitating workshops, presentations, and discussions on using NSSE data. As part of the Additional Resources/User Tools section of the 2006 Institutional Report, the guide is a step-by-step instruction manual for those who want to lead sessions on understanding, interpreting, and taking action on NSSE data. The guide includes: preparation notes for facilitators, an outline for addressing topics related to NSSE data, and exercises and worksheets. Each section contains a sequenced program that may include an overview of the data report, suggestions for how the facilitator can prepare for the individual topic, definitions of key terms, exercises, FAQs, and questions for further discussion. Copies of the Facilitator's

Guide can also be downloaded from the NSSE Web site.

NSSE in the News

The 2006 NSSE Annual Report was released on November 13, which, for the first time, included a customized Executive Summary for each institution. The attention generated by the 2006 results was highlighted by both national and regional media. Below are some of the major headlines from around the United States and Canada involving NSSE:

ARTICLE	DATE	PUBLICATION
Mercury News "Reveal colleges' quality rankings: STUDENTS HAVE RIGHT TO KNOW VALUE THEY RECEIVE FOR TUITION”"	November/2006
Chronicle of Higher Education "'Nessie' Data Help Spur Changes at Several Colleges"	November/2006
Chronicle of Higher Education "Underrepresented Students Benefit Most From 'Engagement'”	November/2006
The Chronicle of Higher Education Online Colloquy with George Kuh, Director of NSSE	November/2006
Westchester.com Pace University Leads a Campaign Against Hate	November/2006
Chronicle of Higher Education Higher education leaders, including the director of NSSE, comment on the meeting later this month with Secretary Spellings	November/2006
CNW Group "Ontario's universities introduce a new information tool for students, parents and the public"	November/2006
El Paso Times UTEP excited about NSSE results, which they say confirms their commitment to access and excellence.	November/2006
IDS News NSSE Annual Report provides data that helps institutions improve	November/2006
DePauw University News President of DePauw said that NSSE provides important external affirmation because of its scientific methodology and the areas it explores	November/2006
USA Today U.S. Secretary of Education wants institutions to release their NSSE data so that families can compare results across institutions	November/2006
Inside Higher ed “The Engaged E-Learner”	November/2006
USA Today "Student activities help 'level the playing field'"	November/2006
USA Today Earlham College uses NSSE results to enhance student learning	November/2006
Ottawa Citizen “Universities share their own data” with students without the use of rankings	November/2006
University of Calgary Gauntlet "U of C disputes Maclean's Rankings"	November/2006
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette Director of NSSE says the “Need for remediation is ‘staggering’”	November/2006
Inside Higher Ed “Does ‘Value Added’ Add Value?"	November/2006
Carleton University Carleton University shares their results, reflecting on current initiatives and ways they can continually improve	November/2006
Inside Higher Ed NSSE participates in National Symposium on Student Success	November/2006
ED.gov Director of NSSE speaks at the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative Symposium on Student Success	November/2006
Chronicle of Higher Education Making an Art Form of Assessment	October/2006
Inside Higher Ed The “DEEP” project is hailed for providing information about campus practices that encourage student engagement.	October/2006
Collegiate Times Education sector recommends a new ranking system based on NSSE results	October/2006
The University Leader Fort Hays State University bases their new improvement initiatives on NSSE results	October/2006
The State Once again, NSSE findings are cited to “make the case for women’s colleges”	October/2006
The Mercury News President of Mills College hails NSSE findings as imperative for the survival of women’s colleges.	October/2006
The Tyee New president of UBC will use NSSE results to try to improve the institution	October/2006
Western Courier Western Illinois University uses NSSE to evaluated their First Year Experience program	October/2006
University of Calgary Gauntlet “U of C has been working hard to improve the quality of education in light of the last NSSE”	October/2006
Boston Globe Citing NSSE results, the president of Simmons College argues that women’s colleges are still needed.	October/2006

LSSSE Updates

In January, results from the third national administration of LSSSE, the Law School Survey of Student Engagement, will be released at the Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting. More than 111 different law schools have participated in LSSSE during its brief history. In order to make results from LSSSE more valuable to legal educators, we are taking intentional steps to move LSSSE closer to the law school community. Toward this end, we invited three faculty associates from the Indiana University School of Law – Bloomington to work with the data. LSSSE's new project manager, Lindsay Watkins, will work closely with these associates, and with LSSSE's distinguished national advisory board, to ensure that the project continues to be useful to legal educators who are using the data to improve the law school experience.

Featured School: Belmont University

Through participation in the University Provost Council, Belmont's Division of Student Affairs works in conjunction with Academic Affairs to make decisions about its curricular and co-curricular planning. NSSE data often serves as a resource to inform this process. For instance, NSSE data was most recently used to inform Belmont's changes to its general educational curriculum. More specifically, the Council used the data to better understand the level of courses' academic rigor and students' engagement in the learning process. In constellation with the CIRP and institutionally-administered senior surveys, NSSE informed Belmont's decision to front load particular courses with the hope that the impact of participating in these courses are reflected in NSSE results. The staff members are now monitoring differences between first-year and senior responses as a means to gauge the impact of curricular changes. Belmont staff also compare these results to peers including institutions belonging to the Associated New American Colleges Consortium. Belmont uses NSSE in the context of its mission and strategic plan, gauging how Belmont is meeting its mission and making program plans as a result. Currently, Belmont is reviewing its course evaluations in order to see if the evaluations can be more closely associated to the idea of student engagement and academic challenge. NSSE's real value is that it gets at the actual experience and attitude of Belmont students. It also supports the value of student and academic affairs working collaboratively to meet their goals by emphasizing the importance of student engagement. As the Dean of Students explains, NSSE helps Belmont to frame all of the Division's efforts as learning opportunities and additionally draws attention to the importance of engagement and academic rigor across campus.

