Student Engagement at Towson: NSSE 2005 Telling and Selling the Story Kathryn Doherty, Ed.D. January 11, 2006

Overview What is college student engagement? What is NSSE? How can NSSE help us Tell the Story about Towson? How can NSSE help us Sell the Story about Towson?

What Really Matters in College Student Engagement Impact of college is largely determined by individual effort. Students are not passive recipients of institutional efforts to “educate” or “change” them. Important to focus on ways in which an institution can shape its academic, interpersonal, and extracurricular offerings to encourage student engagement. Pascarella & Terenzini. (2005). How college affects students: A third decade of research

NSSE Project Scope Almost 1000 different colleges and universities 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Canada Data from more than 880,000 students Institutions include Historically Black Colleges & Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, Tribal Colleges, and all female and all male colleges YearColleges/ Universities

NSSE 2005 Institutions by Carnegie Classification

What does NSSE tell us? Identifies institutional strengths and areas for improvement Allows benchmarking against peers and national results Compares first-year and senior student experiences Links information about student engagement to the teaching-learning environment

NSEE 2005 at Towson 543 TU first-year students (19% of first year students) 702 senior students (17% of seniors) 808 started here and 439 transferred in 120 peer institutions 529 colleges and universities GroupSample Size Response Rate Towson292743% Peers73,36831% Masters118,48235% NSSE266,72637%

Telling the Story: NSSE Summary Results

Students say their educational experience at Towson is good or excellent First-Year More than 86% comparable to national results Seniors More than 80% while nationally 88%

Most Towson students would probably or definitely come here again First-Year More than 82% comparable to national results Seniors More than 72% while nationally 82%

Many Towson transfer students would probably or definitely come here again First-Year Transfer More than 81% comparable to first years who started here Senior Transfer More than 69% while 77% for seniors who started here

What Are Our Students Majoring In?

What Else Are Our Students Doing? 84% Practicum, internship, field experience, co-op experience or clinical assignment 66% Community service or volunteer work 41% Culminating senior experience 40% Learning community 39% Foreign language coursework 23% Study abroad 22% Research project with faculty member 18% Independent study or self-designed major

Beyond Academics, What Does Towson Contribute?

How Do Towson Students See Themselves?

What NSSE Tells Us: First Year Students

What do we know about our first- year students? TowsonPeersMaster’sNSSE Female76%69%71%67% White80%68%71%72% Full-time99%93%94%95% 19 or younger98%82%85%86%

How Committed are First Year Students: Would They Come Again?

How Do First Year Students Evaluate Academic Advising?

How Do First Year Students Evaluate Their Educational Experience?

First-Year Perception of Academic Emphasis at Towson First-Year Students say TU emphasizes… 83% Using computers in academic work 83% Acquiring a broad general education 77% Thinking clearly and analytically 71% Using computing and information technology 69% Writing clearly and effectively 69% Spending significant amounts of time studying and on academic work

What NSSE Tells US: Senior Students

What do we know about our senior students? TowsonPeersMaster’sNSSE Female70%69%70%67% White79%69%72% Started here42%49%54%61% Most grades As or Bs 94%93%94%

How Committed are Seniors: Would They Come Again?

How Do Seniors Evaluate Academic Advising at Towson?

How Do Seniors Evaluate Their Entire Educational Experience?

Seniors Increasingly Find Towson a Supportive Campus Environment

Most seniors have learned a lot! Seniors say TU contributed at least quite a bit to… 81% Thinking critically and analytically 79% Acquiring a broad general education 75% Working effectively with others 75% Using computing and information technology 70% Writing clearly and effectively 69% Speaking clearly and effectively 69% Learning effectively on your own 68% Acquiring job or work-related skills

More Than 50% of Seniors Are Involved In Community Service Or Volunteer Work First-Year More than 26% but, nationally, 42% Seniors More than 51% but, nationally, 64%

But 60% of Seniors Do Not Participate in Any Co-Curricular Activities

What NSSE Tells Us: Transfer Students

What do we know about our transfer students? TU Transfer TU First-Year TU Senior Female66%76%70% White76%80%79% Full-time76%99%82% Age 19 or younger23%98%-- Most grades As or Bs92%93%94%

Transfer Students Less Certain about TU Experience

And Transfer Students Somewhat Less Likely to Attend Again

Transfer Students Working More, Commuting, and Providing Care

And Finding It More Difficult to Pay for College and Make New Friends

What NSSE Tells Us: By College

Where Are Our Students?

