NSSE: National Survey of Student Engagement

Volume 7, Issue 1
September 2007

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NSSE E-News is a bimonthly electronic newsletter created to keep NSSE users and others current about project activities. It includes information on new NSSE Web site resources, updates on the administration of the NSSE family of surveys (FSSE, LSSSE, and BCSSE), NSSE data for institutional research and student affairs, Users Workshops and conference highlights, NSSE presentations and improvements, and media coverage of NSSE and its related surveys.

Consortium Updates
NSSE Users Workshop
BCSSE Updates
NSSE Institute Updates
LSSSE Updates
Featured School: North Carolina Central University
Using FSSE Data
NSSE in the News
Web site Resources
Special Analyses
NSSE RoadShow

Consortium Updates

NSSE Consortium Registration Available
A NSSE consortium is a group of participating NSSE schools that wish to gather additional information related to a shared institutional mission or specific topic of interest. Up to 20 questions can be added to the NSSE survey upon joining a consortium. Questions cover a range of topics of interest to participating institutions. Formation requires six or more colleges or universities participating in NSSE that wish to share comparative aggregated data among their institutions.
If you are interested in forming a consortium, you can view a list of expectations for coordinators at the same Web site referenced above. To discuss the development of a new consortium, please contact consorti@indiana.edu for more information. Consortium membership must be confirmed by October 4th and questions submitted by October 18th.
You may join a consortium through the NSSE Institution Interface. At the "Profile" page, select "Consortia Registration" where you can view the list of 2008 consortia, contact information for consortium coordinators, and a general purpose statement. Also, you can view a list of institutions that have participated in previous years. To learn more, view: http://nsse.iub.edu/html/consortia.cfm.

NSSE Users Workshop

The NSSE Users Workshop is Only a Month Away!

Here are a few reasons to consider attending the Fall 2007 NSSE Users Workshop at the University of Nevada, Reno, on Oct. 16-17, 2007:

Instructive sessions! Gather ideas on using your NSSE data in sessions designed for new and veteran users. Two sessions offered in this workshop that you may find of special interest focus on: (1) using NSSE and FSSE data in combination; and (2) tips and strategies for multiple-year analyses of NSSE data.

Learn more about your 2007 Institutional Report. If your 2007 Institutional Report put you in “binder shock,” NSSE staff will present sessions with useful ideas for using the materials instructively and working with your NSSE results.

Roundtables and One-on-One Consultations with NSSE Staff. Looking for ideas to get your faculty more interested in using your NSSE results or want to share strategies to dig deeper into the data? Several of your colleagues have already volunteered to lead roundtable discussions on these topics and others. NSSE staff will also be available for consultations on specific institutional questions or issues.

General workshop sessions will address how to use NSSE data for accountability, assessment, accreditation, self-studies, general education reviews, program reviews (curricular and co-curricular), and faculty development. Through a combination of plenary sessions, concurrent interest sessions, and group activities, participants will learn more about linking NSSE data to other institutional data, using the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE) to understand faculty expectations for student engagement, and understanding educationally effective practice. NSSE staff will also discuss the new Beginning College Student Survey of Engagement (BCSSE) and how it can be integrated with the NSSE and FSSE surveys.

We extend an invitation to institutions to submit a proposal to present a workshop session on the ways your institution is using its data, communicating its results to internal and external constituents, and incorporating the data into accreditation, institutional assessment, and improvement initiatives.

An online submission form is available on the Users Workshop Web site, http://nsse.iub.edu/institute/index.cfm?view=workshops/2007/unv_reno/proposal.

For workshop details and a tentative schedule, please visit the NSSE Institute Web site at www.nsse.iub.edu/institute/.

BCSSE Updates

BCSSE Off to a Great Start!

BCSSE was officially launched in 2007 after three years of extensive pilot testing. During the summer and early fall term 2007, 127 institutions across the United States and Canada distributed the survey to more than 100,000 first-year college students.

BCSSE 2007 Facts

United States: 123 participating colleges and universities in 34 states; Canada: 4 participating institutions in 3 provinces
Entering first-year class size at these institutions ranged from 120 to over 7000 students
Two-thirds of participating schools (68%) used the paper version and 32% used Web mode.
Approximately one-third of participating US BCSSE schools are private institutions.
A large majority of BCSSE schools are either baccalaureate degree-granting (35%) or master’s institutions (44%).

Preliminary BCSSE Results

50% of male BCSSE respondents and 46% of the female respondents indicated they completed high school level calculus and/or statistics.
The students who completed calculus or statistics in high school expect their college grades to be between B+ and A-; whereas those students who did not complete these math courses expect their grades to be between B and B+.
On average, BCSSE respondents intend to spend approximately 18 hours per week preparing for class during their first year of college and 12 hours per week relaxing and socializing.
Overall, 36% of the respondents are first-generation college students.

NSSE Institute Updates

NSSE Accreditation Toolkits Updated in 2007

The Accreditation Toolkits, available at www.nsse.iub.edu/institute/?view=tools/accred, are specific to the six regional accreditation bodies and provide suggestions for incorporating student engagement results into accreditation reviews with an emphasis on mapping results to regional accreditation standards. The toolkits were updated in 2007 to reflect changes in regional standards. We have also included new examples of how institutions in each region have used NSSE in their accreditation efforts. In addition, we have revised sample timelines to help you decide when and how often to collect student engagement data for integration into your accreditation process.

