Many options are available to customize FSSE administrations and reports in ways that maximize value for individual campuses as well as for groups of institutions that elect to participate in FSSE as a consortium or state system. Options for customizing FSSE administrations and the FSSE survey are below.
Customizing FSSE
Administration Customization
INSTITUTIONAL PERSONALIZATION
One of the important ways FSSE is customized for all participating institutions is in the survey administration process. Although FSSE handles various aspects of survey administration, the intent is for instructional staff (faculty, instructors, graduate students who teach, etc.) to recognize that their college or university is soliciting their feedback. To achieve this, campuses customize the initial invitation message. Institutions are also encouraged to send their own pre-survey announcement. See FSSE Administration Customization for more information about these options.
POPULATION FILES
Another key aspect of customization is the population you choose to survey. FSSE can be administered to full-time faculty, part-time faculty, to graduate students who teach, to faculty in specific departments, or to any combination of instructional staff. Although FSSE recommends that you include all instructional staff who teach undergraduates, institutions may choose to select the specific faculty they would like to be invited to participate in FSSE. Additionally, institutions may include a grouping variable within their population file submission to conduct analyses specific to their desired faculty grouping. See FSSE Administration Customization for more information about these options.
Survey Customization
TOPICAL MODULES
FSSE participating institutions may append up to two FSSE Topical Modules - short sets of questions on designated topics such as academic advising, civic engagement, cultural diversity, and/or writing. Modules allow for deeper exploration of important areas based on campus needs. Participants may add up to one module for no extra cost, while adding a second module costs $250. Note that consortium members may only administer one module.
CONSORTIA
NSSE consortium participants additionally have the opportunity to add parallel consortium questions to a FSSE administration for faculty/instructors. Additional information about NSSE consortia is available on the NSSE consortia page. The NSSE consortium coordinator is responsible for finalizing FSSE consortium questions and recruiting institutions for participation. Participating institutions receive a report of instructional staff responses to these consortium questions as well as faculty responses to consortium questions in their FSSE data file. The cost of adding FSSE consortium questions is $200. See examples of consortium question sets.