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

2. 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?

3. 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

4. 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 2001321 2002366 2003437 2004473 2005529

5. NSSE 2005 Institutions by Carnegie Classification

6. 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

7. 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%

8. Telling the Story: NSSE Summary Results

9. 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%

10. 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%

11. 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

12. What Are Our Students Majoring In?

13. 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

14. Beyond Academics, What Does Towson Contribute?

15. How Do Towson Students See Themselves?

16. What NSSE Tells Us: First Year Students

17. 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%

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

19. How Do First Year Students Evaluate Academic Advising?

20. How Do First Year Students Evaluate Their Educational Experience?

21. 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

22. What NSSE Tells US: Senior Students

23. 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%

24. How Committed are Seniors: Would They Come Again?

25. How Do Seniors Evaluate Academic Advising at Towson?

26. How Do Seniors Evaluate Their Entire Educational Experience?

27. Seniors Increasingly Find Towson a Supportive Campus Environment

28. 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

29. 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%

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

31. What NSSE Tells Us: Transfer Students

32. 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%

33. Transfer Students Less Certain about TU Experience

34. And Transfer Students Somewhat Less Likely to Attend Again

35. Transfer Students Working More, Commuting, and Providing Care

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

37. What NSSE Tells Us: By College

38. Where Are Our Students?

39. Where Are Our Transfer Students?

40. Would Students Attend Again?

41. How Do Students Evaluate Academic Advising at Towson?

42. How Do Students Evaluate Their Overall Educational Experience

43. Telling the Story: Meeting Middle States Standards

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

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

46. But Other Areas Need To Grow

47. 13. Towson Students Above Mean In Experiential Learning

48. But Other Areas Need To Grow

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

50. But Other Areas Need To Grow

51. Telling the Story: Achieving Effective Educational Practices

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

53. Towson Level of Academic Challenge Close to NSSE Comparisons

54. Student-Faculty Interaction on the Rise at Towson

55. Towson Students Increasingly Engaged in Active Learning

56. Supportive Campus Environment Compares Well with Peers

57. Telling the Story: Benchmarks Illustrate Some Growth Over Time

58. Student Faculty Interaction Demonstrates Growing Relationships

59. Active and Collaborative Learning Steadily Increasing

60. Supportive Campus Environment Shows Some Gain

61. Level of Academic Challenge Remains Consistent

62. Selling the Story: Towson 2010 – Working for Excellence Everyday

63. Towson Students Are Building Stronger Relationships With Faculty

64. 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 students5.405.695.705.68 Relationships with faculty members5.315.575.675.64 Relationships with administrative personnel and offices 4.184.614.674.63

65. 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%

66. But Some Seniors Have a Different Experience

67. 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%

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

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

70. Selling the Story: Next Steps from NSSE

71. 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

72. 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

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

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

75. 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

76. 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