Where Are Our Transfer Students?

Would Students Attend Again?

How Do Students Evaluate Academic Advising at Towson?

How Do Students Evaluate Their Overall Educational Experience

Telling the Story: Meeting Middle States Standards

NSEE and the Standards Standard 12 – General Education Standard 13 – Institutional Activities Standard 14 – Student Learning Assessment

12. General Education: Towson Students Show Strong Computer Literacy Skills

But Other Areas Need To Grow

13. Towson Students Above Mean In Experiential Learning

But Other Areas Need To Grow

14. Student Learning: Towson Students Above Mean In Facts And Applications

But Other Areas Need To Grow

Telling the Story: Achieving Effective Educational Practices

NSSE Benchmarks for Effective Educational Practices Level of Academic Challenge Active and Collaborative Learning Student-Faculty Interaction Enriching Educational Experiences Supportive Campus Environment

Towson Level of Academic Challenge Close to NSSE Comparisons

Student-Faculty Interaction on the Rise at Towson

Towson Students Increasingly Engaged in Active Learning

Supportive Campus Environment Compares Well with Peers

Telling the Story: Benchmarks Illustrate Some Growth Over Time

Student Faculty Interaction Demonstrates Growing Relationships

Active and Collaborative Learning Steadily Increasing

Supportive Campus Environment Shows Some Gain

Level of Academic Challenge Remains Consistent

Selling the Story: Towson 2010 – Working for Excellence Everyday

Towson Students Are Building Stronger Relationships With Faculty

But Towson Seniors Seek Even Better Relationships Describe the quality of your relationships with people at your institution. 1=unfriendly, unsupportive, sense of alienation; 7=friendly, supportive, sense of belonging TUPeerMastersNSSE Relationships with other students Relationships with faculty members Relationships with administrative personnel and offices

Towson Students Rate Academic Advising Good or Excellent First-Year More than 73%, comparable to national results Seniors More than 52% while nationally almost 71%

But Some Seniors Have a Different Experience

Almost 25% of First-Year Students Participate in More then 5 Hours of Co-Curricular Activities a Week First-Year More than 23% but, nationally, 31% Seniors More than 14% but, nationally, 28%

But Almost Half of Seniors Never Attended an Art Exhibit, Gallery, Play, Dance, or Theater Performance

And Transfers Have More Difficulty Paying for College and Making New Friends

Selling the Story: Next Steps from NSSE

Moving from Telling to Selling with NSSE Telling the story of fulfilling our mission Focusing on the student experience and student success Identifying and acting on opportunities for improvement Selling the story of success and growth

Fulfilling Our Mission: Positive Results from NSSE Recognized for quality and value Focused on teaching Providing a broad range of opportunities Acquiring intellectual skills for success

The Student Experience: NSSE Highlights Many Areas Sustaining position among peers Meeting external standards Promoting effective educational practices Increasing supportive environment

Opportunities for Improvement (OFIs): NSSE Provides Roadmap Advising, particularly for seniors and transfers Co-curricular participation, especially for seniors Transfer engagement and involvement

Selling the Story: Linking NSSE Results to Strategic Goals Enrollment Management, Growth and Mix: OFIs by more effectively meeting the academic and student life needs of seniors and transfer students Partnership Philosophy: OFIs by assuring a more responsive organizational structure for seniors and transfer students Resources for Success: OFIs by enhancing target retention initiatives

Selling the Story: Using Assessment to Document Results Identify key OFIs from NSSE results Design and implement improvements and track implementation Determine assessment methods to measure improvements Collect and analyze assessment data on impact of improvements Sell the story with results from improvement data