NSSE - National Survey of Student Engagement

Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE, pronounced "bessie") registration will officially launch on March 1, 2010. This will be the fourth year of BCSSE administration. In the past three years, more than 200,000 entering first-year students have completed the BCSSE survey at one of 259 institutions across the United States and Canada.

What is BCSSE?
BCSSE collects data about entering college students' high school academic and co-curricular experiences, as well as their expectations for participating in educationally purposeful activities during the first college year. BCSSE administration usually takes place prior to start of fall classes and is designed to be paired with a NSSE administration at the end of the first college year, providing an in-depth understanding of first-year student engagement on your campus.

Why participate in BCSSE?
BCSSE data can aid the design of pre-college orientation programs, student service initiatives, and other programmatic efforts aimed at improving student learning during the first year of college. BCSSE results, especially when linked with NSSE data, can be used to shape initiatives that align the first-year experience of students with recognized effective educational practices.

Where do I get more information about BCSSE?
Two free BCSSE webinars are scheduled for 2010. One is scheduled for March 16 ("Using BCSSE Data for Faculty Development: Do Faculty Really Know Their Students?") and the other for August 24 ("Using BCSSE-NSSE Data to Assess the Effects of Learning Communities on First-Year Experiences").

See our Web site for a list of upcoming Webinars and recordings of past Webinars.

More information, including sample reports and administration costs, can be found at bcsse.iub.edu.  You may also e-mail us (bcsse@indiana.edu), or call our toll free number: 866-435-6773.  We would be more than glad to help you with any questions you may have.

Institutions across the country are experiencing increases in the number of veterans enrolling on their campuses. However, little is known about the expectations and academic beliefs these veterans bring with them to campus. The Web versions of NSSE and BCSSE now include two questions that will allow institutions to identify student-veterans and to better understand their unique educational experiences.

Is your institution interested in hosting a NSSE Users Workshop? Hosting a workshop offers institutions the opportunity to energize or showcase their use of NSSE results, focus attention on student engagement and assessment to campus-wide audiences, and coordinate parallel sessions targeted to their own faculty. 

Find a detailed outline of steps involved in hosting a workshop. Past workshops have been held at Northern Kentucky University, SUNY Brockport, University of Nevada Reno, Wichita State University, Southern Connecticut State University, University of Central Oklahoma, University of Central Florida, and Illinois State University. Presentations from previous workshops are available on the NSSE Institute Web site. Please contact Kathy Anderson, NSSE Institute Project Manager, kanderso@indiana.edu, for more information on host responsibilities and benefits.

Since its inception, NSSE has focused on measuring the student engagement of all first-year and senior baccalaureate-seeking students. Because a major benefit of NSSE participation is the availability of comparison data that are collected in a consistent way across all institutions, we apply the same standards to all NSSE population files to make these comparisons more valid. Knowing that the majority of college students today do not fit the traditional profile of an 18- to 24-year-old taking classes full time, our population definitions include all students seeking baccalaureate degrees at an institution who are in their first year and last semester of courses according to cumulative course credits. Some institutions prefer to assess student sub-populations (e.g., those in evening/weekend or online programs) separately, and this disaggregation is possible through the student-level data file we provide to all institutions. Our staff is also developing a Web-based data analysis tools that will enable institutions to create disaggregated reports at no additional cost. Ultimately we want to provide the greatest flexibility for institutions to engage their data from multiple perspectives.

FSSE offers two survey options: course-based and typical student. Course-based items ask faculty to respond based on a single course they've taught during the current academic year, while the typical student items ask faculty to respond based on the typical student they see in their classrooms. The FSSE Web site has a decision guide designed to help institutions decide which option will be most useful for their campus. Ultimately, the survey option decision should match the assessment needs of the institution. Below are a few reasons why past institutions have selected a certain option.

Course-based:

• The institution prefers questions structured around the classroom setting
• It allows faculty who teach both upper and lower division courses to self-select which is their primary focus

Typical-student:  

• The institution prefers questions based on individual students
• This option offers a more focused perspective of first-year versus senior students
• It allows faculty to share perceptions of students across all courses they teach

For more information or assistance in selecting a FSSE survey option, please email us at fsse@indiana.edu. 

The Spencer Foundation has awarded a major grant to the NSSE Institute and the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research to fund a two-year project, Learning to Improve: A Study of Evidence-Based Improvement in Higher Education.The project will involve in-depth investigation of institutions that show a pattern of improved NSSE results over time to identify the activities that led to improved performance and to draw lessons to inform improvement efforts on other campuses. Read more about NSSE findings related to improvement trends in student engagement in our Annual Results 2009 report, Assessment for Improvement: Tracking Student Engagement Over Time.

More details on the Learning to Improve project are available on the NSSE Web site including a project overview, timeline, information on funding and research staff, and links to related publications and presentations. We will also post progress reports over the two-year study period.

Each year, more campuses use their NSSE results in innovative ways. We've highlighted these examples in publications including Using NSSE Data and Lessons from the Field.  All these examples are now searchable via a new database of more than 500 examples of NSSE use. You can search for examples by keywords, institution name, or Carnegie 2010 Basic Classification, and by type of use such as for accreditation, or general education assessment, or using results to study retention, or strengthen advising. These campus examples provide instructive accounts and inspiring examples of how other colleges and universities are using their NSSE results to improve undergraduate education. 

To date, over 1200 of your colleagues have registered to participate in NSSE, BCSSE, and FSSE Webinars. Institutional researchers and administrative staff from more than 600 institutions in the US and Canada have participated in at least one live presentation. Archived sessions of Webinars presented in 2008 and 2009 were viewed over 1,000 times.

A schedule of Webinars planned for the coming year is now available on the NSSE Web site. Webinars are held on Tuesdays from 3-4 pm Eastern Time. The first Webinar of 2010, "Ideas for Encouraging Student Participation in NSSE," was broadcast on Tues., January 26th and is now available for viewing in the Webinar archives. Webinars are free, and an invitation to register will be e-mailed 2-3 weeks in advance of each session. Because topics vary, invitations will be mailed to targeted audiences to ensure the maximum benefit from the information presented.

NSSE is using its milestone 10th anniversary as a springboard to launch a new and updated visual identity. New logos and redesigned Web sites for NSSE, FSSE, and BCSSE will be introduced in 2010. Please check back for updates on this transition. For a sneak preview of the new logo, visit the NSSE homepage.