UWF Uses NSSE Data to Design a Self-Study on HIP Participation Barriers

Involving more students in high-impact practices (HIPs) is a university-wide commitment at the University of West Florida.  Assistant Professors Dr. April Schantz and Dr. Holley Handley’s recent collaboration used data from the National Survey for Student Engagement (NSSE) for an intra-institutional assessment of the barriers preventing students at The University of West Florida (UWF) from participating in HIPs. With the support of their HIP liaisons, UWF actively works to break silos and communicate practices across each college. 

Assistant Professor Dr. Holley Handley serves as a HIP liaison for the College of Education. 

“We are the communicator, the connector between what's going on at each department level in the university to try to share experiences, to crowdsource, and help faculty learn from each other to truly make high-impact practices institutionalized at our university,” said Handley. Together, their HIP liaisons have developed a HIP faculty toolkit, workshops, book clubs, and newsletters as part of their efforts. The HIP Barriers self-study initiative began from a university-wide commitment to high-impact practices and a project to connect UWF students with internships.  

Schantz recalled, “We made internships available, and we promoted, and we got the word out through the advisors, flyers, and everything. And then we ended up with very little participation. And we're like, what's going on here? So, we started with some focus groups just asking the students what has been their experience with the internship? And one of the responses was, “Internship? There was an internship?”. Like, okay, somewhere, we're missing the conversation and missing that connection with students. But what are the other barriers students are facing?” 

The focus groups illuminated barriers such as time and financial constraints, and awareness of what a HIP is and where and how to engage with them. 

“We wanted to scale up and incorporate the information we do have, and this is all part of the organization or the institution's goals and commitment to high-impact practices overall. In fact, we have a whole team of high-impact practices liaisons and representatives from each college, who helped guide and serve as kind of an advisory board and support for us,” Schantz said. 

Part of that available information was their NSSE data. NSSE provides participating institutions with student engagement data that can provide benchmarks with peer institutions of similar size and Carnegie classification. However, what UWF needed was a way to look inward. Handley and Schantz designed an instrument to assess their performance on high-impact practices. The project investigated UWF’s student engagement performance across three levels:

• Compared to expectations according to NSSE.
• Differentially across college units in the institution.
• According to students' behaviors and perspectives.

“This was a full institution project collaboration to bring in the information from our students from our colleges within the institution and compare it to the NSSE data,” Schantz said. Schantz and Handley’s instrument collected qualitative and quantitative data from students across all class levels at UWF. They also asked questions to align student responses to their respective colleges.  

“That's what enabled us to get the summary statistics per college within the institution. This gave us great insight – both in comparing the NSSE data to our overall college – but also comparing within colleges the information on which HIP types were most frequently used within each college as a function of the student’s program. So, this was great information,” Schantz said. 

The qualitative items provided information to identify accessibility issues and relevant barriers to student engagement and high-impact practices. Using NSSE data from the prior year's administration, they compared the results from the internal data. With this research design, they compared their prior-year NSSE administration data to the internal data collection to look for exemplars within the institution. What they found was:  

Overall, they were doing well on collaborative projects, e-portfolios, internships, and intensive writing across the whole institution.

The College of Arts and Social Sciences significantly engages in HIP types, including undergraduate research, e-portfolios, internships, capstones, and intensive writing. 

The College of Business had the most success in promoting engagement of diversity in study abroad compared to all the other colleges. 

The College of Sciences excelled in promoting engagement of the First Year Experiences and the learning communities. 

The College of Health had the highest service and community learning engagement across all colleges.

“So all of the colleges showed their favorite HIP types. And if we're able to use that or leverage it at an institutional level, we can get those exemplars to help our other areas see their opportunities,” Schantz said. 

To look at student behaviors and perspectives of how they engage in high-impact practices, the team used latent class analysis to identify four patterns of HIP engagement and find areas of opportunities. The richness of their data collection provides their project with many avenues for continuation and improving HIP participation at UWF. Schantz and Handley anticipate the next step is to evolve their assessment strategy toward the quality of high-impact practices rather than just the quantity of what's offered. 

“We still have some opportunities because less than half of the students participated in any of the HIP types. So even though we have all this support from the HIP liaisons in our institution and from faculty and everything, we have opportunities. That was really good information to have,” said Schantz. 

For more information or questions about this project, Schantz and Handley can be reached at aschantz@uwf.edu and hhandley@uwf.edu. 

Amplifying Student Voice in Assessment  

Getting students involved and invested in promoting, interpreting, and disseminating National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) data is a proven strategy for deepening the impact of results.  

Lindenwood University’s Office of Academic Effectiveness created a student internship, the Student Assessment Scholars program, to increase student involvement in assessment. The Student Assessment Scholars program uses a real-world approach to institutional assessment that promotes student-led assessment research (Elder et al., 2023).  

The Student Assessment Scholars is a yearlong program consisting of a credit-bearing fall internship focused on developing students’ research skills. The program introduces students to the complete life cycle of a research or assessment project from beginning to end – including completing CITI training to work with human subjects and seeking IRB approval. Campus stakeholders then apply to work with a team of student assessment scholars to elicit student input about their issue or program.  

In the spring semester, student assessment scholars complete a 2-credit internship. During this time, they conduct focus groups and interviews, analyze the data for important themes, and write results in an insight report, presentation, or poster. Scholars have worked on projects examining involvement and engagement at Lindenwood, general education revision, and student perceptions of humanities.  

In 2022-2023, Lindenwood’s Office of Institutional Research worked with the program to contextualize and disseminate NSSE results on campus. The emphasis on NSSE explicitly offers the chance to improve faculty and students' understanding of student engagement and how it is realized at Lindenwood. The scholars’ project educated students on NSSE’s content and terminology, encouraged participation, and provided general information on Lindenwood’s past NSSE participation. The scholars presented their findings at Elevate Leadership, a student leadership program. They also reviewed student comments and historical NSSE results and helped create a website to disseminate results.  

Lindenwood University's student assessment scholars highlight the value of student voice in planning, conducting, and sharing assessments. The program demonstrates how engaging undergraduate students in assessment projects allows for more authentic and informed action and creates opportunities to participate in multiple high-impact practices. Lindenwood University provides students an engaging opportunity to participate in undergraduate research, have collaborative experiences with students and faculty, and participate in credit-bearing internships.  

References:  

Elder, R., Shilling, A., Waters, M. October 2023. Student Voice in Assessment: Collaborating with Student Assessment Scholars to Gain Feedback and Change How NSSE Data are Shared. Assessment Institute, Indianapolis, IN.  

From Student Comments to More Inclusive Practices

A theme began to emerge in the students’ comments around the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Students expressed concerns related to who is valued, what is valued, and the importance of reflecting more diverse identities on campus

At Marian University, assessment and learning are viewed as inextricably linked, so much so that the Director of Educational Assessment, Dr. Tony Ribera, works within Marian’s Center for Teaching and Learning and serves on the Teaching and Learning Committee along with faculty and staff from across departments. This committee includes an assessment activities subcommittee whose members serve as key players in examining and sharing NSSE results and information.

Tasked with the review of Marian’s NSSE 2019 results, the assessment activities subcommittee chose to focus on both the quantitative and qualitative data during multiple subcommittee meetings. Subcommittee members used this time as well as a shared Canvas page to read and discuss the NSSE data and reports, including students’ comments in response to the survey’s open-ended prompts. Although these comments were viewed and analyzed in an informal manner, key themes and trends emerged from them that were still quite impactful.

While the quantitative data suggested that students were engaging with diverse peers relatively often, the qualitative data—the student comments—provided another dimension and a more detailed picture of diversity on campus.

The open-ended prompt Marian students received for their comments was:

“What one change would most improve the educational experience at this institution?”

As members of the assessment activities subcommittee viewed the approximately 200 responses, a theme began to emerge around the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Students expressed concerns related to who is valued, what is valued, and the importance of reflecting more diverse identities on campus.

It became clear to the subcommittee that Marian University could do and should do better by its students and—based on student comments—that many of these changes were possible to implement. Since the review and presentation of NSSE 2019 data, several changes have occurred on the Marian campus related to inclusivity and learning. The institution has established a new framework, created by faculty and staff, to outline what a learning experience at Marian should look like and to guide educators in creating more impactful learning. This new framework incorporates inclusive practices such as ensuring students feel valued and respecting diverse perspectives. The Center for Teaching and Learning has also developed a professional development certificate focused on creative inclusive experiences. Those interested in receiving the certificate are required to participate in four events around topics such as implicit bias and inclusive pedagogy. Thus far, over 100 educators at the institution, including faculty and staff, have registered.

These initiatives have not been limited to introducing strategies for how students learn but also include new strategies for assessing inclusivity in teaching. More recently, the university has emphasized inclusive teaching in its annual program assessment planning and reporting process as well as in its seven-year self-study process. Each program is developing its own assessment plan that will ask explicitly what the program is doing to foster inclusive classroom environments.

Throughout this process, strong connections have been created between faculty and staff. Student affairs professionals have utilized their expertise to facilitate workshops and to assist faculty in understanding concepts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Although difficult conversations have occurred during the workshops, the facilitators have been able to expertly handle these situations and to help participants grow in their understanding of inclusivity in the classroom. These new initiatives have been helpful in creating strong relationships across student affairs and academic affairs.

The Teaching and Learning Committee and Marian University as a whole have worked diligently to respond to students’ feedback and to make concrete changes to the campus. Utilizing quantitative and qualitative NSSE results allowed for a more nuanced and intentional approach to teaching and learning—with a stronger focus on inclusivity.

Creating Readable, Meaningful and Actionable NSSE and FSSE Reports

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), found a way to disseminate their NSSE and FSSE results in an easy-to-read, meaningful format that engaged a range of campus entities. In fact, FAMU’s inclusive use of NSSE and FSSE results was a hallmark of the institution’s comprehensive approach to assessment that distinguished them as a 2020 Excellence in Assessment Designee.

FAMU’s approach to sharing NSSE and FSSE results exemplifies the importance of tailoring reports and using data to inform productive campus conversations. Specifically, their Office of University Assessment created two reports, “Results of the 2017 National Survey of Student Engagement” and “Comparative Analysis of the 2017 NSSE and 2018 FSSE” based off their NSSE 2017 and introduction to the NSSE and FSSE, a comparative summary of student engagement results, population demographics of the faculty, select item comparisons, and a thematic summary of open-ended items. The executive summary concisely identifies major highlights from the report and indicates how the responses of FAMU’s first-year and senior students compare to those of other institutions. Highlights include that FAMU first-year students and seniors perceived higher levels of engagement with faculty when compared to other students from institutions in the Peer and Aspirational category, Carnegie Classification category and NSSE 2016 & 2017 aggregate. The NSSE & FSSE results show that faculty perceived students to spend considerably less time preparing for class and more time in leisure activities; while students conversely reported that they spent considerable time preparing for class and less time in leisure activities, resonated with several campus audiences. These selected findings quickly helped campus partners identify how they compare to other peer institutions, and the combined NSSE & FSSE results showed areas of congruence and misalignment in perception between faculty and students.

The reports also explain the Engagement Indicators and High-Impact Practices and highlighted the select item comparisons for the five questions on which first-year and senior students scored the highest and the five questions on which they scored the lowest relative to students in the comparison group. The combined NSSE & FSSE report discussed how the comparison results contain a great deal of information; but rather than analyzing and reporting all items, the report intentionally highlighted key indicators of areas of growth or improvement as reported by both faculty and students.

These reports provide a great summary of FAMU’s NSSE and FSSE results and provide a model for other campuses as they work to share their results and engage campus partners in using evidence to improve.

Playing in the Sandbox for Student Success

Ensuring student success is a top priority at the University of Rhode Island (URI), where since 2003 NSSE has been used to measure students’ perceptions of the institution. More recently, URI’s Vice President of Enrollment Management formed the Student Success Team, bringing together about 30 faculty, staff, and administrators from across multiple departments and disciplines who were to focus on removing structural impediments to student learning and improving graduation rates. Two initiatives the team has already implemented are curriculum maps for every major and the Take 5, Finish in 4 program that encourages students to complete five three-credit courses every semester in order to graduate in four years. Measuring the effectiveness of these programs requires a comprehensive assessment plan that includes NSSE data.

Recognizing the contribution of people’s time and resources while meaningfully sharing and utilizing results is also a top priority at URI. The Student Success Team has been intentionally working to create a deeper understanding of data and action items among individual faculty and across the institution to improve student learning. A new team initiative, called the Sandbox, was implemented to bring together educators from across campus to dig into URI’s NSSE results.

The Sandbox, emulating the idea of playing with the data, brought together approximately 40 faculty and staff to learn more about NSSE and student assessment. The Sandbox took place in an “active classroom” within the institution’s library—a space equipped with a dozen electronic whiteboards connected to laptops in the room, allowing small groups of participants to play with the data, take notes, and present their own findings.

The Sandbox session began with an introduction to NSSE, including a description and explanation of the items, survey themes, Engagement Indicators, and additional survey questions. After familiarizing participants with the survey, members of the Student Success Team shared examples of results the team had already analyzed. To keep participants engaged, facilitators shared graphs of their analysis and asked participants to interpret the data, to share their conclusions, and to ask any further questions they may have had about the data.

One facilitator example focused on a survey item on how students use their time. Findings suggested class level was not a significant factor, with both first-year and senior students averaging 15 hours per week on coursework outside of class. To showcase opportunities for digging deeper into results, facilitators disaggregated data further by major, finding nursing majors actually above average in hours spent on coursework. This walk-through helped the faculty follow the data down to deeper and deeper levels to gain more confidence for their own analyses.

