Content Modules

FSSE's NEW Customizable Pathways Content Modules

To give more flexibility to institutions to ask their instructional staff questions that are most important to them but keep costs low, FSSE is introducing a fully modular “a la carte” survey experience for 2026. In short, FSSE will now have a very brief core survey, and participating institutions can then choose 4-6 content-focused modules of items from a large bank of item sets.

A Shorter Core Survey

The new FSSE core survey consists of items that have proven beneficial for understanding faculty contributions to and expectations for undergraduate engagement across a wide variety of contexts. Aspects of instructional staff environments, the time they spend on various scholarly activities, employment characteristics, and social identity demographics have all been critical to the work of educational researchers and assessment professionals in understanding effective educational practice.

Core Survey Content
Content Name	Core Survey Topics	Parallel NSSE Items	Link to Items
Core Survey	Supportive teaching environment, time spent on scholarly activities, employment characteristics, social identity demographics	Yes - demographics	Items Codebook

Content Modules

Although pricing is dependent upon your institution's instructional staff sample size, for a base cost, institutions can choose 4 content modules derived from items on the classic FSSE core survey, the classic FSSE Topical Modules, consortium item sets, or a selection of item sets from our partner assessment project the College + University Teaching Environment.

For institutions that want to add content modules beyond the given 4, additional content modules can be appended per our pricing schedule. Although we advise not adding more than two additional content modules (for a total of 6) given survey length and fatigue, we will have occasional experimental item sets available for no additional cost.

Content Modules Derived From the Classic FSSE Core
Content Module Name	Content Module Topic(s)	Parallel NSSE Items	Classic FSSE25 Item #s	Link to Content Module Items
*Course Structure & Curriculum	This module examines how instructional staff structure their courses for students’ learning and development. Items explore instructional staff inclusion of teaching clarity practices, community-based projects, reading and writing assignments, and active learning activities. Effective Teaching Practices	Yes	#11-#12, #19-#21, #26, #30-#31	Items Codebook
*Effective Educational Practice	This module explore how important it is to instructional staff that students’ coursework emphasizes challenging cognitive tasks, how much instructional staff encourage students to collaborate with peers, and how much opportunity instructional staff provide for students to interact across difference. Higher-Order Learning, Reflective & Integrative Learning, Quantitative Reasoning, Learning Strategies, Collaborative Learning, Diverse Discussions with Others	Yes	#23-#25, #27-#29	Items Codebook
Instructional Staff Workload	This module examines the workload of instructional staff via the time they spend on various teaching activities, their involvement in select high-impact practices, the nature and frequency of interactions with students, and the number of students and courses they taught during the current school year. Student-Faculty Interaction	Yes	#7-#8, #10, #33-#35	Items Codebook
Perceptions of the Student Experience	This module examines instructional staff values for student participation in high-impact practices, increasing the institutional emphasis on a variety of student supports as well as instructional staff perceptions of the quality of interactions with others at the institution and how much time they spend on a variety of academic and non-academic activities. Supportive Environment, Quality of Interactions	Yes	#1-#2, #4, #22	Items Codebook
+Course Based Characteristics	This module examines the characteristics of one particular undergraduate course section that instructional staff are teaching or have taught during the current school year. FSSE staff will add this item set to a FSSE administration if any of the chosen content modules contain course-based questions (indicated with an *) for no additional charge.	No	#9, #14-#18, #32	Items Codebook

Item sets with an asterisk (*) include course-based questions and when chosen, the Course Based Characteristics (indicated with a +) item set will be appended to an administration for no additional charge. Italicized terms in the Content Module Topic(s) above refer to items in the NSSE Engagement Indictors/classic FSSE scales. Numbers in the Classic FSSE25 Item #s column refer to the item numbers as they appeared on the facsimile of the classic FSSE 2025 instrument.

Content Modules, Formerly Classic FSSE Topical Modules
Content Module Name	Content Module Topic(s)	Parallel NSSE Items	Link to Content Module Items
Academic Advising	FSSE staff updated this module in 2025. These items examine advising practices that reflect NACADA core values, the extent to which advisors have assisted students in their academic progress, and instructional staff perceptions of the advising process.	Yes	Items Codebook
Career and Workforce Preparation	This module examines how much instructional staff encourage and advise students to participate in career and workforce development activities, whether course-related or not.	Yes	Items Codebook
Civic Engagement	This content module asks faculty to assess institutional emphasis on conflict resolution skills and examines how often instructional staff encourage students to engage with local or campus and state/national/global issues.	Yes	Items Codebook
*Experiences with Writing	FSSE staff updated this module in 2025. These items explore how often instructional staff encourage and assign students to participate in various aspects of good writing assignments—interactivity, meaning-making, and clarity—including questions about the use of generative AI, the use of writing portfolios, and courses on writing.	Yes	Items Codebook
*Inclusiveness and Engagement with Cultural Diversity	This module examines environments, processes, and activities that engage and validate cultural diversity and promote greater understanding of societal differences. Questions explore instructional staff use of inclusive teaching practices and intercultural learning; perceptions of institutional values and commitment regarding diversity; and opportunities for diversity-related programming and coursework.	Yes	Items Codebook
Teaching Professional Development	This module asks about aspects of professional development for teaching such as how important it is for instructional staff to receive assistance in various areas, and how often instructional staff participate in different professional development activities and practices.	No	Items Codebook
Transferable Skills	This module examines how much instructional staff encourage students to participate in activities that develop useful and transferable skills for the workplace and beyond.	Yes	Items Codebook
Scholarship of Teaching & Learning	This module asks about both institution-supported and instructional-staff-driven assessment efforts such as surveys and other tools (e.g., portfolios) that are used to gather information about student educational experiences and learning.	No	Items Codebook

Content Modules from the College + University Teaching Environment Project
Content Module Name	Content Module Topic(s)	Parallel NSSE Items	Link to Content Module Items
Processes and Policies: Balance	Work-life balance and values, workload distribution and balance	No	Link TBD
Processes and Policies: Hiring, Tenure, and Promotion	Equitable hiring practices, values for teaching in hiring, equitable review for merit and tenure, values for teaching in review for merit and tenure	No	Link TBD
Professional Relationship	Mentoring, support networks, collegial relationships, respectful environments	No	Link TBD
Climate for Diversity: Personal	Inclusion of curricular diversity, supportive environment, experiencing offensive behavior and bias	No	Link TBD
Climate for Diversity: Institutional	Senior leadership, commitment to diversity, interactions with diverse others	No	Link TBD
Instructional Staff Wellbeing	Mental health, stress, sense of belonging, identity values	No	Link TBD

Content Modules

FSSE's NEW Customizable Pathways Content Modules

A Shorter Core Survey

Content Modules

Evidence-Based Improvement in Higher Education resources and social media channels