Users Workshop

What better setting for the Regional NSSE Users Workshop than fall in Connecticut! Over 130 participants representing 74 colleges and universities attended the workshop at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven. The workshop took place in the new Adanti Student Center on the SCSU campus, a truly outstanding facility that was described by one participant as a "tribute to higher education in Connecticut!"

Participants took advantage of opportunities to learn more about using NSSE data from colleagues at peer institutions and from NSSE staff members. Participants gained new ideas on interpreting and integrating their NSSE data to bring back to their home campuses. Presentations from the workshop are available on the NSSE Institute Web site at http://nsse.iub.edu/institute/index.cfm?view=services/workshops/2006/scsu/presentations.

NSSE will host the next regional workshop in Wichita, KS, on April 19-20, 2007. Details will be available on the NSSE Web site in early January 2007. For a schedule of all upcoming users workshops, please visit our Web site at http://nsse.iub.edu/institute/index.cfm?view=services/workshops/schedule.

FSSE Updates

New updates to the FSSE Web site include valuable tools and information to help users present their FSSE findings. The Selected Results page features a summary of tables and graphs highlighting results on such topics as faculty expectations and students' time spent studying, faculty time spent in and outside the classroom, participation in professional development activities, and emphasis on deep approaches to learning. Illustrating differences by course level and academic disciplines, FSSE users can make comparisons of general trends on their campuses to those at the national level. This is one of the many ways in which FSSE users can help initiate conversations about faculty practices and student engagement on their campuses.

Coming soon! Look for downloadable SPSS Syntax and Excel Templates to help recreate FSSE's Selected Results. Suggestions and comments about the FSSE Web site (www.iub.fsse.edu) are welcomed and can be sent via e-mail (fsse@indiana.edu).

NSSE Road Show

NSSE Presentations

January 2007

Jan. 20-27, 2007
Assoc. of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)
New Orleans, LA

• Connecting the Dots: The Relationship between Student Engagement Results and the Institutional Practices and Conditions that Foster Student Success (J. Kinzie, G. Kuh)
• Promoting Essential Learning Outcomes in General Education Courses (T. Nelson Laird)

Jan. 19, 2007
Assoc. of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)
New Orleans, LA

• Using Evidence to Document Liberal Education Outcomes and Promote Institutional Change(G. Kuh, J. Kinzie, R. Gonyea)

November 2006

Nov. 10, 2006
Indiana Pathways to College Network Conference (AAC&U)
Ivy Tech, Indianapolis, IN

• An Introduction to NSSE for College Access Program Personnel (K. Anderson)

Nov. 10, 2006
Mid-America Association for Institutional Research (MidAIR)
Kansas City, MO

• Life without ranking: How to use NSSE student-level comparison reports for institutional advancement (D. Chen)
• Panel Discussion: Addressing Concerns for Great Accountability: Tools and Resources (D. Chen)

Nov. 29, 2006
U.S. Department of Education Accreditation Forum
Washington DC

LSSSE Presentations

January 2007

Jan. 5, 2007
Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Executive Committee Program
Washington DC

• Learning, Educating and the Law School Years. (L. Watkins)

Conference Highlights

AAC&U Highlights (January 2007: New Orleans, LA)

Using Evidence to Document Liberal Education Outcomes and Promote Institutional Change. (George Kuh, Chancellors Professor and Director; Jillian Kinzie, Associate Director; and Robert Gonyea, Associate Director - all of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Institute, Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research)

One of the goals of AAC&U's LEAP initiative is to increase institutions use of evidence about how well students are achieving key liberal education outcomes. This session will highlight NSSE results related to liberal education outcomes and feature institutional approaches to assessing these outcomes. Panelists will demonstrate how they are using assessment instruments to take up the pursuit for evidence and use it to document and improve liberal education on their campuses in keeping with their institutional mission.

ASHE highlights (November 2006: Anaheim, CA)

• S. Johnson: The terms of engagement: Capturing factors of African American college student engagement at a predominantly White institution.
• A. Garver, C. Kandiko, and J. Kinzie: Considering Student Engagement in Canada: A Comparative Perspective.
• J. Kuykendall, S. Johnson, T. Nelson Laird, A. Niskode, and T. Ingram: Finding Time: An Examination of How Much Time Faculty of Color Spend on Work and Other Activities by Rank.
• T. Nelson Laird, A. Niskode, & G. Kuh: General Education Courses and the Promotion of Essential Learning Outcomes.

View all NSSE-related Conference Presentations

View all NSSE-related Research Papers