At the University of Rhode Island, data are not seen as stagnant but as opportunities to better understand the institution and its students.

Once faculty and staff had a chance to familiarize themselves with the assessment process and the NSSE survey, they were provided an opportunity to complete an analysis of their own. The Student Success Team created a spreadsheet containing all the URI data from the NSSE core survey as well as two modules, First-Year and Senior Transitions and Academic Advising. Participants were able to copy and paste cells into a separate tab that updated result charts automatically. The goal was to have everyone, in small groups, browse the survey to find questions related to their particular area of interest, update the spreadsheet, and write conclusions on the whiteboards. At the end of the 90 minutes, participants felt more comfortable with their understanding of assessment data and more confident in their abilities to incorporate assessment into their own practice.

The Sandbox was a huge success. To maintain the assessment momentum, the Student Success team has offered additional incentives. One invited attendees to come up with a research question answerable by NSSE data and to present it to the assessment office to receive funding for their research. Individuals or groups who receive this funding are then asked to present their findings to other campus constituents.

The University of Rhode Island is a data-informed institution, where data are not seen as stagnant but as opportunities to better understand the institution and its students. By creating an active culture of assessment, URI is turning rich data about their students into actionable knowledge to improve the campus community.

*Acknowledgement: After contributing to this account of NSSE data use, Dr. Gary Boden passed away in July 2020. At the time, he was Senior Information Technologist in the Office of Institutional Research at the University of Rhode Island.

Using Data to Understand and Serve a Unique Student Population

Every institution is unique, with its own story to tell. While many schools may see NSSE as a comparative tool to measure themselves against similar institutions, Indiana University Northwest recognizes the need to contextualize their data in ways that help tell their story and make improvements to their campus. Located in Gary, Indiana, IU Northwest is a regional commuter campus within the IU system, serving approximately 3,800 students. As a commuter campus, how IU Northwest promotes the survey and what it looks for in the data, is distinct.

John Novak, assistant vice chancellor of institutional effectiveness and research, has found success partnering with others at IU Northwest, who then provide information and promote the survey to their deans, departments, faculty, and staff. Having moved away from paper flyers and closed-circuit television ads, their most effective forms of promotion have been online via the school’s LMS system on Canvas, the institutional website, and direct emails. In addition to receiving promotional messages about NSSE online, students who complete the survey also receive $3 added to their Crimson Card (a student ID and debit card for spending around campus). Recognizing that students respond well to receiving feedback early and often, incentives are provided at the end of each week instead of when the survey closes.

Instead of trying to change the behaviors of students whose lives are busy with competing priorities such as work and family, the need is about meeting students where they are—in the classroom.

IU Northwest faces challenges like other commuter campuses. The students tend to come to campus for classes only, and their NSSE responses reflect this. Students report lower co-curricular engagement and engagement outside of the classroom compared to peer institutions. But as John Novak has shared, rather than a deficiency, this indicates student engagement just looks different at IU Northwest. Instead of trying to change the behaviors of students whose lives are busy with competing priorities such as work and family, the need is about meeting students where they are—in the classroom.

Much of the focus at IU Northwest is on student-faculty interactions and course-based pedagogical initiatives to improve student engagement and performance. While co-curricular engagement may be low, IU Northwest students report positive interactions with faculty and fellow students in the classroom. Results like these assist in both acknowledging the work faculty put into creating an engaging classroom as well as finding areas for future curricular improvement. One area the institution is exploring is campus climate and cross-cultural development.

Recently classified as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, IU Northwest has a diverse student population. And while many may think having a diverse student population automatically means inclusion, NSSE results show there is room for enhancing diverse interactions. First-year students report lower interactions with diverse others compared to seniors. While IU Northwest is considered an urban campus, it also attracts students from rural and suburban locales. Many students come from segregated communities, and IU Northwest may be one of the first places they interact with students from another culture. It takes time to grow in this area and step out of your comfort zone as a student.

Even with this contextualized understanding of IU Northwest student engagement, there is still room to explore and understand what IU Northwest students need. Moving forward, John has plans to use NSSE data to examine the campus climate. This includes combining NSSE data with other survey and assessment data already available on campus as well as with data from focus groups—to shed light not only on students’ needs but also on the needs of the surrounding community of Gary.

Multi-Year Findings Spark Efforts to Improve Feedback to Students (Lessons from the Field–Volume 4)

According to Andrew University’s results from NSSE 2013, their students received feedback from faculty less frequently than students at comparison institutions—specifically, in the extent to which their instructors provided (a) feedback on a draft or work in progress and (b) prompt and detailed feedback on tests or completed assignments. Examining responses to these two survey items, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness noticed that the university’s average score was lower than those of the comparison group, the peer institutions, and NSSE overall that year. When these findings were presented to faculty, however, they were met with skepticism—and with comments such as “I give grades back in a week”—motivating the presenters to further investigate this aspect of education and to attempt to expand the understanding on their campus of what constitutes effective feedback.

To mitigate possible faculty apprehension about NSSE data, the office conducted a separate follow-up student survey focusing on feedback from faculty. Students were asked about the value of different types of feedback such as opportunities outside of class to ask the instructor questions, rating scales with detailed descriptions of performance, rubrics for grading, and written comments. Students were also asked about the timeframe within which feedback should given for different types of assignments (e.g., drafts of papers or projects; quizzes and short assignments; long assignments, papers, or projects; and major exams).

The results from this survey indicated that over 80% of students found most forms of feedback either “valuable” or “very valuable” and that they expected feedback in the next class period for quizzes and short assignments and within a week for larger assignments. These findings showed that Andrews University students found multiple types of feedback (beyond grades alone) valuable to their education and that the students had reasonable expectations regarding the timeframe for feedback. Presented at the general faculty meeting in April 2014, the findings informed faculty of the multiple ways they could provide feedback to students and deepened their understanding of students’ needs and expectations regarding feedback.

To evaluate the effects of this intervention, the same office compared the university’s NSSE 2013 and NSSE 2015 scores. Using their Multi-Year Report from NSSE, researchers were able to track the change in the Student-Faculty Interaction Engagement Indicator—a factor comprising four NSSE items, two of which (mentioned above) began this campus conversation. By using that report, the Assistant Provost of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness was able to see improvements in student engagement related to interaction with faculty by both first-year and senior students. In this effort, Andrews University used NSSE data to identify an area of concern; to explore it further on their campus; to provide faculty with actionable evidence on how to improve their teaching; and, by comparing old and new results in their Multi-Year Report, to measure the intervention’s effects.

Using Results to Incorporate Diversity on a Faith-Based Campus (Lessons from the Field–Volume 4)

Results from Biola University’s first administration of NSSE, in 2013, indicated lower scores than those of their peer groups on the Discussions with Diverse Others Engagement Indicator. For their administration of NSSE 2015, Biola intentionally customized their comparison groups and had similar findings—providing the basis for investigating further their students’ engagement with individuals different from themselves. In an effort to fully understand these data, Biola conducted additional analyses including individual item analysis, disaggregating by race/ethnicity, and reviewing open-ended responses for diversity-related themes. Among the findings that stood out, compared to their peers at other faith-based institutions, Biola students scored lower on items querying the frequency of discussions with “people with religious beliefs other than your own” and “people with political views other than your own.”

The NSSE findings were especially noteworthy given the responses of Biola students on the Taylor University Christian Life survey indicating that over 90% of them felt the institution had helped them connect their faith with culture and society. These potentially conflicting findings called for deeper probing, inspired new conversations on campus, and raised the question: What is Biola doing to prepare students to truly engage with culture and society, particularly with individuals who are different from them?

All of these findings were shared with the University Academic Council, which is chaired by the Provost and consists of academic deans and members of the Provost’s cabinet, promoting a powerful campus discussion on how the institution was incorporating diversity into the curriculum. Using data from the various sources helped the council identify where students are exposed to diversity as well as opportunities to introduce diversity within the curriculum; for example, the council considered ways to incorporate diverse voices and texts in required theology courses. To encourage faculty to incorporate a more diverse curriculum, as part of Faculty Investment Day, faculty were offered a one-day training opportunity including breakout sessions and faculty panels with titles such as Teaching the Complex and Controversial: Practical Strategies for Engaging Students in Transformational Learning; The Black Lives Matter Movement, Evangelical Churches, and Biola Classrooms; Engaging Online Students in Cross-Cultural Learning; and Transforming the Classroom into a Real Life Experience: Engaging Students Cross-Culturally in the Community.

While Biola continues thinking about how to address the diversity-related NSSE findings on their campus, a staff member from the office of the Vice Provost of Inclusion and Cross-Cultural Engagement has been added to the undergraduate curriculum committee to help them critically examine how the curriculum addresses diversity. Biola also intends to continue the conversation about creating more opportunities for faculty training in pedagogy and inclusion in the classroom.

Student Learning Analysts Build Campus Interest and Investment in Assessment Students (Lessons from the Field–Volume 4)

Using assessment data innovatively at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) has become a priority in the last few years. To aid in this effort, in 2016, the Office of Academic Assessment created the Student Learning Analysts (SLA) position, “in which undergraduate students take an active role in gathering information on student learning experiences,” to help ensure student voices are truly represented in the assessment of student learning—including in the interpretation of the data and the recommendations for practice. Students in the SLA position learn to design assessment projects, collect and analyze data, and present findings to various members of the BGSU community. The Vice Provost of Institutional Effectiveness and Associate Director of Academic Assessment, who work with these students, believe the SLAs support the larger data-driven philosophy on campus and increase investment by campus units in institutional assessment work. Incorporating students’ interpretation of data and recommendations for practice can have a significant impact on campus unit decisions.

Students hired for the SLA program were drawn from a variety of majors, class standings, and experience levels—but all demonstrated an interest in assessment and student learning. After receiving training in assessment techniques, the SLAs started their projects. In their first semester, they conducted focus groups related to students’ expectations about learning and engagement in the classroom (see Figure 9). In their second semester, as they developed assessment projects directly related to NSSE, they learned about engagement and the types of data NSSE provides—and used these new skills to craft focus group questions related to three NSSE Engagement Indicators: Learning Strategies, Higher-Order Learning, and Reflective and Integrative Learning. One of the focus group questions related to Learning Strategies was “How do you study and review your notes?” Another question, related to Higher-Order Learning, was “How is critical thinking applicable in other aspects, such as internship, organizations, etc.?” In a question related to Reflective and Integrative Learning, the SLAs asked “Explain how your classes help you look at issues or topics with a new perspective.” Following the focus groups, the SLAs analyzed and coded their data and began to identify findings to share with various groups on campus (e.g., Teaching and Learning Fair, General Education Committee, Faculty Administrator groups, etc.). The SLAs are also committed to finding unique visual ways to share their findings to make them as accessible as possible.

Although still new, the SLA program has already seen some unintended—but positive—outcomes. Students who participated in the focus groups, for example, have expressed interest in the SLAs’ assessment work and are thinking about how they can use assessment to inform their own experiences (e.g., activities with student organizations). To build on this growing interest, the Office of Academic Assessment at BGSU is considering ways to expand the SLA program in the future after ensuring its short-term success.

Sharing and Using NSSE Data to Drive Sustainable Improvement (Lessons from the Field–Volume 4)

In 2014, during a board of trustees meeting, Bucknell University President John C. Bravman outlined five attributes critical to the institution’s long-term sustainability: being forward looking, data driven, highly intentional, prudently bold, and student centered. Applying that vision to become highly intentional about sharing and making data as accessible as possible to administration, faculty, staff, students, and external constituents, Bucknell has developed a number of dashboards focused on specific topics.

One of these dashboards, dedicated solely to NSSE data, provides means for each of the NSSE Engagement Indicators (EI) and frequencies for the items they comprise and, further, allows users to disaggregate data by race, gender, residential college, Greek life affiliation, Pell recipient status, and first-generation status. On a number of other dashboards, NSSE data supplement the institution’s internal data as well as data from other instruments. Bucknell’s Diversity Dashboard, for example, includes items from NSSE’s Discussions with Diverse Others Engagement Indicator, among others, and allows for comparisons by various student demographic characteristics.

The university’s Student Learning Outcomes web page pairs NSSE results with data from the Hart Research Associates survey of employer priorities for college learning and success (see Figure 1; www.aacu.org/leap/public-opinion-research/2015-survey-results) and with the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium’s HEDS Alumni Survey (see Figure 2; www.hedsconsortium.org/alumni-survey). Results are also displayed of students’ participation in High-Impact Practices (see Figure 3).

Two additional dashboards in development at Bucknell will combine data from multiple surveys. One, the Campus Climate Dashboard, will be an invaluable resource for numerous campus offices by providing a summary of findings related to campus climate issues from NSSE, the College Senior Survey (CSS), the Consortium on High Achievement and Success (CHAS) survey, and the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) survey. The other, the General Education Dashboard, will provide a mix of direct and indirect measures (from NSSE and alumni surveys) that will support the assessment efforts of faculty and administrators.

The purpose of making data more accessible is to encourage departments and units across campus to use this information more effectively to improve practice. Demonstrating this, Bucknell has used NSSE data to review the impact on student success of participating in the Residential Colleges—living-learning communities that have been a part of campus life at Bucknell for 30 years.

For this analysis, Bucknell researchers linked NSSE data with institutional retention and first-year GPA data, which served as a proxy for first-year student success. Also, Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE) data were used to compare the pre-college and first-year experiences of Residential College participants and nonparticipants, controlling for student background characteristics.

