1. NSSE Foundations: An Introduction to the National Survey of Student Engagement Regional Users’ Workshop October 6-7, 2005

2. Agenda  NSSE: What is it?  History of NSSE  NSSE Today  Timeline and Administration  Deliverables  Questions

3. What is NSSE?  An annual snapshot of student participation in programs and activities that institutions provide for their learning and personal development.  The results will provide an estimate of how undergraduates spend their time and what they gain from attending college.  National Survey of Student Engagement items represent empirically confirmed ‘good practices’; they reflect behaviors associated with desired outcomes of college.  The time and energy students devote to educationally purposeful activities is the single best predictor of their learning and personal development.

4. History of NSSE  1998 Pew Charitable Trust  Better ways to look at schools than US News?  Non-Student Measures of Success (i.e. endowment, admit rates, external opinions)  Can we look at undergraduate quality?  Asking students about their experiences  Survey is conceptually based on the CSEQ, developed by Robert Pace (and still a survey in the NSSE family)

5. History of NSSE  Goals of the designers of the Survey Instrument  Consist principally of items that are known to be related to important college outcomes.  Be administered to students at both public and private four-year colleges and universities.  Be administered to freshman- and senior-level students who have attended the institution for at least two terms.  Be administered to adequate samples at participating institutions.  Be flexible.  Be administered by a credible third-party survey organization.

6. History of NSSE  1999: 2 Pilots (Fall and Spring) were conducted and meetings were held with education leaders, administrators, and faculty  Early concerns by stakeholders  a concern that the NSSE might create pressure to homogenize curricular practices,  the need to clarify the NSSE’s purpose and to develop safeguards against the misuse of survey results,  the recognition that institutions might try to manipulate the results—especially if the survey is used in rankings or other "high-stakes" settings, and  a concern that The College Student Report is really a "reputation/selectivity" measure in another guise.

7. History of NSSE

8. NSSE Today  The “NSSElings”  The Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (2003)  The Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (2004)  Additional Surveys  The Law Student Survey of Student Engagement  The College Student Experiences Questionnaire  The College Student Expectations Questionnaire  The High School Survey of Student Engagement*  The Community College Survey of Student Engagement* *Not administered by the Center for Postsecondary Research

9. NSSE Today  Additional Research Projects  Building Engagement and Attainment in Minority Students (BEAMS)  Documenting Effective Educational Practices (DEEP)  Connecting the Dots, American Democracy Project, Flashlight Group, State Higher Ed Systems  Chiropractic School Survey  Additional Resources  Accreditation Toolkits  Regional Workshops  Pocket Guides

10. NSSE Today  NSSE Around the World  Canadian, French Canadian, Spanish Versions  Administered in Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Italy  In negotiations with more countries  Administered to over 950 different institutions in all 50 states  Institutional Demographics of participants mirror those of the Nation

11. Core Surveys: NSSE  Research based on effective educational practices  Designed and tested for high validity and reliability  Relatively stable over time  High credibility of self- reported data  Over 200,000 students at 500 institutions annually

12. Core Surveys: FSSE  Designed to parallel NSSE undergraduate survey  Faculty perceptions of student engagement  Importance faculty place on various areas of learning and development  Nature and frequency of faculty-student interactions  How faculty members organize class time  Catalyst for productive discussions related to teaching and learning  To date more than 34,000 faculty members at 276 four-year institutions

13. Core Surveys: BCSSE  In 2 nd Pilot Stage (70 Institutions)  Provides information for institutions about incoming students  HS engagement  College expectations  What they value from their new institutions  Links to NSSE items  Will have it’s first full administration in 2006

14. Timelines  May-July  NSSE/FSSE Registration  BCSSE Administration  August  NSSE Institutional Report Sent  BCSSE Combined Report Sent  September  NSSE/FSSE Registration Closes  BCSSE Reports Sent  Population  Institutional  Student Advising  October  NSSE/FSSE  Population files / Materials due  Annual Reports Sent  BCCSE Linked Population files due  November-December  NSSE/FSSE Consortia, Oversample Decisions Due  January-April  NSSE/FSSE Administration  BCSSE Registration

15. NSSE Administration  Administration Mode  Paper: We need accurate addresses, letterhead, signatures  Web+: 4x the paper sample, we need emails and addresses  Web: 5x the paper sample, we need emails

16. NSSE Administration  Sample Size  Numbers are based on mode and school size  Oversampling can increase sample size or ensure adequate representation of populations of interest

17. NSSE Administration  Special Groups  Consortia  Schools like you  Additional Questions  Selected Peers  Schools like you  Special Populations  Identified in Pop file  Special Analysis  Post Hoc Analysis  Experimental Items  Web schools only 2005 Consortia  American Democracy Project  Associated New American Colleges  AAUDE  California State University  Canadian  Catholic Colleges & Universities  Council for Christian Colleges & Universities  Council of Independent colleges  Jesuit Universities  Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education  Private Liberal Arts Universities  Urban Universities  Women's Colleges  State Systems  North Dakota University System  Texas A&M System  University of Hawaii System  University System of Georgia  University of Texas System

18. NSSE Administration  How often?  Every Year: Gives you a snapshot of each class  Every Three Years: Gives you a picture of a cohort at the beginning and the end of their college experiences  Every Five Years: Works well with most accreditation cycles (Accreditation and Interim Reports)  Other factors  Establishing a baseline  Costs (Using all core surveys)  Additional Surveys/Sources of Data  Time to take absorb results, make changes

19. NSSE Administration  Things that we need from you  Population File  All First-Year and Senior Students  Accurate Addresses and/or emails  Letterhead and Signature File (Paper Schools only)  Primary Contact: To answer day to day questions  Administration Plan (incentives, advertising) and broad buy-in

20. NSSE Deliverables  Institutional Report (August)  Institutional data  Respondent characteristics (Demographic Information)  Item averages and response percentages (Means and Frequencies)  First-year students and seniors  Comparisons by consortium, Carnegie, and national  Additional Data (If Applicable)  Experimental items  FSSE Report  BCSSE Combined Report  NSSE Institute Information  Using NSSE Data  Accreditation toolkit

21. NSSE Deliverables  Benchmark Report (October) 1)Level of Academic Challenge 2)Active and Collaborative Learning 3)Student-Faculty Interaction 4)Enriching Educational Experiences 5)Supportive Campus Environment

22. NSSE Deliverables  You become part of the NSSE Family with your participation  Consulting  Help with making sense of Data  Presentation Assistance  Technical Questions  Updates, Briefs, New information  Special Conference Workshops (Meeting other users)  Feedback for NSSE

23. NSSE: Only one step Step #1: Survey Data Survey Students Review Results Develop Preliminary List of Strengths and Opportunities for Improvement Step #2: Feedback Share results with Faculty, Administrators & Students Identify Themes & Priorities Design Action Plan Step #2: Feedback Share results with Faculty, Administrators & Students Identify Themes & Priorities Design Action Plan Step #3: Action Plan Finalize Plan Share Plan with Appropriate Groups Link to Strategic Plan Implement Action Step #4: Follow-up Use Results as Benchmarks to Monitor Progress Faculty & Student Focus Groups Step #4: Follow-up Use Results as Benchmarks to Monitor Progress Faculty & Student Focus Groups

24. Questions  What more would you like to know?  Thank you for attending.  www.iub.edu/~nsse