1. Using the National Survey of Student Engagement to Enhance Student Academic Success: Best Practices on Canadian Campuses Debra Dawson Ryerson University New Faculty Orientation January 5 th, 2010

2. Outline What is student engagement? What are the best practices at Canadian Universities? What are the barriers or levers to change? What can we do to enhance student success?

3. What is student engagement? Students’ sustained involvement, intense effort and concentration in learning activities Students’ use of cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies that lead to deep learning –Institutions’ learning opportunities and services that induce students to take part in such activities –Mighty ( 2006)

4. Designed to obtain information about student participation in programs and activities that foster deep learning To date 59 Canadian Universities have participated http://nsse.iub.edu/index.cfm National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)

5. Seven Principles of Good Practice 1. Encourages student-faculty contact 2. Encourages cooperation among students 3. Encourages active learning 4. Gives prompt feedback 5. Emphasizes time on task 6. Communicates high expectations 7. Respects diverse talents and ways of learning - Chickering and Gamson (1987)

6. Context Rae Report(2005)-”Ontario- A Leader in Learning” –Establishment of the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) –Recommendation for the introduction of quality measures and standards such as NSSE OCAV guidelines Undergraduate Degree Level Expectations http://www.lib.uwo.ca/files/teaching/OCAV_UDLE.pdf

7. Benchmark Supportive Campus Environment Students perform better and are more satisfied at institutions that are: -committed to their success -cultivate positive working and social relationships among different groups on campus

8. Supportive Campus Environment Benchmark Comparisons First-Year StudentsSenior Students

9. Benchmark Enriching Educational Experiences Opportunity to integrate and apply knowledge –Experience diversity –Participate in internships, field placements, & undergraduate research projects –Senior capstone experience

10. Enriching Educational Experiences Benchmark Comparisons First-Year StudentsSenior Students

11. Benchmark Student-Faculty Interaction Students learn how experts think about and solve practical problems by interacting with faculty members inside and outside the classroom. Faculty are role models, mentors and guides for continuous, life-long learning.

12. Student-Faculty Interaction Benchmark Comparisons First-Year StudentsSenior Students

13. Benchmark Active and Collaborative Learning Active –where students learn by doing, by hands-on experimentation or where they get the opportunity to think through to a realization Collaborative –where students work in teams or groups towards a common goal

14. Active and Collaborative Learning Benchmark Comparisons First-Year StudentsSenior Students

15. Benchmark Level of Academic Challenge Challenging intellectual and creative work High expectations for student performance

16. Level of Academic Challenge Benchmark Comparisons First-Year StudentsSenior Students

17. What can you do to improve student engagement at Ryerson? Issue: commuter school –Lags behind other schools in the areas of student-faculty interaction and supportive campus environment –Many students (60% employed in 2006—81% off-campus) –Parental education-54% of parents have a BA in 2006

18. What are you doing well? What could you be doing more of? Ideas? Supportive campus environments Enriching educational experiences Students interactions with faculty Level of academic challenge Active and collaborative learning

19. What have we done at Western with NSSE? One of the documents used to frame our 2006 strategic plan “Engaging the Future” Utilized by the Dean of Science to frame his Academic Plan for 2007- 2011 Participated in HEQCO funded research on NSSE (bioliteracy project)

20. AACU Effective Educational Practices 1 st Yr Seminars- Univ. of Guelph Learning Communities- Univ. Of Toronto, Dalhousie Writing-Intensive Courses- Univ. of PEI Collaborative Assignments and Projects- Ryerson, McMaster “Science as Science is Done”; Undergraduate Research-Univ. of Victoria, Dalhousie Service-Learning, Internships- St. Francis-Xavier Diversity/ Global Learning – Royal Roads, Queen’s Capstone Courses- Ryerson, Univ. of Toronto

21. Example: UBC Issues: –Large commuter school –30% 1 st Gen, 40% first language is Chinese Initiatives: –www.events.ubc.ca common calendarwww.events.ubc.ca –Commuter Students Hostel –www.terry.ubc.ca Arts and Science interdisciplinary course on global issueswww.terry.ubc.ca

22. What are the barriers to engagement ? “Content Tyranny” Reinforcement of the status quo- students don’t always want change Large vs small classes, higher vs lower level classes Funding Institutional size

23. What can individual faculty members do to increase engagement? Make yourself available Read inattentive behaviours Give prompt feedback Monitor your students Foster social connections Design high impact courses for 1 st and senior year

24. References Boyer, E.L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate. Princeton, NJ: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Learning. Chickering, A. W. & Gamson, Z. F.(1987). “Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education”, American Association of Higher Education Bulletin, pp. 3-7. Kinzie, J. & Pennipede, B.S.(2009). Converting Engagement Results into Action. New Directions for Institutional Research, 141, 83-96. Kuh, G. (2003). What we’re learning about student engagement from NSSE. Change March/ April, 24-32 Mighty, J.(2006).From admission to graduation:opportunities and strategies for student engagement. Paper presented at Fall Perspectives on Learning, UWO, London, Canada National Survey on Student Engagement 2008 Results. http://nsse.iub.edu/NSSE_2008_Results/. Last retrieved on January 4, 2010. http://nsse.iub.edu/NSSE_2008_Results/ Steffes, J.S.( 2004). Creating powerful learning environments beyond the classroom. Change, 36(3), 46-50. Promoting Student Success: NSSE Deep Practice Briefs http://nsse.iub.edu/institute/?view=deep/briefs. Last retrieved on January 4, 2010. http://nsse.iub.edu/institute/?view=deep/briefs Ryerson University. University Planning Office, Reports and Student Surveys http://www.ryerson.ca/upo/reports/. Last retrieved on January 4, 2010 http://www.ryerson.ca/upo/reports/