The researchers found Residential College participation significantly linked to positive results for the Reflective and Integrative Learning and the Discussions with Diverse Others Engagement Indicators, participation in High-Impact Practices, and retention. Based on these findings, Bucknell has prioritized Residential College participation, achieving a nearly 40% increase in that participation over the last three years.

Bucknell has also used NSSE findings to enhance diversity initiatives on campus. Specifically, researchers looked at responses by racial and ethnic group to individual items in the Discussions with Diverse Others Engagement Indicator and in High-Impact Practices participation. Informed by these findings, changes were then made to the training for both Orientation Assistants (OAs) and Resident Advisors (RAs) to include new topics and offices focused on diversity and inclusion. The revised OA training includes a session on critically examining first-year students’ experiences through a diversity lens, specifically paying attention to the needs of students with disabilities and students with different religious and political views as well as those who have experienced exclusion or discrimination on campus. The revised RA training emphasizes diversity and cultural fluency as core themes and has sessions dealing with power and privilege, campus climate, identity development, and global and world events. Additionally, the revised RA selection and interview process incorporates considerations related to cultural competency and diversity.

Engaging Student Affairs in Student Engagement Improvements (Lessons from the Field–Volume 4)

The California State University (CSU) system has a clear goal: to increase graduation rates for all students across all 23 campuses to meet California workforce demands. Graduation Initiative 2025 outlines CSU’s key objectives for first-time first-year and transfer students. At California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), working toward these goals has meant ensuring all institutional divisions are involved in the process, including each student affairs unit. Cautious of too hastily developing and implementing new programs and initiatives, CSUSB’s approach has been to thoughtfully consider ways to increase intentionality and efficiency in work already being done on campus, identifying areas already improving as well as areas needing further improvement. Figures 4 and 5 show how these data have been made accessible to campus constituents.

The Department of Housing and Residential Education (DHRE) has used NSSE to assess the impact that living on campus has on student engagement, comparing effects not only of on- and off-campus living but also of specific housing programs (e.g., faculty-in-residence, sustainability programs). DHRE’s assessments of various initiatives have looked at the relationship of students’ living environment with NSSE Engagement Indicators and High-Impact Practices participation to determine which DHRE practices have the most impact on student learning and success. These findings are especially important as the institution moves toward increasing the number of students living on campus. Simply getting more students to live on campus is not enough; their experience must intentionally offer the resources and support to assist them toward graduation.

Other CSUSB offices find NSSE gives insight into populations of students who face unique challenges that other surveys may not capture. Services to Students with Disabilities (SSD), for example, searches NSSE data for trends among students with disabilities. These data combined with resources from the Council for Learning Disabilities inform the development and implementation of SSD’s strategies. The Veterans Success Center (VSC), using NSSE data to inform programmatic decisions about how best to support student veterans, created a Veterans Learning Community where military-affiliated students receive support in transitioning to the university (e.g., selecting courses, choosing a major, understanding campus requirements), participate in a seminar series to enhance academic skills (e.g., study practices) and personal skills (e.g., social networking), engage in community service and family-based activities, explore career options, and prepare for life after CSUSB. To develop coping skills for life challenges on the path to graduation, student veterans also receive on-site academic support, personal development and academic skills building workshops, a mental health support group, community enrichment projects, and family engagement activities. NSSE data were also instrumental in the development of a dedicated tutoring program and study space for military-affiliated students. VSC has partnered with the Communications Studies Department in a collaborative effort featuring military leaders; VA representatives; and CSUSB staff, faculty and student veterans to expand

faculty training for successfully instructing and interacting with military-affiliated students.

To support students of color from communities who have historically graduated at lower rates, CSUSB has recently opened three student success centers: the Pan-African Student Success Center, the LatinX Student Success Center, and the First People’s Student Success Center. NSSE data along with Lumina, AAC&U, and institutional and systemwide data informed the need for these centers—as illustrated, for example, in CSU system’s very low graduation rates for First Nations students. Increasing resources and support for all students will be central to CSUSB’s work toward meeting the Graduation Initiative 2025 goals.

Lastly, to improve the transition experience for both students coming from high schools and those transferring from community colleges, CSUSB’s orientation programs have become transition programs—and NSSE data have been embedded in this change. The new student convocation, for example, incorporates NSSE data on students’ engagement on campus and supplements this with student leaders sharing stories about their own engagement and encouraging new students to take advantage of campus support and resources. Given the many ways CSUSB is working to improve the student experience and increase engagement, its next NSSE administration will be important for assessing the impact of these strategies.

NSSE Data-Informed HIP Planning and Accreditation Reporting (Lessons from the Field–Volume 4)

California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) is a Hispanic-Serving Institution that is focused on the students they serve, an undergraduate population among whom 42% identify as Latino/a, 54% are first-generation, and 47% come from low-income backgrounds. Institutional researchers at CSUSM use NSSE data to learn more about their student population and to provide evidence that can be used to best serve them—for example, to confirm that CSUSM students spend more hours working for pay than do students at similar institutions. Findings like this inform the collective understanding of the student population and guide campus conversations on how to best support these students.

NSSE data are also used to underpin efforts like the benchmarking of Co-Curricular Competencies conducted annually by the Division of Student Affairs. The division reorganizes data from NSSE and from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) College Senior Survey under domains such as Civic Engagement and Social Responsibility or Critical Thinking and Ethical Reasoning, using the data to inform conversations regarding student learning in these areas.

High-Impact Practices (HIPs) such as the first-year seminar, internships, and undergraduate research are a leading priority at CSUSM. Emblematic of this institutional emphasis, a HIP task force composed of faculty, staff, and administrators with interest or involvement in campus HIPs used NSSE data to disaggregate student participation in these practices by student major and demographic characteristics. These data can help educators identify student groups that are less likely to participate in HIPs and to direct them to HIP opportunities—interventions that are especially impactful for students such as first-generation or low-income students who might not otherwise seek out these opportunities.

CSUSM stakeholders have used NSSE data to measure the overall effect of efforts to improve HIP participation, and the data suggest interventions like these are working. Encouragingly, results from the institution’s NSSE 2016 administration indicated that HIP participation has increased. Also, using common data reference points has facilitated cross-division collaboration at the university, as all entities work from the same data points and share a common framework for conversations to identify needs and plan interventions.

NSSE data have also played an important role in the CSUSM WASC Senior College and University Commission (WASC) accreditation process—providing evidence in their institutional report of achievements in university-wide Undergraduate Learning Outcomes (ULOs), mapped to WASC standards. For example, CSUSM found that their students were more likely than those at other California State University institutions to engage in behaviors associated with higher-order learning and used this information to articulate the ways in which their students had developed skills as Comprehensive and Critical Thinkers (one of the four ULOs). Similarly, for the Skilled Communicators ULOs, levels of satisfaction among students.

In concert with other data sources, such as CIRP’s freshman and senior surveys and the American College Health Association–National College Heath Assessment survey, CSUSM expertly aligned their own institution’s ULOs with WASC standards and used evidence from NSSE to highlight achievements in student learning on their campus. CSUSM is making progress toward establishing a culture of data to inform action and to demonstrate student learning outcomes.

the institutional report noted high scores for the frequency at which students give presentations in class and for crediting their university experience for the development of oral communication skills. Lastly, the CSUSM institutional report used NSSE data to illustrate high

Mapping NSSE Items and Developing Faculty (Lessons from the Field–Volume 4)

The Office of Institutional Research, Effectiveness, and Planning at Carlow University maximizes information derived from NSSE results by using data from both the core survey and the Topical Modules. In 2014, Carlow administered NSSE and participated in two modules: Learning with Technology and Experiences with Information Literacy. Analysis of these data contributed to the development of explicit guidelines for a new core curriculum and the improvement of instruction by faculty.

Mapping Carlow’s NSSE results to specific action steps was linked to the new core curriculum guidelines. For example, in one document the survey item, “worked with a faculty member on activities other than coursework” was connected to actions such as educating students about co-curricular opportunities in the “Connecting to Carlow” course and the development of a co-curricular transcript. The Office of Institutional Research, Effectiveness, and Planning developed a graphically enhanced chart that (a) identified the NSSE survey item, (b) compared Carlow’s performance with the national average (e.g., a “thumbs up/neutral sign/thumbs down” picture), and (c) listed all of the new core curriculum components intended to ameliorate the concerning findings.

By reimaging NSSE results in a single chart—or “crosswalk”—the office developed an easy-to-understand information display tool that clearly delineated connections between data and action. For example, low NSSE scores from seniors for faculty feedback on a draft or work in progress were addressed by creating various skill labs (i.e., academic support experiences to help students develop communication, writing, and quantitative reasoning skills), by implementing a writing-intensive curriculum in the critical exploration courses, and by embedding assessment checkpoints during junior year seminars.

Because NSSE results also indicated participation rates in some High-Impact Practices (HIPs) were lower at Carlow than at other institutions, an action step called for the inclusion of five HIPs in the core curriculum (writing intensive curriculum, capstone courses, service-learning experiences, internships, and research opportunities with faculty). Although several of these HIPs were already in the curriculum, a conscious decision was made to bolster and expand them in the new curriculum. Not only has the crosswalk streamlined conversations regarding interventions to enhance student engagement, the document also serves as an easy-to-reference guide for measuring the effectiveness of these interventions.

Carlow University plans to administer NSSE in 2018 and is excited to see if scores on the targeted items improve after implementing the new core curriculum, the Carlow Compass (see Figure 8). The Carlow Compass Curriculum, which went into effect for all incoming students in Fall 2016, is an innovative general education curriculum rooted in the liberal arts and the Catholic intellectual tradition. Serving as a navigational tool to guide students toward academic and professional goals, it is integrated with a student’s major course of study and aligns with the university’s mission, vision, and Mercy heritage.Carlow University also used NSSE results to support and guide strategic priorities in other areas of the academic enterprise. While excelling in many aspects of student engagement and practice, Carlow obtained results from NSSE’s Learning with Technology Topical Module indicating it lagged behind its peers in integrating technology into undergraduate education. In the module, students are asked about the degree to which technology contributed to their learning activities such as understanding course ideas and collaborating with other students. The module also includes questions regarding the types of technologies used in class and the degree to which the student’s institution emphasized various types of technologies. The module results indicated that Carlow students were less likely to use certain technologies inside the classroom (e.g., electronic textbooks, e-portfolios, social networking) compared with students at other institutions participating in the module.

As a follow-up action, Carlow organized an internal professional development institute for all faculty and staff in spring 2016. The institute’s theme—Back to the Future: Carlow’s Journey of Innovative Technology—focused on sharing faculty successes at implementing technology as a way to inform and motivate late adopters. The institute included a plenary event, three hours of multiple training sessions (topics included Interactive Software Adobe Connect and Camtasia, and Engagement and Motivation through Digital Tools), and an open-mouse session during the reception where faculty showcased their technology skills.

In both of these uses of NSSE data—the crosswalk of NSSE items with action steps for the new core curriculum and the examination of student use of technology in the classroom—Carlow University has done outstanding work using specific data points in the survey results to guide interventions. Furthermore, the Director of Assessment for Institutional Research, Effectiveness, and Planning has diligently mapped these items to specific interventions (either in changes to the core or to the professional development opportunity). These steps have been essential to understanding how to improve student engagement and to linking this understanding to actual intervention. Going forward, to evaluate the results of its interventions, Carlow can use data from their future administrations to either prove the effectiveness of these actions or to develop new strategies to enhance these measured outcomes.

Longstanding Commitment to Use NSSE Data in Many Ways (Lessons from the Field–Volume 4)

Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has been administering NSSE since 2002. In its NSSE 2006 results, IUPUI’s first-year students indicated they were less likely than students at peer institutions to report either serious conversations with students different from themselves or to include diverse perspectives in class discussions or writing assignments. These results informed curricular discussions on campus and led to the development of more Themed Learning Communities to create opportunities for students to discuss issues of diversity, inclusion, and equity.

At IUPUI, a Themed Learning Community (TLC) is comprised of a first-year seminar and two or more disciplinary courses in which a group of 25 freshmen co-enroll. Throughout a semester, the TLC group explores a theme, makes integrative connections between courses, and engages in out-of-class experiences guided by the TLC’s faculty team. In 2016, IUPUI had 11 different TLCs focusing on diversity. Also in 2016, TLCs formed a partnership with IUPUI’s Diversity, Enrichment, and Achievement Program from which four new TLCs were created, in 2017, to support the success of students from populations traditionally underrepresented in higher education. To monitor the effectiveness of TLCs in helping students achieve institutional learning goals, IUPUI researchers have used NSSE data. In one report, NSSE items mapped to the institution’s Principles of Undergraduate Learning (PULs) learning outcomes showed that TLC participants had higher scores than nonparticipants along these outcomes (see Figure 6).

In addition to advancing diversity, inclusion, and equity at the institution, IUPUI stakeholders are interested in increasing participation in and measuring the quality of High-Impact Practices (HIPs). One key campus initiative targeting this goal is RISE—Research, International experiences, Service-learning, and Experiential learning—which provides maps for students to enroll in RISE courses and resources for faculty (e.g., taxonomies and funding for course development). To measure the quality of RISE, the Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support uses retention data, follow-up surveys, qualitative interviews, and NSSE data. Triangulated with data from the other sources, NSSE data are used to illuminate the relationship between HIP participation and desired student outcomes. NSSE results have indicated that, among first-year and senior students, RISE participation is related to increases in engagement behaviors associated with Higher-Order Learning and Discussions with Diverse Others.

