Institutions have the opportunity to 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.

The disposition file is a useful tool to monitor the progress of your students' responses. You can find a disposition file on the Institution Interface the day after your first 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 see the disposition summary for student-level disposition codes.

• 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.

The official NSSE response rate calculation uses only eligible students for official reporting, not targeted oversample populations like sophomores and juniors or any type of ineligible student:

Response Rate = (Complete + Partial eligible student respondents) / (Total # of eligible students)

Eligible students include first-year and senior students.

For the purpose of response rate calculations, ineligible students include those that your institution have marked ineligible in population file updates, those that contact NSSE and self-identify as ineligible, or students with “undelivered” dispositions (see 3.3, defined below).

Dispositions codes are assigned based on the guidelines established by The American Association for Public Opinion Research. We report a subset of applicable codes taken from the codes developed for Internet Surveys of Specifically Named Persons and Mail Surveys of Specifically Named Persons.

A listing of codes used with additional clarifications:

Complete (1.1)
The respondent submitted all pages for the core survey and Topical Modules (if any), and answered at least one item before the demographic section (beginning with the question about student class level).
Partial (1.2)
The respondent broke off before submitting all pages for the core survey and topical modules, and answered at least one item before the demographic section.
Explicit Refusal (2.111)
The respondent selected the option to decline participation on the Study Information Sheet, or contacted the researchers to explicitly refuse participation through email, telephone, or mail.
Logged on to survey, did not complete any items (post-consent) (2.1121)
The respondent consented to participate on the Study Information Sheet but did not answer at least one item before the demographic section.
Unavailable during field period (2.26)
We receive information, typically through email auto-response, that the respondent will be unavailable to participate during the field period, for example, students who are over-seas, etc.
Other, eligible non-interview (2.3)
Includes deceased, physically or mentally unable to complete the survey, and language problem.
Not contacted (3.11)
We have not been able to contact the respondent because of a lack of email or postal mailing address.
Nothing returned (3.19)
Survey was delivered apparently successfully but no response of any kind from the respondent.
Undelivered (3.3)
For email recruitment method schools, the most recent email attempt to the primary email address, and secondary email if provided, bounced back. For institutions using standard mail recruitment, postal mailings and any provided email addresses, were returned as undeliverable.
Not eligible (4.1)
The respondent was not enrolled at the institution during the fielding period, as reported by the institution campus contacts before the notification deadline, or self-reported by the student during the fielding period.
Duplicate (4.81)
The same student was inadvertently submitted multiple times in the population file.

From: nsse@nssesurvey.org
From Name: [NSSE] (default), or other institution name/department]
Subject: Please help [school short name] by completing NSSE

Dear [first name]:

At [school name] we want our students to have the best educational experience possible, and the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) helps by providing vital information about activities in and out of the classroom. Your participation is critical, so I hope you will complete NSSE—an opportunity only available to first-year and senior students.

[incentive text, if applicable]

Take the Survey (link)

For help with logging into the survey or to find answers to a variety of other questions, please go to: https://nssesurvey.org/contact/{loginid}/{contact}. More information about NSSE is at nsse.indiana.edu. If you have other questions, please contact [name of institution office or official, address, and phone number].

Thank you in advance for taking a few moments to reflect on your experiences and help us strengthen [school name]!

Sincerely,
[signatory name]
[signatory title]

If you do not wish to participate in this study, please click on the survey link and select the button marked “I do not wish to participate.”

[Optional: footer used by your institution on all official email communication to students.]

Message # 2
[Institution specific information inserted in bracketed areas]

From: nsse@nssesurvey.org
From Name: [NSSE] (default), or other institution name/department]
Subject: Please take the time to help [school short name]

Hi, [first name]:

Have you heard about the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)? Other students from [School Name] have already taken a few minutes to complete the survey, but we haven’t yet heard from you. Your response is important and we want to make good use of it so that all current and future students can benefit.

[incentive text, if applicable]

Take the Survey (link)

For help with logging into the survey or to find answers to a variety of other questions, please go to: https://nssesurvey.org/contact/{loginid}/{contact}. More information about NSSE is at nsse.indiana.edu. If you have other questions, please contact [name of institution office or official, address, and phone number].

