Using FSSE Data

Download a PDF of the Using FSSE Data resource.

Institutions use FSSE to provide insight into NSSE results and to gain a better understanding of student engagement on their campuses. This page offers topics and tips that will help you make use of your FSSE results. See the analysis resources for syntax and tips for working with the data. The Data User's Guide provides resources for sharing results with others.

Many FSSE institutions share their results in practical and distinctive ways, including the following:

Accreditation self-studies
Assessment and improvement
Curricular reform
Faculty development programs
Faculty workshops and retreats
Grant proposals, applications, and progress reports
Institutional research
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

Whether you seek to include faculty and other colleagues in campus discussions or to learn how FSSE results have been used at different institutions, you will find helpful hints on these pages.

Faculty colleagues, institutional researchers, centers for teaching and learning, deans, and department chairs may all be interested in your FSSE results and willing to help make meaningful use of them on your campus.

Institutions receive a file of their raw FSSE data and customized FSSE reports. Browsing through these reports will give you a good sense of the information provided. If you have trouble deciding where to focus, consider using exercises in the FSSE Data User’s Guide.

Administering Topical Module or consortium questions gives institutions additional opportunities to gain insight into aspects of their campuses, and reports for these question sets are included with your Institutional Report.

Knowing your target audience can serve as a filter for your results and guide your decisions about which information to include. For example, a meeting with faculty who teach first-year courses might be the perfect occasion for sharing first-year NSSE results and lower-division FSSE results.

Highlight how your faculty compare to FSSE’s total survey population by using our Interactive Data Visualizations. These and other tools and resources are outlined later in this document.

Institutions share results in a number of ways, ranging from posting online to discussions at faculty meetings. How institutions share their FSSE results—the internal and external audiences they target, the channels of communication they use, the results they present—should be guided by the institutions’ assessment needs and purpose for administering the survey.

Using FSSE to Add Context to NSSE

FSSE is often used to add context to NSSE results. FSSE items that are closely parallel to items on NSSE, such as comparing student and faculty perceptions of the use of effective teaching practices or student and faculty perceptions of students’ interactions with others on campus, can be used to make direct comparisons between the two surveys.

Other items on NSSE and FSSE that cover comparable content, such as student participation in High-Impact Practices and faculty values of the importance of students participating in High-Impact Practices, are less easy to compare directly. For tips and suggestions on using FSSE to add context to NSSE, view the FSSE webinar Adding Context to NSSE with FSSE, or contact the FSSE team (fsse@iu.edu). Our staff would be happy to help you make the best use of your FSSE data.

Tools and Resources

FSSE offers a variety of tools and resources for institutional users and others interested in working with FSSE data.

The FSSE Data User's Guide offers tips on using your FSSE results to facilitate workshops, presentations, and discussions about student engagement practices with others on campus. Worksheets are available to assist in data comparison.

FSSE staff members participate in professional meetings and conferences throughout the year. Their papers and presentations from these conferences are archived at and may be downloaded from the FSSE website.

These interactive data dashboards are publicly available to explore aggregate FSSE results by faculty, course, and institution characteristics.

FSSE has conducted a number of validity and reliability studies including studies of construct validity, internal consistency, temporal stability, equivalence, and nonresponse bias. The FSSE Psychometric Portfolio provides information on these issues.

FSSE Webinars: Free and interactive, these webinars allow participants to learn more about FSSE topics and engage with presenters and other participants. We send invitations to FSSE participants when FSSE-related webinars are scheduled. Recordings of past webinars, with their PowerPoint slides, are available on the NSSE website. To browse FSSE webinars, click “All” in the year field and enter “FSSE” in the keyword field.

NSSE User Workshops: Workshops are coordinated through the NSSE Institute for Effective Educational Practice and provide opportunities to gather and share ideas about how to use NSSE and FSSE results. If you are interested in participating in or hosting a workshop, contact FSSE staff (fsse@iu.edu). Materials from past workshops may be found online.

Using FSSE Data

Using FSSE Data

Step 1. Identify resources on your campus.

Step 2. Become familiar with your data file and reports.

Step 3. Know your audiences and tailor presentations for them.

Step 4. Use online tools and resources to contextualize your results.

Step 5. Communicate your results.

Using FSSE to Add Context to NSSE

Tools and Resources

FSSE Data User’s Guide

Publications and Presentations

Interactive Data Visualizations

FSSE Psychometric Portfolio

Outreach Services (Webinars and Workshops)

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