NSSE data continue to be vital in shaping conversations at IUPUI regarding student engagement and learning. Dynamic reporting from the Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support via Tableau data visualization software allows users to examine student HIP participation by (a) the total number of HIPs completed or (b) participation in a specific HIP (e.g., service-learning, undergraduate research, internships). Users can disaggregate the data by student characteristic (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, full-time or part-time status) and by school within the university; they can also compare participation rates between IUPUI and peer institutions and other public research universities (see Figure 7) This tool presents a data-rich way to inform educators skeptical of their department’s contribution to low institutional participation numbers, those interested in how they “stack up” with peers, and those who want to ensure equitable HIP participation across different student groups.

Conversations about future initiatives at IUPUI have also drawn on NSSE data. For example, NSSE 2015 results informed discussions at the winter retreat of the nationally recognized IUPUI Center for Service and Learning (CSL). Specifically, discussing IUPUI’s low scores (relative to those of peer institutions) on the Diverse Interactions Engagement Indicator, CSL staff used Design Thinking strategies to better conceptualize how diversity affects their work and how reflection strategies might be used to enhance student development around diversity. CSL staff have also used data from the Deep Approaches to Learning Scales in their scholarly work on the relationship between participation in service-learning and deep approaches to learning. Data like these were used in the 2015 application for the Carnegie Foundation’s Community Engagement Classification, which identified IUPUI as one of the 240 engaged campuses in the US. IUPUI has historically used data to inform the creation of educational interventions, and the institution’s ongoing innovation keeps data alive in present-day conversations about the institution’s future.IUPUI continues to put NSSE results to good use. Over several NSSE administrations, both IUPUI senior and first-year respondents were more likely to indicate that they were working more than 20 hours per week off campus compared to similar students at peer institutions.

As a result, IUPUI plans to remain focused on several initiatives designed to encourage more students to work on campus. In the last 15 years, IUPUI has used NSSE data in comprehensive ways, from measuring achievements related to their PULs to informing needed conversations regarding campus diversity.

Keuka College, an institution with a unique and unmatched emphasis on real-world experience, uses NSSE data to monitor student satisfaction and engagement in key educational experiences. Every year, every undergraduate student at Keuka College completes a Field Period®—a credit- bearing, off-campus learning opportunity that can resemble an internship or may take the form of community service, spiritual exploration, creative endeavor, cultural exploration, or international travel. These experiences are critical, with 94% of the most recently graduating seniors describing Field Period® as important in assisting with their career development and 20% of Field Period® experiences resulting in full-time employment of graduates. A cornerstone of the Keuka College curriculum since 1942, Field Period® is represented in 10% of degree requirements for every undergraduate major. For the college’s first-year students, the First-Year Experience seminar is crucial because it is their first opportunity to learn about the Field Period® process.

While Keuka College has been intentional in supporting its first-year students through traditional methods like orientation and academic advising, institutional stakeholders noticed that NSSE results indicated first-year students reported low quality interactions with students, advisors, faculty, and staff. This finding led to numerous conversations on campus about how best to foster interaction between first-year students and other campus community members, and changes to the curriculum and campus culture were implemented. For example, the first-year experience course was revamped to allow for more opportunity for students to interact with faculty on interesting topics such as Exploration of Multicultural Education, Adventure and Recreation, and Leadership.

In another implemented change, advising and course registration were incorporated into New Student Orientation to encourage engagement with faculty. Additional initiatives are being considered to actively engage students past the first semester through additional revisions of the first-year experience. Also, in the fall of 2016, every incoming student was assigned both a major advisor and a student success advisor, forming a team committed to collaborative and proactive advisement to support each student’s persistence and success. As a participant in NSSE every other year, Keuka College is excited to see if these implemented changes enhance their Quality of Interaction scores.

After several years of modest NSSE data use, North Central College realized a significant increase in interest in student engagement results by a number of campus constituents. Organic conversations about using NSSE data to inform campus practices followed a few transitions in campus leadership and faculty involvement: a new provost, who has encouraged a greater use of partnerships between academic and student affairs; a new director of the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence, who had used engagement research in her own scholarship; a new director of undergraduate research, who has been eager to learn more about the kinds of students engaging in undergraduate research; and faculty who have been increasingly embracing the idea of greater participation in High-Impact Practices (HIPs). Capitalizing on the potential of these transitions, North Central gave new faculty an orientation session that encouraged them to think about their influence on students’ engagement. Facilitated by North Central’s vice president for student affairs and dean of students and a group of student leaders, this session sought to empower faculty to think about small adjustments they could make in their own classrooms and in their interactions with students outside the classroom to increase student engagement. North Central also hosted a similar conversation with student affairs staff—having them look at findings within subpopulations including HIP participation by race/ethnicity and gender and in the aggregate to get an idea of how students were experiencing the institution.

Meanwhile, a strategic planning process has been under way at North Central College, and the college has reflected intentionally on the measures important to this process. Instead of relying solely on college and university rankings for progress benchmarks, institutional leaders have asked to know more about what students actually do. In response, at a presentation to the college’s board of trustees, the vice president for student affairs and dean of students used NSSE data to illustrate student engagement as an indicator of educational quality and to provide the board a view of the college’s performance through its NSSE results and reports. A similar presentation using NSSE data was given to student affairs staff, and the attendees also discussed ways to improve student learning and development with NSSE indicators in mind. North Central continues its efforts to ensure that all campus units know how the construct of student engagement and the data from NSSE can help create successful educational environments for students

Because advisors can direct students to multiple resources and support services to help them along their education pathways, The Ohio State University (Ohio State) believes improvements in academic advising are essential to ensuring that all students flourish and succeed. To establish a baseline from the student perspective for planning these improvements, Ohio State appended the Academic Advising Topical Module to their 2013 NSSE administration. Additionally, advisors’ perceptions about their training and professional development were collected in a survey administered in 2014 by Ohio State. Enhancing Academic Advising, Ohio State’s 2014 Higher Learning Commission quality initiative, defined the framework for the improvement effort: “Academic advising requires a collaborative relationship between advisors and students—an active, sustained, and intentional process, rather than passive, sporadic, and casual contacts.” This initiative implemented programs focused on advancing advising to the next level through the following ongoing activities and offerings:

• Training and professional development for advisors
• Assessment of academic advising learning outcomes
• Increased advisor accessibility to and engagement with information to guide and support students
• Enhanced collaboration between advisors and other university offices

To assess the effectiveness of their academic advising quality initiative, Ohio State re-administered the NSSE advising module in 2016. Comparing data from both administrations, the university found a number of areas in which student responses in 2016 were significantly more positive than in 2013 and no areas in which responses were more negative. Both first-year and senior students responded more positively in 2016 when asked to what extent their advisors helped students understand academic rules and policies and informed students of academic support options (tutoring, study groups, help with writing, etc.). For seniors specifically, Ohio State saw increases in the number of students who said their advisors had been available when needed and listened closely to concerns and questions.

These findings indicate that the ongoing work of Ohio State’s quality initiative to enhance academic advising is having a positive impact—which supports the continuation and expansion of this work. Further, Ohio State intends to share these findings to boost advisors’ morale, to raise their campus profile, and to promote partnerships with them across campus.

Like many institutions, Oklahoma State University (OSU) is challenged by decentralization. This has complicated its efforts to disseminate NSSE data and reports and to implement change. In the past, although the university’s assessment office provided an executive summary report of NSSE results to various offices and academic colleges, this report was not consistently helpful because its broad findings were not specific to the units’ various needs and students.

The assessment office has since prioritized providing each unit with data pertinent to that unit’s work and the students it serves. The office has also developed resources to make data more accessible to faculty and staff across campus, including a new internal OSU website, dedicated to data and reports, that provides links to NSSE resources and information on accessing the NSSE Report Builder.

Getting faculty more invested in using NSSE results has also been a priority at OSU. In this effort, the assessment office has made it easier for faculty to access NSSE data for their own research endeavors. For example, two faculty members are comparing the engagement levels of in-state students who received need-based state-sponsored scholarships and those who did not.

Additionally, working with the Institute for Teaching and Learning Excellence (ITLE), the assessment office has helped inform faculty workshops on using NSSE results. In a meeting with the ITLE’s support unit of instructional designers and various faculty members, for example, the assessment office provided a two-and-a-half-hour presentation on the implications of NSSE findings for faculty practice at OSU. The presentation included an overview of NSSE, information about the university’s recent NSSE response rates and respondent demographics, details about OSU’s selected comparison groups, and descriptions of areas of strength and areas for potential improvement. The presentation also included findings from Topical Modules and from BCSSE. The goal of the presentation was to identify what faculty were doing in their classrooms related to student engagement and what they could do to enhance it. One critical area of faculty practice that was identified correlates with NSSE’s Higher-Order Learning Engagement Indicator.

Since that presentation to ITLE, enhancing students’ higher-order learning across campus has become a focus at OSU. For example, among the newly developed ITLE faculty courses, which are hybrid in-person and online workshops, one of the courses focuses on more thoughtfully matching student needs with teaching methods; more deeply engaging students in content through activities that highlight analysis, application, and evaluation skills; and more closely aligning content assessments to teaching practices so that evaluation is more relevant and reliable. As evidence of this ITLE course’s impact, a chemical engineering faculty member who completed the course has converted his lecture-based course into a course incorporating guided problem-solving tasks with embedded informal, formative assessments that allow him to gauge student learning immediately and to make adjustments where necessary.

OSU is committed to finding new uses of NSSE data and to reaching a broader range of faculty with college-specific resources and support.

In 2014, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology received a grant from the Kern Family Foundation as part of the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network to develop for engineering students entrepreneurial minded learning (EML) opportunities that foster an entrepreneurial mindset and enterprising attitudes. Rose-Hulman President James Conwell said that the grant—combined with the goals and mission of the institution—would play an important role in preparing graduates to positively contribute to the American workforce. This grant has supported a number of educational initiatives at Rose-Hulman, such as engaging faculty in multidisciplinary groups to create EML-infused courses in each academic discipline, including the humanities and social sciences. Rose-Hulman has also developed a new living-learning community, the Engineering Student Community Actively Learning Advanced Technical Entrepreneurship (ESCALATE), in which 50 first-year students who live and take courses together are connected to student and alumni mentors.

To assess the impact of their efforts to infuse EML initiatives throughout the institution both in and outside the classroom, in their NSSE 2015 administration, Rose-Hulman appended the First-Year Experiences and Senior Transitions Topical Module. A number of items in this module were identified as having the potential to measure progress toward EML goals—particularly, in the senior students’ section of the module, the items related to entrepreneurial skills, self-employment, and starting your own business. The module findings are serving as benchmarks as Rose-Hulman extends EML initiatives across the institution, with plans to readminister the module in 2018.

Rather than wait for the 2018 data for longitudinal comparisons, however, Rose-Hulman chose to use the existing data to examine what was already happening on their campus. Results from the module’s first-year experience section, for example, gave insight into the impact of College and Life Skills—a course designed to help first-year students make a smooth transition from high school and to introduce them to important resources and individuals at Rose-Hulman. Compared to first-year students at peer institutions, the results showed that Rose-Hulman students were much more likely to seek additional information for course assignments when they didn’t understand the material and to ask instructors for help when they struggled with course assignments.

Rose-Hulman has also been working to be more intentional in how data are shared across campus. For example, to address some challenges in using the Major Field Report as a small institution with most students in engineering programs, Rose-Hulman used the Report Builder–Institution Version to break down the findings by specific engineering majors. Each academic program received its own individualized report including institution-wide findings, departmental findings, departmental comparisons to other U.S. institutions, and data use resources. Supporting greater use of NSSE results at the program-level and outlining a plan to employ student engagement results to monitor the infusion of EML have been effective approaches for making data use more widespread at Rose-Hulman.

Every year since its inauguration in 2007, the Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE) has been administered at Southern Connecticut State University during orientation, and the institution has been pushing the boundaries of how colleges and universities use BCSSE data. As part of the First-Year Experience (FYE) Program, all incoming students are enrolled in a seminar that promotes their academic habits of mind, research skills, and preparedness for more advanced coursework. This seminar extends students’ orientation into the future and guides them in developing action steps in the here-and-now to achieve their desired futures.

Prior to the first day of classes, the FYE seminar instructors receive a BCSSE Student Advising Report for each student, which provides individualized information regarding a student’s commitment to the institution, expected academic difficulty, and self-perception of academic preparation for college. When guiding faculty on how to use this information to gauge a student’s confidence and needs, the Office of Assessment and Planning emphasizes that, rather than spelling out a student’s destiny, BCSSE data provide a roadmap on how best to support the student during this crucial transition. At Southern Connecticut State University, the focus is on that which is amenable to change rather than unchangeable demographic characteristics and prior learning.

The Student Success Task Force, chaired by the Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and the Vice President for Student Affairs, used BCSSE data along with other sources of data in predictive modeling to identify the most important predictors of student academic learning, persistence, and graduation outcomes. Of the information collected by BCSSE, the item “Do you expect to graduate from this institution?” was a significant predictor; not surprisingly, students who responded “Uncertain” were less likely to be retained compared with students who answered in the affirmative. Other important predictors included students’ expected difficulty with time management; preparedness to speak clearly and effectively; and frequency of talking with a counselor, teacher, or other staff member about university or career plans.

More than this, the results of the predictive models using BCSSE data indicated that student success is all about relationships. The Student Success Task Force’s recommendations led to the creation of the Academic Success Center and the modification of academic programs, policies, and instruction as part of a drive to advance a culture of student-centeredness at the university. Specifically to help students plan for the cost of education and manage their financial obligations, a new position was created: Coordinator of Student Financial Literacy and Advising.