Thank you in advance for taking the time to make [school name] the best it can be!

Sincerely,
[signatory name]
[signatory title]

If you do not wish to participate in this study, please click on the survey link and select the button marked “I do not wish to participate.”

[Optional: footer used by your institution on all official email communication to students.]

Message # 3
[Institution specific information inserted in bracketed areas]

From: nsse@nssesurvey.org
From Name: [NSSE] (default), or other institution name/department]
Subject: Please help [school short name] by completing NSSE
Dear [first name]:
[I am/We are] writing again to ask you to please take a few minutes to tell us about your experiences at [inst short name] by completing the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). We only have the opportunity to participate in the NSSE periodically, so your response at this time is important.

[incentive text, if applicable]

Take the Survey (link)

For help with logging into the survey or to find answers to a variety of other questions, please go to: https://nssesurvey.org/contact/{loginid}/{contact}. If you have other questions, please contact [name of institution office or official, address, and phone number].

Thank you in advance for taking the time to help [school name]!

With appreciation,
[signatory name]
[signatory title]

If you do not wish to participate in this study, please click on the survey link and select the button marked “I do not wish to participate.”

[Optional: footer used by your institution on all official email communication to students.]

Message # 4
[Institution specific information inserted in bracketed areas]

From: nsse@nssesurvey.org
From Name: [NSSE] (default), or other institution name/departmentt]
Subject: Can you please help [school short name]?
Hi, [first name]:
[School name] depends on feedback from students like you. That is why I’m sending you this reminder to complete the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). Survey experts created the NSSE to collect key information about your college experience that will help us make
[school name] the best it can be. The survey is conveniently designed for mobile devices as well as desktop computers for smooth and easy completion.
[incentive text, if applicable]

Take the Survey (link)

For help with logging into the survey or to find answers to a variety of other questions, please go to: https://nssesurvey.org/contact/{loginid}/{contact}. If you have other questions, please contact [name of institution office or official, address, and phone number].

Thank you in advance for taking the time to help [school name]!

Sincerely,
[signatory name]
[signatory title]

If you do not wish to participate in this study, please click on the survey link and select the button marked “I do not wish to participate.”

[Optional: footer used by your institution on all official email communication to students.]

Message # 5
[Institution specific information inserted in bracketed areas]

From: nsse@nssesurvey.org
From Name: [NSSE] (default), or other institution name/department]
Subject: [first name], please help [school short name] by completing NSSE

Dear [first name]:

I want to make another plea for your participation in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), which asks questions about your college experience and helps us improve the education we provide at [school name].

[incentive text, if applicable]

Take the Survey (link)

The success of this important initiative depends on students like you, and I hope you will complete the survey as soon as possible. For help with logging into the survey or to find answers to a variety of other questions, please go to: https://nssesurvey.org/contact/{loginid}/{contact}. If you have other questions, please contact [name of institution office or official, address, and phone
number].

With gratitude,
[signatory name]
[signatory title]

If you do not wish to participate in this study, please click on the survey link and select the button marked “I do not wish to participate.”

[Optional: footer used by your institution on all official email communication to students.]

From: Name and Email of Sender on your campus
Subject: [Institution Name] wants your feedback

Dear [name]:

[Institution name] wants to improve your educational experience and you can help by completing the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). NSSE helps us understand how students are spending time in and out of the classroom, which guides decisions that will benefit [Institution name] students.

To take the survey:
• Go to nssesurvey.org
• Click on “don’t know your login ID”
• Complete the easy, one-step verification process to log in

IF YOUR INSTITUTION IS OFFERING AN INCENTIVE, INSERT IT HERE. YOU MAY COPY AND PASTE YOUR INCENTIVE TEXT DIRECTLY FROM THE INSTITUTION INTERFACE.

More information about NSSE is at https://nsse.indiana.edu/nsse/about-nsse/index.html.

If you have any questions about this project at [Institution name] or how we plan to use the results, please contact [Name of institution office or official, address, and phone number].

Your feedback is valuable, and I want to thank you personally for considering this request.

Sincerely,
[Signatory name]
[Signatory title]