Institutions have the opportunity to significantly customize message content using NSSE’s IRB-approved message templates, thereby ensuring that message content and signatory best reflect campus culture.

Institutions may send up to eight direct messages using NSSE’s IRB-approved message template. If NSSE is sending five recruitment messages, institutions may send up to three additional messages from their own campus.

Messages sent by campuses can include the unique survey links provided through the Institution Interface; alternatively, students can visit nssesurvey.org where they can receive their unique link using an easy, one-step verification process by clicking "Don't know your login ID?" and then providing their email address. Institutions that send additional messages are responsible for all aspects of the mailing (i.e., deciding when to send messages, determining their purpose, etc.). Some reasons an institution may choose to send an additional message(s) include:

• Pre-survey announcement email: A pre-survey announcement can introduce students to NSSE, provide rationale for why student participation is important, and establish NSSE’s legitimacy in advance of data collection. Since NSSE’s emails will be sent from an external email address, a pre-survey announcement can specify details students should expect, such as the sending “from” name (NSSE), the sending email address (nsse@nssesurvey.org), and the expected dates of delivery. This could be especially helpful on campuses with anti-phishing campaigns that warn students to be wary of communications from external senders.
• Pre-survey announcement on LMS or student portal: A pre-survey announcement also can be added to your LMS or student portal. Posting a generic pre-survey message (without a unique link and/or student name) to your LMS or portal would not be counted as one of the three additional messages allowed from your campus. Ideally, the message would be posted one week before survey administration begins for your campus. A sample LMS announcement might read:

[inst short name] wants to improve the student experience, and you are invited to participate. Watch for an email from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) on (start date) with additional details. Visit nsse.indiana.edu for more information about the survey. We hope you will agree to participate in this effort.

• Boosting response rates: Institutions that experience lower response rates than desired may choose to send additional messages to increase the number of total respondents. Messages may be sent at any time prior to the May closing of the online survey.
• Targeting special populations: Additional messages could also be sent to all non-respondents, or to only those that are currently underrepresented in respondent count. For example, if your senior response rate is satisfactory but first-year student response rate lags, additional messages may be sent to only first-year non-respondents.

NSSE’s Institution Interface, the password-protected online portal used to manage the NSSE administration by campus contacts, provides downloads of student population files, along with survey dispositions. Campus contacts can use this file to prepare their mailing lists for additional messages.

To supplement email recruitment, institutions can post unique survey links to their student portal and/or learning management systems, such as Canvas, Blackboard, and Moodle.

How does it work?

NSSE provides individualized survey links for each student in your population, which are then posted on the individual page for distinct students within the portal by IT staff on your campus. Various institutions have graciously shared examples of how survey links have been posted.

Because portal applications are typically customized when adopted by campuses, and because there are so many applications in use, NSSE staff cannot provide technical support for how to post links. It is therefore critically important that campus contacts managing NSSE connect with colleagues in IT on your campus several months before the survey launch to determine feasibility for posting links. Since NSSE cannot consult on technical specifications, we annually solicit information from institutional contacts who successfully post these links: view technical advice for several commonly used platforms.

NSSE staff may also be able to identify willing institutions to provide general and/or technical advice directly to another institution in need of additional assistance.

To supplement email recruitment, institutions can text unique survey links to their students. NSSE provides a file for individualized text survey links for each student in your population, or institutions may send the general survey link in text.

An IRB-approved sample message might read:

Take the NSSE survey to help make [school nick name] become the best it can be. [incentive details]. Check your email starting [date] for a link to the survey. Alternatively, go to nssesurvey.org and provide your email address to access NSSE.

This text message has been sent by [institution formal name], not NSSE.

The final sentence above is required by IU Legal. Institutions must also submit messages that deviate in substantive ways from this IRB-approved language. We ask that all institutions who plan to contact their students using text messages (SMS) to contact their legal staff beforehand.  

Finally, institutions can also direct students to nssesurvey.org where they can receive their unique link using an easy, one-step verification process by clicking "Don't know your login ID?" and then providing their email address. This direction can be used in the additional messages sent by campuses and can also be used in promotional materials advertising NSSE around campus. The assigned unique identifier, or login id, can be located on the Interface and is not the same as the student id number your institution provided.

This QR code can be added to promotional material for quick survey access.

You can find a disposition file on the Institution Interface the day after your messages are delivered.

When data collection begins a Response Rate summary table will be displayed on the Institution Interface. Consult the table for an overview, and download the accompanying disposition summary for student-level disposition codes. Beginning in 2019 the disposition download includes “open rates” which indicate whether email messages have even been opened. If response rates are low but there is no indication of “returned” messages, a low “open rate” may indicate an issue with message delivery.

• Check with your IT staff to see if they have approved NSSE’s IP addresses.
• Student inboxes could be full; the message should get through on the next attempt if your students check their campus email often and clean out their inbox.
• Could there by a typo in the email addresses or has your campus recently changed domains?

Yes. We automatically re-send bounced messages, typically on Friday. If the message bounces again, we’ll stop sending to it unless contacted by you. (Resending to bad accounts repeatedly can flag us incorrectly as a spamsender.) If your administration is delayed because of a bounce problem, and the issue is resolved, we will re-send the bounces for the most recent message attempt when resuming your administration.

Consult with NSSE, and let us know when you wish to re-start your student recruitment. If we do not hear from you after you are notified, your student recruitment will automatically resume after two weeks.

The survey remains accessible to students until NSSE administration ends in mid-May. Students can access the survey from the date your invitation is mailed until the closure in May. Even if an administration is temporarily held, the web survey remains open and students can complete the survey online.