BCSSE and NSSE data have been used at Southern Connecticut State University in numerous other ways as well. For example, using data from NSSE’s Academic Advising Topical Module (along with other sources of information) to identify issues with the campus’s advising practices, the institution implemented the Education Advisory Board’s Student Success Collaborative advising platform, and university staff continue to use data from the advising module to evaluate this initiative. Additionally, analysis of BCSSE and NSSE data trends conducted by the Office of Assessment and Planning underscored the importance of paying attention to the specific needs of students who are the first in their families to attend college.

One outcome from this analysis was the implementation of a special High-Impact Practice offering, First-Generation College Student Living and Learning Communities, whose students are enrolled together in focused FYE seminars and live together in dorms and with staff members who themselves had been first-generation college students. This program has had real success. First-generation students who participated in this High-Impact Practice had the highest score on the NSSE item measuring students’ overall evaluation of their entire educational experience at the institution, and they were almost 10% more likely than their nonparticipating counterparts to persist at the institution.

Southern Connecticut State University is currently considering the factors that promote and impede on-time graduation. The most important predictors of on-time graduation include the characteristics of the students’ incoming profile, the students’ goal-directed activities, their confidence that they would seek and identify additional resources to better understand course-related materials, and their expected difficulty in getting help if they are struggling with coursework. Results from BCSSE and NSSE can provide data illuminating these predictors.

Overall, BCSSE and NSSE results inform important conversations at Southern Connecticut State University about the most effective ways to promote students’ learning and development. Infographics depicting key survey findings and important predictors of student success are used to spark discussions during meetings. BCSSE and NSSE data highlight areas in which the university has scored higher than its peer institutions—particularly in the Discussions with Diverse Others and Student-Faculty Interaction Engagement Indicators—and the data also identify areas in need of improvement. BCSSE and NSSE results contribute to the university’s data-driven process of educational change and, in response, the university changes the way it works on behalf of students.

At St. Olaf College, NSSE data are woven into the decision making of the Board of Regents, the President’s Leadership Team, the Academic Leadership Team, the Curriculum Committee, and the Provost. For example, NSSE items and Engagement Indicators are incorporated into the Board of Regents Community Life Committee metrics for campus diversity, student wellbeing, and student engagement. These data are triangulated with other sources of information such as the St. Olaf Student Information System, the National College Health Assessment, and the St. Olaf Learning Goals Questionnaire. Beyond establishing reliable metrics, mapping different sources of data to desired goals allows the committee to more strongly align these goals with the St. Olaf College president’s vision and to identify important areas where data are not currently being collected. Additionally, NSSE data have recently been used by St. Olaf staff (a) to inform a particular line of decision making within the institution and (b) to analyze data collected previously to answer constituents’ questions. NSSE results are also used to communicate institutional achievements to the public. For example, on St. Olaf’s institutional learning outcomes website, StOGoals, NSSE data are used to show evidence for Insightful Integration and Application of Learning and Intentional and Holistic Self-Development. After a St. Olaf College NSSE administration a number of years ago, the college’s Institutional Research and Effectiveness office conducted student focus groups to examine the institution’s survey responses. Among the concerning issues that emerged from these focus groups was students’ uncertainty about formal and informal advising and the different types of encounters with each. A task force was convened to evaluate the academic advising received by St. Olaf’s students.

Expanding the institution’s data collection on this issue, in its next NSSE administration, St. Olaf used the Academic Advising Topical Module, enabling the comparison of St. Olaf’s academic advising efforts with those of participating peer institutions. The resulting information gathered through the focus groups and NSSE, as well as other surveys conducted on campus and with alumni, guided the restructuring of St. Olaf’s new academic advising office and also informed the hiring process for a new director of that office. In summary, to address an emergent issue in its academic advising, St. Olaf took a specific course of action—reworking academic advising—and gathered high-quality information to carry out that action successfully.

The Institutional Research and Effectiveness office has also used NSSE data to answer questions posed by the Board of Regents about the quality of the St. Olaf student experience. In one instance, board members were curious about how St. Olaf students would score in areas measured on the Gallup-Purdue Index, a national study linking college student success to high-impact experiences such as internships and extracurricular activities. Although St. Olaf had not participated in this study, the Institutional Research and Effectiveness office was able to answer the board’s question by leveraging data already collected through the NSSE survey and the Higher Education Data Sharing (HEDS) Consortium alumni survey—for example, to provide the percentage of St. Olaf seniors who participated in an internship, co-op, field experience, student teaching, or clinical placement, and, further, to contextualize this percentage by providing comparison group data. It is not uncommon for members of St. Olaf’s Board of Regents to read about trends in higher education and to wonder, “How well are we doing?” With extensive high-quality data on hand—along with the knowledge of how to weave these data into decision making—St. Olaf’s institutional research office is prepared to answer.

The University of Hawai'i at Mānoa exemplifies how investing in student buy-in to raise response rates and creating innovative tools to inform and engage users enable an institution to get the most out of its National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) data. The Mānoa Institutional Research Office (MIRO) shifted from its past supporting role in producing NSSE reports to a proactive role in leading campus efforts to improve the NSSE response rate. Its focus now is on efforts to use NSSE data to support improvements in key areas. As part of MIRO’s follow-up research and the creation of an action plan, a cross-functional team will attend the second annual National Institute for Teaching and Learning, where participating campus teams will develop evidence-based action plans aimed at improving instructional practices, student engagement, and student learning and success. In an attempt to get NSSE data into the hands of those who can use the information to inform decision making, MIRO has reached out to campus units through strategies such as customized reports, online interactive data reporting tools, video tutorials, and face-to-face discussions and training.

For NSSE 2015, MIRO carried out a comprehensive marketing strategy that included several key steps to promote survey participation among first-year and senior students. First, the office coordinated campus-wide advertisements for the survey on dozens of banners and boards as well as hundreds of flyers in first-year and senior residence halls. Second, based on research on the relationship between the use of incentives and increases in response rates, rewards for participants were offered through a drawing for prizes such as an iPad Air 2 and 20 bookstore gift cards. Third, student resources with information about the survey were provided, including a landing page on the MIRO website featuring frequently asked questions such as: “What is the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)?” and “Why should I take part?” The office also organized visits to some of the largest first-year classes to present information about the survey and to encourage participation.

On days when the survey was being administered, information tables were staffed around campus—a service coordinated by student members of the American Marketing Association. With the currency of social exchange as the guiding principle, students were offered snacks and pens with NSSE information notes as they gained awareness about the survey. Prior to the survey administration, MIRO presented its marketing plans to the academic deans, who in turn supported the effort by advertising the survey in their buildings, hosting survey administration parties, doing their own tabling for the survey, and encouraging faculty to promote the survey. Finally, during administration, advertisements were updated to include the end date of the survey period, thereby reminding students to complete the survey before the deadline. To better understand the effectiveness of those promotion strategies, MIRO entered survey response rate data on a daily basis and used the NSSE interface to track changes in response rates.

It was clear that the efforts put forth by MIRO paid off. Compared to the 2011 administration of NSSE at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, response rates for NSSE 2015 doubled from 16% to 32%. Closing the loop on this project, MIRO posted an online video showing the steps taken to improve survey participation and the university’s favorable response rate compared with those of other institutions. MIRO also compared NSSE responses with enrollment data to demonstrate that the survey sample adequately represented the overall student population along the characteristics of class standing, gender and race. This final comparison can (a) persuade skeptics of the representativeness of information derived from NSSE and (b) provide strong evidence of the success of campus partners in promoting the survey. These efforts complement other efforts of MIRO to expand access to NSSE data.

MIRO has also created innovative ways to disseminate NSSE findings to different academic units and offices on campus to enhance their capacity for data-based decision making. Outreach efforts include developing interactive data tools to help departments and academic units access NSSE data and conduct data mining in ways that answer specific questions about student engagement. Central to the design and functionality of the web apps that MIRO developed for NSSE data is the ability to “slice and dice” the data based on one or more variables (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, college, department and many others). The visually appealing report designs enable users to quickly identify data trends. The office also created customized presentations and video reports for student affairs and academic affairs units to focus on three aspects of student engagement: supportive environment, diverse perspectives and student accountability. In addition, MIRO hosted face-to-face training sessions on how to use NSSE data (eight sessions in one semester) and developed virtual tools that include video tutorials, scenarios for use, and follow-up surveys. These tools and data sharing strategies have garnered positive feedback from various offices on campus. By placing data into users’ hands, creative ways of using data to drive decisions have become possible.

To gain a better understanding of one of the areas identified for improvement, MIRO administered a follow-up survey, in July 2016, consisting of five open-ended questions looking at different perspectives of the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa’s supportive environment. Nearly 1,800 students responded, generating nearly 9,000 total responses. MIRO created an interactive online reporting tool allowing decision makers to quickly locate students’ responses from different student populations on specific issues and campus services. These qualitative results provided critical and meaningful information from student voices. To generate real campus change using NSSE results, in August 2016, MIRO’s director led a cross-functional Mānoa team at the National Institute for Teaching and Learning, where they used data from NSSE and the supportive environment survey to develop an action plan to enhance the university’s supportive environment for student success.

All of these efforts to put NSSE data into users’ hands and to link data with program improvements provides the Mānoa community with a better understanding and appreciation of the importance and usefulness of NSSE results. With increased awareness, the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa is likely to enjoy an even more desirable NSSE response rate in the next administration period, which will bring more NSSE data to use for campus decision makers. This healthy and sustainable process works and can be replicated at other institutions.

While recognizing that individual units are in charge of making changes in their educational practice and policy, the institutional research office at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa serves as an excellent resource in assuring these decisions are informed by NSSE data. Its investment in both the participation and the data use aspects of survey research provides a blueprint for how users can maximize NSSE data to better serve their students.

Dr. Sharon M. Bailey, the Director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness at the University of Houston–Victoria, invented an undergraduate research project with the goal of disseminating NSSE results to the greater campus. For this project, two work-study students devised a creative, interactive approach to sharing results. They designed, printed, and folded paper fortune tellers, a form of origami used in children’s games, with the institution’s BCSSE, NSSE, and FSSE results, making several different versions of the fortune tellers based on different research questions. One showed the average number of hours students work for pay (from NSSE) and faculty perceptions of student time working for pay (from FSSE), providing a conversation-starter about the differences between actual student behavior and faculty perceptions of student behavior. Another compared students’ expectations about how often they would go to class unprepared (BCSSE) with the percentage of freshmen and seniors who reported going to class unprepared (NSSE).

Using the University of Houston–Victoria’s NSSE and FSSE reports, the students assigned to this project developed key research skills such as collaborating with peers to coordinate the project and interpret the data and effective reporting skills such as identifying important information, reviewing data for accuracy, and tailoring data to a particular audience.

In the guidebook these student researchers developed to help others create similar paper fortune tellers, they wrote, “Look for pieces of data from each survey that would go good together. Make sure the data used would appeal to targeted audience.” The experiences of these students engaged them in communication, quantitative reasoning, and teamwork. Developing this advertisement for NSSE data required creative energy, and the students were proud of their results.

In the end, these two students designed 14 distinct paper fortune tellers with facts from survey results, and they printed and folded more than 300. The fortune tellers were placed on tables in the student cafeteria and at the faculty and staff appreciation lunch, and the extras were used by the alumni office.

The project was successful in getting campus partners who otherwise might not be familiar with NSSE data to actually see some of the results in their hands. Even a year later, Dr. Bailey ran into faculty and staff who remembered the paper fortune tellers and, in spring 2017, she reprised the project, this time with a message encouraging faculty to participate in FSSE.

University of Mary Washington’s (UMW) 2013 Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP)—“UMW’s First-Year Seminar: Research, Write, Speak”—was developed to enhance the first-year seminar experience. UMW had established the First-Year Seminar (FSEM) requirement, in 2008, based on NSSE results indicating lower levels of engagement among first-year students. Designed as a three-credit course and featuring a student/faculty ratio of 15:1, FSEM focused on building a skill set for success in a rigorous academic environment to be learned in a content-driven context of mutual interest to the students and faculty. Topics of these FSEM courses have included Game Theory, Making a Difference, and Race and Revolution.

Since the creation of the required course, student learning at UMW has been monitored via institutional surveys and data, along with NSSE findings. Continued evidence indicated that FSEM could be improved, and this became the focus of the Quality Enhancement Plan advanced as part of UMW’s 2013 reaffirmation of accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. For example, results from NSSE 2010 and 2012 indicated that, in most cases, UMW firstyear students perceived that their institution contributed less in the areas of writing and integration of ideas compared with first-year students at peer institutions. Other institutional data, such as surveys of admitted students and graduating seniors, corroborated these findings.

In response to the concerns about student writing, the faculty-authored QEP established uniform and measurable learning outcomes for all FSEM courses including, “Improve development and organization of written arguments” and “Demonstrate the ability to edit and revise in the writing process.” Also, under the direction of the QEP office, staff in UMW’s academic learning centers (writing, speaking, and library) developed online learning modules to support student development in the areas of information literacy, writing proficiency, and oral communication. Instruments to measure student learning across FSEM courses included embedded assessments of core learning modules (information literacy, writing, and speaking) and standardized rubrics. Lastly, UMW identified resources to support faculty development in adopting course learning outcomes, incorporating online learning modules, and implementing assessment tools such as rubrics to evaluate student work. To further support this ambitious initiative, the institution made FSEM a premier experience for first-year students by moving all seminars to the fall semester, having the first-year seminar instructor serve as the student’s first-year academic advisor, and attaching a learning community based on the student’s FSEM course assignment. As a result, almost all first-year students live in a residence hall community built around the FSEM course. Results following these changes show increases in student GPA and retention.