LSSSE Updates

Invitations to participate in the 2008 LSSSE administration have been mailed to law schools across the U.S. and Canada. Registration will be available via the LSSSE website beginning November 1st. We encourage schools to plan early should they wish to tailor the survey by forming a consortium with law schools like theirs. Training opportunities for using LSSSE data are coming up in November. We will examine the Law School Report in detail and offer a step-by-step plan for approaching your data. Contact the LSSSE staff at LSSSE@indiana.edu for more information about these sessions, or to schedule a one-on-one consultation for your law school.

Featured School

North Carolina Central University

North Carolina Central University’s (NCCU) Retention Management Team and its Division of Academic Affairs have used the NSSE survey to shape policies and strategies designed to ensure students’ success through graduation and placement. A great success story resulting from using NSSE data is the development of a Learning Communities Program (LCP) for the University in summer 2006, continuing through 2007. The LCP is a five-week summer residential program designed to give students a head start for the fall semester. Participating students live in a residence hall with two peer tutors and two graduate assistants, enroll in math and reading courses, and are placed in requisite tutorial hours each week regardless of academic performance. This initiative continues to grow each year. A total of 150 students enrolled in the program in fall 2006, with 105 in the same residence hall; 10 students off-campus; and the rest in other residence halls. In fall 2006, those who lived together as a group studied together in small groups, participated in the Summer Bridge program, and academically outperformed all other students in the LCP. The Program continues with an additional 100 students who participated in the Summer Bridge Program, all of whom returned in fall 2007 to continue their programs of study at NCCU. Faculty directors of the Learning Communities Program are working to include all 1000 incoming freshmen in a learning community opportunity in fall 2007.

Using FSSE Data

Interesting Ways to Present your FSSE Results

The “Selected Results” section of the FSSE Web site can be used to discover interesting findings that cut across institutions or to find examples of analyses that can be done on data for a single institution. In the Selected Results section, we highlight findings in areas such as:

Faculty Workload:

Time spent on teaching, research, & other activities
Class time allocated to teaching activities

Comparing NSSE-FSSE Results:

Student/Faculty Expectations: Hours per week students spend preparing for class
Campus Environment: Perceived high-quality student relationships of others on campus
Classroom practices: Faculty values and student experiences

Other Teaching and Learning Results:

Inclusiveness of diversity in teaching and learning practices
Faculty emphasis on “deep” approaches to learning. Deep approaches to learning have been studied by NSSE/FSSE staff and others and have a literature base. For more information, please review the Selected Results. You can also review the linked resources For General Education requirement (for course-based option only).

If any of these topics are of interest to your constituents, we provide MS Excel spreadsheets and SPSS syntax to help you move from raw data to presentable results. You can find these resources on the FSSE Selected Results Web site: http://fsse.iub.edu/html/FSSE_selected_results.cfm. FSSE data can enhance a presentation to many audiences, such as Boards of Trustees, faculty development workshops and retreats, and accreditation reports, among others. If you have any questions about using FSSE data, please contact us at FSSE@indiana.edu

NSSE in the News

NSSE continues to make headlines as the school year is in full swing. The increasing focus on assessment and student success has brought NSSE to the forefront of higher education debates. In the past months, stories have appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and many other publications across the country. Of particular note is the CBS News story on college selectivity and the quality of education that features commentary from George Kuh. The following articles highlight student engagement in the news. Additional articles are available at http://nsse.iub.edu/html/inthE-News.cfm


ARTICLE	DATE	PUBLICATION
The Chronicle of Higher Education Coming Up: "Promises and Pitfalls of Institutional Transparency"	September 2007
Inside Higher Ed NSSE continues to be a major player regarding institutional accountability and college choice	September 2007
Inside Higher Ed "College Accountability Movement Moves Online" and its using NSSE	September 2007
University of Toronto University of Toronto uses its NSSE results as a basis for decreasing faculty-student ratios	September 2007
The Birmingham News Auburn University uses NSSE findings to establish new policy on on writing skills	September 2007
The Community College Survey of Student Engagement "CCSSE Responds to Community College Rankings"	August 2007
The News & Observer NSSE: "A better college indicator"	August 2007
CBS News "Selective institutions don't guarantee a more satisfying collegiate experience" says CPR Director, George Kuh	August 2007
The News & Observer NSSE considered as an alternative to rankings for measuring college gains	August 2007
Omaha World Herald "Colleges promote alternative to ranking"	August 2007
The Chronicle of Higher Education Understanding the benefits of Undergraduate Research	August 2007
Inside Higher Ed "Assessment from the Ground Up"	August 2007
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner "Strategy for success": Kuh to discuss what institutions can do to make a difference	August 2007

Web site Resources

Using NSSE Data

Did you administer NSSE in 2007, but now need some ideas for how to disseminate your results? Resources to assist you in getting the most out of your data are included in the User Tools section of your NSSE Institutional Report. You can also access these documents online: http://nsse.iub.edu/2007_Institutional_Report/?loadtab=4

Using NSSE Data, available at http://nsse.iub.edu/pdf/Using_NSSE_Data.pdf, provides institutional examples and offers instructive tips for sharing your results.

Special Analyses

Now that you have your Institutional Report, do you see a need for some new analysis of your data? Maybe you want to see the results for a specific group of students compared to the same student group at peer institutions, or you need another customized peer comparison report. NSSE provides additional special analyses, and the details are here: http://nsse.iub.edu/special_analysis/index.cfm.

NSSE RoadShow

October
Oct. 7-9	SAIR Conference	Little Rock, AR
Oct.16-17	Fall 2007 Regional NSSE Users Workshop	University of Nevada, Reno
Oct. 25-28	Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education (POD)	Pittsburg, PA

November
Nov. 4-6	The 2007 Assessment Institute	IUPUI, Indianapolis, IN
Nov. 16-17	The Collaboration for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning Conference	Bloomington, IN