University of Mary Washington has a culture of positive restlessness—continually looking for ways to improve the student experience and monitor interventions. As a demonstration of this culture, UMW participated in the NSSE Academic Advising Topical Module in 2014 and 2016, and results indicate strong improvement in advising experiences since involving faculty as advisors for first-year students. Future UMW improvement efforts will include examining changes in behaviors related to the Academic Challenge Engagement Indicator and increasing opportunities for faculty to speak with students regarding career plans.

Every summer and January, in preparation for the upcoming term, the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) Division of Student Life holds a retreat for the division directors on a topic both related to the goals of the institution and applicable to the work of the division’s departments and programs—student activities, recreational outdoor sports, student conduct, housing and residence life, diversity and inclusion, and others. In 2016, the retreat included a common reading of Diverse Millennial Students in College: Implications for Faculty and Student Affairs (Bonner, Marbley, & Howard-Hamilton, 2011) and conversations about how these implications related to students at UMD, identifying areas where UMD was successfully meeting the needs of its various student populations and where it might be having some difficulty. Infused into these conversations were UMD’s NSSE 2014 results—with a focus on data related to retention and student success, particularly for students of color. Important findings included the following: UMD’s first-year students of color rated their interaction with staff lower than did their peers at other institutions; first-year female students were more likely to utilize academic support resources than were their male peers; and senior students of color had more outside responsibilities (work, family, etc.) potentially impacting their ability to manage academic commitments than did their peers in other racial-ethnic groups.

These data elicited a number of questions: Is the Division of Student Life doing all it can to proactively meet the needs of diverse populations of students? How should the division retool its approach to recruiting and retaining students of color? Further, how is the division creating a positive environment for all students? At UMD, these questions are being actively considered as the campus’s student population grows increasingly diverse.

With a recent plateau in enrollment after a decade of steady enrollment growth, UMD recognizes that it cannot wait for students to tell the institution what they need. Instead, UMD must adjust its practices to provide a high-quality equitable experience for all students on campus. Moving forward, UMD plans to continue infusing NSSE data into its campus conversations, with the intention of making evidence-based decisions to improve practice.

In an effort to reimagine how NSSE data are shared by distilling actionable and tangible findings from the survey, the Office of Academic Affairs at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) reorganized the institution’s NSSE data into four UNL Brief Reports: one for instructors; one for student support services; and one each with results from the Global Learning and the Experiences with Diverse Perspectives Topical Modules. Each report contains an overview of NSSE, a description of strengths within the institution, identified areas for improvement, and a conclusion. What makes this effort so innovative is how these reports are specialized for each audience.

The report for instructors includes findings related to teaching such as (a) engagement indicators regarding student-faculty interaction, effective teaching, and quality of interactions; (b) student behaviors related to reading and writing; and (c) the degree to which students engage in discussions with diverse others or perceive the campus environment as supportive. Among the highlighted strengths in results for the three Engagement Indicators are the higher means for UNL seniors compared to seniors from other Big Ten and Regents institutions.

The instructors’ report also includes “A Closer Look,” a section in which UNL’s item-level successes are detailed (for example, the 6% increase in first-year students who reported “talking about career plans with a faculty member,” compared with first-year students at peer institutions). The report provides a similar granular look at the areas for improvement, as first-year students reported significantly lower levels related to whether or not instructors (a) clearly explained course goals and requirements, (b) taught course sessions in an organized way, and (c) used examples or illustrations to explain difficult points.

This specialized report is important for instructors, for whom assessment of student learning is only part of their job. For them, relating NSSE information to their work can be overwhelming due to the massive amount of data presented in the institutional report. By detailing the ways faculty are succeeding or could better enhance the students’ educational experience, the report presents data in a digestible format featuring only the most useful information. Furthermore, this strategy creates specialized tools for the academic affairs staff to use when working with either staff or faculty. The report for instructors and the other UNL specialized reports are excellent demonstrations of assessment experts lowering barriers between data and those who can act on data.

Information literacy has become a growing priority and a new core competency for the University of San Diego (USD), where it is recognized as a student learning outcome spanning all disciplines and critical to the success of all USD graduates. Information literacy is also emphasized in the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) accreditation standards as a core competency that prepares students for future careers and life-long learning.

Therefore, in 2011, USD began core revision work for assessing students’ progress in this area. The first step consisted of assessing the baseline level of students’ information literacy skills. Subsequent pilot interventions sought faculty volunteers who worked closely with a librarian in an effort to demonstrate how various disciplines could incorporate information literacy into their courses. To raise faculty awareness of the need for information literacy training, these faculty-librarian teams assessed the strategies employed during the pilot stage.

In 2015, USD appended the Experiences with Information Literacy Topical Module to their NSSE administration. The module’s findings served two main purposes. First, they represented a baseline for how students perceived information literacy and responded to the institution’s prioritizing of information literacy. Second, the findings could be used to encourage faculty and staff across the institution to recognize the importance of focusing on this area. For example, one module finding was that many first-year students did not perceive that key information literacy outcomes or skills were embedded in their courses. USD considered this problematic, as students should be developing these skills in all of their courses.

As follow-up interventions, USD librarians developed a set of curricular offerings to help faculty and their students acquire information literacy skills; USD core curriculum faculty incorporated the teaching of information literacy skills into the historical inquiry requirement; and, specifically to address the development of these skills in the first year, USD hired a writing director to work closely with librarians to ensure information literacy becomes a core piece of the first-year experience.

USD is also working with faculty to explicitly deepen students’ awareness of the importance of gaining information literacy skills. For example, a faculty member in engineering identifies and describes information literacy skills to students as a part of the course and carves out time to articulate to students what to focus on to gain these skills by completing course assignments (e.g., research paper). When these connections are made explicit, students appear to be more engaged in the learning process. It is important to USD that faculty members as well as staff across the institution are involved—making increasing students’ skills truly an institutional effort.

USD plans to implement the Experiences with Information Literacy Topical Module again to monitor progress in student awareness since designating information literacy an institutional core value. These results will also be incorporated into future accreditation reports in the discussion of WSCUC’s five core competencies. The evidence gleaned from this NSSE module will strengthen USD’s goal to equip students with the knowledge and skills foundational to 21st-century higher education.

Communications, assessment, and senior leadership from the Division of Student Life at the University of Toronto (U of T) seek to share information on the success and influence of the university’s educational programs. Although increasing student participation in High-Impact Practices (HIPs) is a major goal for the institution, presenting data in a way that inspires interest and change among educational units has been challenging. Through new, compelling data visualization techniques, however, NSSE data have been used to show the relationship between participation in HIPs with student satisfaction and engagement and to generate interest in and conversation about HIPs across campus.

Figure 10 links HIP participation to responses to the survey question, “If you could start over again, would you go to the same institution you are now attending?” Results indicated a small increase in affirmative responses among first-year students who participated in one HIP (5%). However, the affirmative increase among seniors who participated in at least two HIPs was substantial (18%) compared to seniors who participated in none. Simply put, seniors who participated in at least two HIPs were more satisfied with their university than those who did not participate at all in HIPs. Reimagining these data in a new, succinct display allows educators to clearly understand this relationship and creates an enticing narrative for stakeholders to articulate the value of these educational programs.

Figure 11 displays more detailed differences in engagement between seniors who participated in at least two HIPs and those who did not participate in a HIP. The results of this analysis indicate increases in each of the ten NSSE Engagement Indicators for seniors who participated in HIPs, particularly in areas of student-faculty interaction, collaborative learning, and quantitative reasoning. The layout of this display is easy to grasp and clearly communicates the message that students who participate in HIPs are more engaged than those who do not. Also, the image allows the viewer to easily understand the degree to which HIP participation increases student engagement for each of the indicators. This neat and simple graphic of a seemingly complex relationship clarifies a key point: Students who participate in HIPs are more engaged.

With design support from their communications team, senior leaders in the Division of Student Life at the University of Toronto have shared these visualizations and data across the university—with individual departments, faculty members, registrar staff, librarians, and student life staff. As a result of these new data formats, campus conversations about the implementation of HIPs have grown broad and deep. The visualization of these data present a robust case for the importance of HIPs, moving educators past “Why do them?” to “How can we best do them?”

William Jewell College is an intimate college, in Liberty, MO, and a longtime participant in NSSE and BCSSE. Because of this long-standing commitment to the surveys, components of these instruments have been embedded in discussions about the curriculum, improving instructional practice, and in advising discussions. For example, stagnant senior scores on NSSE’s Academic Challenge Engagement Indicator led to an initiative to disaggregate these data by major and to have conversations with academic departments to raise their awareness of the survey results. These conversations stimulated course-level adjustments within departments that resulted, in subsequent surveys, in seniors in most programs reporting higher scores on the Academic Challenge indicator.

The institution also uses BCSSE scores to facilitate relationship-building between the academic advisor and first-year advisee by asking them to discuss the differences in the first-year student’s expectation of the college experience and their high school experience and behaviors, corresponding with items on the BCSSE instrument. At William Jewell College, as at many similar institutions, faculty serve as advisors for students. BCSSE information provides guidance for faculty on how to best support students. Advisors are asked to pay particular attention to students who plan to spend less than 15 hours a week studying, more than 10 hours a week working, or more than 10 hours a week participating in co-curricular activities. They are also asked to pay attention to low self-ratings within the sections of Expected Transition Difficulty or Academic Perseverance.

William Jewell College also exemplifies how to use NSSE Topical Module data to guide curriculum development and resource allocation. Stakeholders at the institution leveraged data from the Experiences with Diverse Perspectives module to enhance a ten-year plan to increase campus structural diversity and interactions around diverse topics and to be more inclusive. Results from years of collecting data from this module indicated that students at the institution were less likely than the institution desired to engage in activities or to participate in conversations regarding societal differences. Although comparison showed that the institution’s data were similar to the data of peer institutions, the college aimed for even better performance. As a result, the faculty approved adding a required common course on identity and society for all new students (starting Fall 2017) and requiring those students by the time of graduation to complete two approved diversity and inclusion courses (at least six credits), one on diversity in the US and the other on global diversity.

The college also administered the Learning with Technology module and found changing levels of technology use in high school reported by first-year students over the last few years. This information informs on-going changes in how the institution integrates digital resources, leverages a digital commons, and maximizes its one-on-one mobile initiative that provides all students an iPad. Educationally effective technology use has become so ubiquitous at the institution that Apple has designated William Jewell College a Distinguished School for its “innovation, leadership, and educational excellence.”

Assessment for Retention and Persistence

In 2003, a team comprising the dean of the college, dean of students, associate dean for faculty development, representatives from admissions and financial aid, and the director of institutional research reviewed retention rates at Allegheny College and found them lower than desired. In addition, NSSE results revealed low first-year students’ scores on the Supportive Campus Environment (SCE) benchmark, and, in particular, demonstrated that first-year students did not feel well supported at the institution. These results were identified as a possible contributing factor to the low retention rates.

Concerns about retention and interest in providing students the support they need for academic success motivated the creation of the Learning Commons. The campus library was transformed into a learning center to house numerous support services such as tutoring by peer consultants in writing, public speaking, effective use of technology, and study in a variety of academic subjects. The Commons’ 33professional staff also arranges accommodations for students with disabilities; consults with students on practical study skills such as time management, effective reading, and test taking; coordinates new student orientation; and supports the academic advising program. Since dedicating attention to creating a more supportive learning environment, Allegheny has seen gains on several items in the SCE benchmark for first-year students.

Earlier NSSE results regarding students’ limited experiences with diversity were shared with deans and faculty and informed the goal-setting process for Allegheny’s former strategic plan. The strategic focus on diversity helped Allegheny increase the diversity of faculty, staff, and students, and advance diverse experiences in the curriculum. A continued focus on diversity is evident in the “Global & Local Diversity” initiative, one of the four goals of Allegheny’s new strategic plan, Combinations 2020. Other initiatives to increase diversity on campus provide international students with more opportunities to join the Allegheny community; require students to participate in study “away,” either traditional study abroad or domestic internships; and offer an increased number of scholarship awards to students with limited financial resources to expand the socioeconomic background of Allegheny’s student population. The need to increase diversity in terms of faculty and students at Allegheny emerged as an important part of strategic planning in 2009. NSSE results directly influenced this inclusion in the plan and were used to drive decision making.

An action plan standardizing and regularizing academic assessment has been in development by the college’s Assessment Committee. The plan incorporates three elements: student survey self-reports of learning, faculty assessment of student achievement on the senior capstone project, and alumni outcomes. The student survey self-reports involve using three instruments: NSSE, Higher Education Research Institute’s Your First College Year survey, and the College Senior Survey. Survey results are to be reported in six areas: Communication skills; Critical thinking skills; Integrative thinking skills; Academic engagement/challenge; Experiences with diversity; and Overall satisfaction with education experience.

Findings will be published on the Allegheny website for current students, prospective students, parents, and faculty. The new reporting plan will standardize the process of using survey data and allow academic and administrative departments to make better use of NSSE results.

Improving Writing Across Disciplines

Auburn University has participated in eight NSSE administrations since 2002. While it reviews NSSE results at the institution level to provide a general view of the student experience, Auburn also drills down to specific department data. When comparing its students’ scores to those of students at peer institutions, Auburn identified areas of concern with student writing skills. Coupled with similar results from the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), the institution targeted writing for improvement and launched an initiative that established an Office of University Writing and a formal University Writing Committee. The new committee and newly hired Director of University Writing outlined specific practices to help departments improve the writing skills of their students. These included common program-level practices, such as identifying competencies expected of graduates in the department, and common course-level practices, which provided students with the opportunity to revise their writing after receiving feedback from peers and the instructor.

To further assist departments, the committee and the director facilitated workshops and discussions with faculty on how to better incorporate writing into the curriculum. The workshops covered various topics including strategies for providing effective feedback and developing an assessment plan. Faculty who participated in the 2010–11 workshops explained how they had revised course assignments to include writing, revision opportunities, and rubrics to evaluate writing in disciplinary courses. Faculty members agreed that including writing in their courses reinforced the learning experience they wanted for their students. “Writing promotes ‘deep learning’—the kind of learning that demands both remembering and understanding of relationships, causes, effects, and implications for new or different situations,” said a graduate student in the Department of Kinesiology. A professor of electrical and computer engineering agreed. “I wouldn’t have thought to do some of these things if I hadn’t attended the symposium.” The faculty member developed a writing assignment that asked students to create a written tutorial on information that they got wrong on an exam. His poster included data from a survey he gave students at the end of the term in which they strongly agreed that the writing assignment had helped them learn the material and improved their writing skills.

Additionally, Auburn created a writing-in-the-majors policy, which requires each department to develop its own plan to meet certain standards of writing in the curriculum. Although plans vary based on the department, all plans are required to: (1) provide more than one opportunity for students to practice writing; (2) provide opportunities for students to produce more than one kind of writing; (3) provide opportunities for students to write for different purposes and audiences; (4) provide opportunities for students to revise their written work based on feedback from peers and instructors; and (5) include an assessment plan that uses gathered assessment data to improve writing experiences. One program that significantly revised its writing plan was civil engineering. Although the program has always emphasized writing, the new writing initiative provided an opportunity to further departmental efforts to become more intentional in developing the writing skills of students. In their plan, the department details seven different kinds of writing, five different purposes of writing, and four forms of feedback it includes in its courses. Every required course, specialty elective, technical elective, and senior design project is reviewed to detail what kind of writing in each course, the purpose of the writing, whether or not the writing is assessed, and what type of feedback is provided to students. Civil engineering’s plan and all other approved plans are posted on the Office of University Writing Web site to assist other departments as they work on developing and revising their plans (see Appendix A, Auburn University).

Auburn University monitors progress on the student writing plans through their participation in NSSE and the NSSE Consortium for the Study of Writing in College. By reviewing results on the consortium items and surveying faculty to gain a better understanding of how faculty approach writing in the classroom, Auburn continues to assess and foster improvement in the writing skills of its students. In addition, the University Writing Committee is charged with regularly reviewing the plans developed by programs and the Office of University Writing supports faculty as they make decisions about how to continue to improve student writing and writing instruction provided in the majors. The Office of University Writing has also launched a longitudinal study of faculty conceptions of writing and their practices in teaching writing in upper level courses. The study includes analysis of teaching documents, interviews with faculty, classroom observations of writing instruction, and focus groups with students in those classes.

Focusing on Engagement at the Department Level

Brigham Young University (BYU) participates in NSSE annually to gain a better understanding of student engagement across various departments and the extent to which BYU’s educational goals are being realized. Survey items align closely with the Aims of a BYU Education: (1) spiritual strengthening, (2) intellectually enlarging, and (3) character building, leading to (4) lifelong learning and service. When an academic department comes up for review, the Office of Institutional Assessment and Analysis prepares custom reports focused on engagement at the academic unit/degree level for each department when sample size permits along with comparisons to the scores of other students at BYU and at peer institutions. This allows each department to assess their progress on associated learning outcomes in relation to student engagement.

Many departments share their custom reports during retreats where they discuss what the results reveal about their students, curriculum, and associated learning goals. For example, upon reflecting on the data, one academic unit felt its students’ use of technology was lower than desired. To address this finding, the department placed greater emphasis on integrating technology into the courses it offered and the area degree requirements. Many units have made good use of NSSE data specific to critical thinking, writing, communication skills (written and oral), technology use, and satisfaction. Additionally, items specific to student interactions with faculty (specifically, working with a faculty member doing research) have been examined.

Annual participation in NSSE has allowed BYU to effectively identify emerging trends in the data over time. Additionally, multi-year participation makes possible the mapping of NSSE data to the university’s annual senior survey and alumni questionnaire on many items in selected content areas. Having a repository of multi-year data provides a rich resource for some academic units at BYU who use the NSSE accreditation toolkits to align their NSSE results with accreditation standards and for future campus planning and initiatives.

Developing a Culture of Evidence

California Lutheran University (CLU) participates in numerous external and internal surveys to gather direct and indirect evidence of educational effectiveness at many levels of the university. CLU’s Assessment Committee, comprising senior administrators, faculty, and professional staff, reviews, analyzes, and integrates survey results into reports that inform decision-making. Internal assessment survey results are also actively used for program review. Department chairs and faculty complete review templates and attach survey results and demographics as appendices (see Figure 1).

First-year programs are assessed using BCSSE and NSSE results as part of the Foundations of Excellence^TM process. BCSSE results and BCSSE-NSSE combined results are used by the Assessment Committee to evaluate the first-year experience and are presented at faculty meetings.

The Office of Student Life is also involved in assessment activities. Given that about 40% of students at CLU are commuter students and 33% are transfer students, with the majority coming from two-year institutions in Ventura County (CA), the Office of Student Life was curious about the level of engagement of commuter and transfer students compared to residential students and those who started at CLU. They reviewed NSSE results and saw a gap in the co-curricular engagement of transfer and commuter students. This finding generated an increase in programs focused on the needs of commuter students and the creation of a peer-mentoring program for transfer students.

NSSE results are widely shared at CLU. The provost and Office of Educational Effectiveness, along with the vice president of student affairs, disseminate NSSE results to CLU’s campus constituents. The provost also presents results to the California Board of Regents. The Office of Educational Effectiveness makes assessment information available on the institution’s Web site. During an annual summer retreat on student leadership, the Office of Student Life brings in institutional research staff, retention staff, and others to share data and help participants work this information into programming.

Dalhousie University’s 2008 NSSE results indicated a need to help first-year students become more engaged academically and form stronger connections to the Dalhousie community. A new position was established in the Centre for Learning & Teaching, through the Office of the Vice- President Academic and Provost, specifically to nurture and develop high-impact student engagement initiatives.

Dalhousie values its overall NSSE results, but breaking results down by program and department helped each faculty review strengths and areas that need improvement. For example, in computer science, NSSE results revealed a need for more active and collaborative learning, so more hands-on, project-driven first-year classes were implemented to help students link theory with everyday applications. Student response to these classes was so enthusiastic, additional sections needed to be added. As a result, the department even saw improvement in second-year retention rates.

The First-Year Experience

Franklin Pierce University (Pierce) has conducted four NSSE administrations and, more recently, administered FSSE to assess quality in undergraduate education. Pierce began with an emphasis on assessing the impact of the required first-year seminar, Individual and Community. The institution revised the seminar in 2008 to provide incoming students with more choices, build greater faculty enthusiasm for the course, and increase curricular commonality via common summer readings, advising, and community service projects. Two of the major common learning goals for the seminar include the development of collaborative learning skills and active involvement in the community. The seminar’s requirement of a number of hours of civic and community engagement activities, which are predetermined by each professor, introduces the university mission of preparing students to become active, engaged citizens and leaders of conscience.

NSSE results showing that first-year and senior involvement in community service and volunteer work at Pierce far exceeded students’ participation at comparison institutions provided confirmation of the learning goal of active involvement in the community and for strengthening students’ responsibility toward and contribution to the community. Student feedback suggested that entering students who had participated in community service in high school did not necessarily expect to continue their efforts in college due to academic demands. However, the first-year seminar requirement created time for community service and positively influenced their continued involvement in service throughout their years at Pierce. Additional efforts to combine NSSE results with a full inventory of student involvement in other high-impact educational practices, including active and collaborative learning, common reading, undergraduate research, and capstone experiences, are part of the university’s program review process.

Applying NSSE Results in Assessment, Accountability, and Accreditation

Georgia State University (GSU) first participated in NSSE seeking an assessment instrument that would go beyond student satisfaction and help measure student engagement in curricular and co-curricular activities. GSU has administered NSSE six times to date and triangulates findings from NSSE with other assessment instruments including BCSSE, FSSE, and the institution’s Survey of Recent Graduates. As a member of the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA), GSU uses NSSE data for its College Portrait. NSSE results are also used to inform GSU’s internal assessment of critical thinking and writing.

These assessment efforts provide GSU faculty, staff, and administration with a much broader understanding of student engagement—one that includes the perspectives of incoming students, first-year students, seniors who are graduating, and faculty. NSSE results are shared with and used by a variety of stakeholders. For example, the Office of Undergraduate Studies explores retention by comparing NSSE responses of those students who left the institution with those who are still enrolled. This comparison is part of an important initiative at GSU to develop a retention model based on both direct and indirect data.

GSU is also crafting a new comprehensive strategic plan focused on the advancement of undergraduate student success and seeks to become a national model for undergraduate education. NSSE data have informed the way the university has positioned itself as an institution whose students value diversity, academic achievement, and community and global engagement.

NSSE results were used in the preparation of GSU’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) for reaccreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), in 2008. The focus of the QEP was to increase undergraduate students’ critical thinking and writing skills in their major field of study. Upon review by the QEP Leadership Committee, NSSE data revealed that when compared to their Carnegie peers, GSU seniors wrote fewer short papers and felt their undergraduate experience did not contribute much to their critical thinking abilities. The committee found similar results from an internal survey administered each semester to recent graduates that measures learning outcomes and academic program satisfaction. These findings informed the final QEP, Critical Thinking Through Writing, which proposed targeted efforts to improve students’ critical thinking and writing skills in their major field of study.

Encouraging Student-Faculty Interaction

The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Grand View University (Grand View) was launched in 2005 with Title III grant funds. The Title III activity director/learning specialist was charged with directing programs to improve the retention and achievement of Grand View students. One of the assessment tools funded in the Title III grant was NSSE. The Title III grant allowed Grand View to increase awareness of the uses of the data for assessment as well as promote NSSE results to senior administration for use in strategic planning and benchmarking. Grand View also administers the Noel-Levitz College Student Inventory (CSI) and results from this survey are well embedded in their assessment protocols.

NSSE results have been great conversation starters across campus constituencies resulting in the formation of a team to move beyond simply reviewing the assessment data. Using findings from focus groups with students, the team discovered that first-year students felt Grand View provided a very supportive campus environment; whereas seniors felt that the institution was not providing enough help for them to succeed academically. Another disappointing NSSE result concerned the less than desirable percentage of seniors who indicated they would choose to attend Grand View if they could start over again.

A major initiative motivated by Grand View’s NSSE results is the Faculty-Student Engagement program that encourages faculty and staff members to engage with their students in educationally purposeful activities outside of the classroom such as field trips, cultural activities, academic support sessions, and attendance at conferences. Mini-grants are available to faculty for special programs that are based on specific learning outcomes. For example, an English professor hosted a dinner in her home for students in her cross-cultural communications class, featuring foods from a variety of ethnic traditions, while education students were funded to attend the Iowa Teachers Conference.

Looking ahead, Grand View is determining how to continue to use NSSE results in its assessment plan and has decided on a three-year participation cycle. Grand View is implementing a new core in 2012 and plans to analyze NSSE results over time to assess the impact of the curricular changes on students. The institution is also reviewing the best ways to incorporate NSSE results into its 2014 reaccreditation self-study for the Higher Learning Commission (HLC).

Increasing Faculty Use of NSSE Data

Juniata College can be described as a “data rich” institution. Senior administrators are firm believers in gathering as much data as possible to inform their planning efforts. NSSE results feed into Juniata’s planning efforts and were used in the reaccreditation process, beginning with Juniata’s 2001 self-study for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), and will be used for their upcoming review in 2012–13. NSSE benchmarks and high-impact practices are integrated into their strategic plan, and results on survey items such as study abroad, internships, and critical and analytical skills will be monitored in their long-range planning.

Faculty members at Juniata have shown increasing interest in NSSE results, and the International Learning Assessment Committee has been charged with reviewing the impact of study abroad. Because a large student cohort participated in study abroad in 2010, the committee plans to examine NSSE results for correlations between study abroad and levels of engagement.

Faculty members have also used NSSE items related to attendance at cultural events—some are mandatory for Juniata students—to study their impact on student engagement. A number of faculty members have expressed interest in pursuing research on NSSE to find new ways to use the data. The faculty Academic Planning and Assessment Committee (APAC) works with the director of institutional research to interpret and disseminate NSSE results to the faculty at large. One expected use of NSSE results is in the periodic review of academic departments.

Results from NSSE and other national learning assessments were also used to evaluate the writing program at Juniata. When compared with their peers, Juniata students were not as effective as desired in their critical thinking and analytical writing skills. In addition, faculty members expressed a lack of confidence in the efficacy of the first-year writing program and about student writing competencies across the curriculum. NSSE results revealing that Juniata students wrote fewer long papers and more short papers than their counterparts at peer institutions informed a large part of the revision of the program.

Kalamazoo College’s NSSE results reveal consistently high results on items that reflect the hallmarks of the institution’s academic and experiential programs. However, when a downward trend was noticed on a particular NSSE benchmark, the institution planned specific action and sought more information through campuswide discussions. For example, student focus groups were conducted to better understand student perceptions of aspects of the supportive campus environment benchmark. Findings from both NSSE and the focus groups informed several policy changes and influenced how student space is designed on campus, including major renovation of the student center. One of the most effective uses of NSSE data has been to shine a light on the experiences of students. In response to SCE (Supportive Campus Environment) results that were lower than desired, Kalamazoo has had in-depth conversations with students in focus groups.

Norfolk State University (NSU) has participated in several administrations of NSSE, BCSSE, and FSSE. Results from all three surveys were used in their Walmart Minority Student Success Grant. Specifically, NSU featured BCSSE, NSSE, and FSSE results to demonstrate the gap between student expectations, student experiences, and faculty perceptions (see Appendix B, Norfolk State University). They paid special attention to in-class engagement and followed up on the topics with the largest gaps, including class presentations and group work, by conducting interviews with faculty and students. Results from these efforts helped the institution realize that attention from faculty was needed to improve the student experience. The grant focused on a faculty-led mentoring program for first-generation students who participate in Summer Bridge. Mentoring clusters of five to seven students, one faculty member, and peer leaders were established to promote collaboration and student success. NSSE has helped to encourage faculty interest in student learning processes and effective ways to contribute to student learning, as well as how faculty can further measure student engagement in the classroom.

Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) has participated in BCSSE and NSSE since 2004, and is following cohorts of students who completed both BCSSE and NSSE to learn more about their college experiences and persistence toward a degree. They also utilize the National Student Clearinghouse to track students in the cohort who have left SCSU. Their analyses indicate that the non-returning students had a different level of relationships with faculty members, peers, and administrative personnel and offices than did the returning students. At SCSU, one of the two most important predictors of whether students in the cohort persisted to their junior year was the Supportive Campus Environment (SCE) benchmark. The importance of this factor in student persistence is emphasized with faculty and staff who work with students in the first-year experience.

Response Rate Award

In 2010, NSSE wanted to learn more about and document successful efforts by institutions to encourage or increase student participation in the survey. We identified eight institutions with high response rates based on categories of size and control. In addition, we identified Spelman College as having the largest improvement in response rate between a recent administration and 2010.

Spelman College, a private, liberal arts, historically Black college for women, has participated in four NSSE administrations. After experiencing an unexpected decline in its 2007 response rate, Spelman launched a plan to increase this rate by 50% in its 2010 administration. The Office of Institutional Research, Assessment, and Planning implemented a multi-faceted approach to engage the entire campus community, which included the following strategies:

• Coordinated joint efforts with the Dean’s Office of Undergraduate Studies to provide incentives for participation
• Disseminated campuswide emails on the importance of NSSE participation and weekly updates on response rates
• Solicited involvement from the entire campus, particularly atypical areas, such as Alumnae Affairs, Career Placement, and Web Design
• Provided visual reminders for students by placing flyers in high-traffic areas, including residence halls and dining areas
• Enlisted the support of faculty members

Spelman’s improved response rate is a result of the coordinated efforts of the Office of Undergraduate Studies, including the First-Year Experience (FYE) instructors and senior advisors. Instructors encouraged students to voluntarily participate and emphasized NSSE’s importance to the college’s assessment activities. In addition, several departments promoted NSSE among their senior majors. For instance, sociology, anthropology, biology, dual degree-engineering, and educational studies highlighted the value of student input on the quality of their experience in their classes. These initiatives yielded greater participation and led to a higher response rate.

Increased student participation in the NSSE 2010 administration was important to Spelman because it was completing a 10-year span of assessment that included four NSSE administrations, which allowed Spelman to use multi-year results to: (1) support the college’s reaffirmation of accreditation; (2) strengthen the Sophomore Experience by identifying gaps in FYE; and (3) assess trends in student engagement to improve services and programs. By challenging the entire campus community to improve student participation in NSSE, Spelman was able to significantly improve their response rate from 28% in 2007 to 70% in 2010.

In fall 2009, a task force composed of faculty, administrative staff, and one student was charged with establishing a plan to highlight the “distinctiveness” of the State University of New York Oneonta (SUNY Oneonta) from other comparable institutions. To derive “important attributes” and “distinguishing strengths,” the task force reviewed numerous resources and internal and external survey results, including the Student Opinion Survey (SOS), NSSE, Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), strategic planning documents, and enrollment data. Additional information was collected through an email survey of academic department heads and an open forum held for the campus community. Four themes of “distinctiveness” emerged: reputation, engagement, service, and environment. Scores from the SOS from 2009, admissions data, a rigorous assessment program, and participation as an early adopter in the VSA program were used as evidence of SUNY Oneonta’s reputation of excellence in teaching and learning.

NSSE benchmark scores from 2008 provided support that SUNY Oneonta fostered high levels of student engagement inside and outside of the classroom. In addition, NSSE results for seniors on survey items related to technology demonstrated that students were using computer and information technologies more frequently than their SUNY system counterparts.

The State University of New York Potsdam (SUNY Potsdam) used its results from nine NSSE administrations to support its 2010 Self-Study for reaffirmation from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). Specific NSSE items were aligned with MSCHE standards to report levels of student participation in undergraduate research and service-learning, as well as to measure the degree of student interaction with faculty, administrators, and student affairs personnel. NSSE results were also used to review general education and academic advising at the institution.

SUNY Potsdam has made great efforts to encourage data use at the department level. NSSE results are featured on the institution’s Web site and use of NSSE data has been promoted across campus. Department chairs disseminate disaggregated results in breakout reports and facilitate getting the data into the hands of faculty to help improve pedagogical practice.

The First-Year Experience

Tarleton State University (Tarleton) has administered NSSE on a biennial basis since 2001 as a member of the Texas A&M University system. An ad hoc group of campus leaders holds ongoing discussions to review Tarleton’s NSSE results and compare its scores with other Texas A&M University institutions, institutions within its Carnegie classification, and the annual NSSE cohort.

In 2010, Tarleton administered BCSSE during new student orientation sessions then chose a local NSSE administration in the spring 2011 semester. Combined results from the surveys are being used to continue the assessment of the effectiveness of Duck Camp, a three-day, off-campus orientation program for first-year students designed to assist in the transition from high school to college and promote engagement. The initiative was created in 1995 to help first-year students develop friendships with their peers prior to the start of the academic year as well as learn about the opportunities and activities available at Tarleton. In 2010, approximately one-half of the incoming first-year class participated in the camp. A committee of student affairs, academic affairs, and enrollment management administrative staff has been examining BCSSE and NSSE data and other information about first-year student retention and satisfaction to better understand the camp and other orientation experiences on first-year student engagement. This effort to bring stakeholders from across campus to review assessment data has served as a model for increasing collaboration across the institution. Tarleton staff also hopes that disseminating information about the effectiveness of Duck Camp will promote more partnerships among campus departments and groups.

Teaching and Learning for Educational Effectiveness

Tulane University used NSSE results related to students’ expectations for and involvement in service-learning, undergraduate research, and internships, plus other indicators of students’ interest in public service and research, to establish the warrant for the Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching (CELT). Developed as part of its Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) reaffirmation, the CELT will be the hub for fostering engagement in four core areas: (1) research engagement; (2) social innovation engagement; (3) classroom engagement; and (4) experiential engagement. Growing out of Tulane’s recognized strength in public service and service-learning, as well as students’ keen interest in engaging in public service programs, the project will expand opportunities for more students and faculty to participate in meaningful, high-impact practices and learning experiences that complement their academic and career goals.

NSSE data related to the activities of CELT will be used as baseline indicators, and future results will be used to monitor student participation and educational effectiveness. For example, NSSE items related to working with other students on projects during class will serve as a proxy for engaged classroom activity, and participation in undergraduate research and service-learning will provide feedback on participation in high-impact activities. Highlights of Tulane’s assessment plan include the mapping of learning outcomes to assessment activities and the use of multiple measures and methods. To assess the extent to which involvement in the CELT activities relates to the learning outcome of “effectively live and work in a culturally complex society,” Tulane will collect evidence using the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ Intercultural Knowledge and Competence rubric and review NSSE results on diverse interactions and gains in understanding people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds. Tulane’s plan promises to create an enriched environment for student learning and promote innovative approaches to teaching.

The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) has used five administrations of NSSE and one administration of the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) as indirect and direct measures, respectively, to assess and guide revision of its general education core curriculum, the Basic Studies Program. UNCW is an Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) VALUE (Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education) Partner campus, part of a multi-year, national project to develop rubrics for assessing general education learning outcomes. In 2008, UNCW’s efforts focused on developing 37 common learning outcomes that were used to select departments and courses from which student work would be assessed.

CLA scores were used to assess critical thinking and written communications skills. NSSE results were used to establish trends and to plan for longitudinal disaggregation of data by department and school. Concern over less than desirable results on NSSE items relating to integrating ideas or information from various sources also generated a rubric-based plan for assessing information literacy.

The Importance of Advising

To accomplish its goal of improving the effectiveness of advising programs, the administration and advising community at the University of Tennessee (UT Knoxville) examined a number of indicators such as the ratio of students per advisor, information from student focus groups regarding their advising experiences, and a comprehensive program review by external consultants. They also examined student responses on NSSE items that align with the university’s advising program goals and learning outcomes, which include guiding students toward academic support services, programs in service-learning and undergraduate research: Use of academic support programs; Frequency of discussions about career plans with advisors or faculty; Perceptions of the academic experience; Participation in service-learning and undergraduate research; and Frequency of diverse interactions.

A comprehensive campus initiative, Ready for the World, is designed to enhance students’ understanding of intercultural diversity and global affairs. As a result of a two-year assessment process, UT Knoxville has increased the number of full-time academic advisors, restructured orientation advising for first-year students—which includes extended contact with college academic advisors and individual advising sessions—and implemented a new advising policy that targets at-risk students, such as new transfers, students on probation, and those without declared majors.

The University of Texas at Tyler (UT Tyler) participates in NSSE to gather evidence for strategic planning and accreditation. UT Tyler’s 2009–2015 strategic plan, Inspiring Excellence, incorporates assessment of study abroad and global citizenship using NSSE results. Along similar lines, UT Tyler’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), “Global Awareness through Education” (GATE), was submitted in 2010 for reaffirmation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The goals of the QEP are to infuse the general education curriculum with global issues and topics, create new student learning communities centered on a study abroad experience, and provide greatly expanded co-curricular activities on campus led by the GATE learning community students and faculty.

The Importance of Advising

West Chester University of Pennsylvania (WCU) participated in NSSE in 2008 and 2010 as a Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) consortium member. Through consortium participation, PASSHE institutions appended questions on advising and course availability to the NSSE survey. Although WCU student responses in 2008 were mostly positive, the dean of undergraduate studies identified one area of concern—students did not feel they received high quality advising. In response, advising became a major priority for the institution and the University Academic Advising Committee (UAAC) was charged with creating an improvement plan. The plan included a new classification of “internal transfer” to designate students who wish to change majors and those with undeclared majors, and the dedication of two advisors with comprehensive knowledge of all departmental requirements to this group. Orientation sessions for new first-year students, and a handout that describes the responsibilities of students and advisors, helped to clarify students’ understanding of the advising process. To further emphasize the importance of advising as teaching, the institution negotiated with the faculty union to include advising as part of the statement of expectations for faculty performance.

In spring 2011, the UAAC at WCU administered two additional internal assessments, student satisfaction and individual departmental surveys. The UAAC is studying the results, along with data gathered from all other sources, on specific advising needs, topics discussed in advising sessions, accessibility and availability of advisors, and satisfaction with the advising experience. The UAAC also examined the relationship between frequency and extent of advising and student satisfaction with the advising process across departments to develop a series of best practices. Rather than training workshops, faculty-advising liaisons from each department, about half of whom are department chairs, participate in “shared best practices” sessions. The meetings occur once a semester and provide an opportunity to exchange strategies and experiences. Since implementing these initiatives, WCU’s scores on advising-related items from its NSSE 2010 administration have shown improvement.

Focusing on Engagement at the Department Level

Wofford College uses NSSE results to identify strengths and weaknesses in the undergraduate experience and promotes the use of disaggregated data at the department level. Specifically, a campuswide initiative encourages departments to use NSSE data to enhance curricular offerings and improve teaching practices. Departments were asked to review their NSSE results then organize retreats to discuss how their departmental missions and student learning outcomes might be informed by the data. For example, if improving critical thinking is a learning outcome goal for a department, faculty would examine their students’ scores on several NSSE items related to this area. When the data revealed that computer science students were underperforming on presentation skills, the department organized workshops and guest lectures on public speaking. The department of foreign languages correlated results from NSSE with those from formal foreign language assessment instruments to discover that study abroad is strongly related to student engagement and the achievement of desired departmental learning outcomes.

Wofford has used NSSE results in its marketing campaigns and posts results publicly on the home page of its institutional Web site. NSSE results are included in a four-page brochure, Measuring Student Engagement—Learn What Your Student Will Actually Get, distributed to alumni groups, including the Alumni Executive Council, and used by admissions staff with visiting prospective students and high school counselors. An accessible interpretation of NSSE benchmark results and suggested questions that ask—“How does the survey of student engagement work at Wofford and other participating colleges?” and “How do colleges measure their performance in engaged learning?”—help to interpret and explain Wofford’s NSSE results. Finally, on the institutional Web site, www.wofford.edu, there is a prominent link under the “Admissions” menu to information on NSSE, Wofford’s 2010 NSSE results, and a statement on the institution’s commitment to institutional transparency.

NSSE results have helped spark changes in admissions criteria at Wofford College. Specifically, community service and civic engagement are important aspects of student life at Wofford with students engaging in service not only in their local communities but also abroad. For example, many Wofford students have taught in elementary schools in Guatemala or worked in an HIV/AIDS clinic in Paris. As a result of the emphasis placed on community service and civic engagement among undergraduate students, Wofford College has begun to emphasize volunteer experience when reviewing the applications of prospective students.