NSSE eNews is a periodic electronic newsletter created to keep NSSE users and others informed about current project activities.

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March 2019

• NSSE Annual Results 2018 Correction
• BCSSE 2019 Registration Opens with New Options in Content and Administration
• Fourth Annual Teaching and Learning National Institute Registration Is Open
• NSSE’s Conceptual Framework Refreshed
• Research Highlights from NSSE Sightings
• University of South Florida Deploys BCSSE Data to Support First-Year Students’ Success
• NSSE at AIR 2019 Annual Forum
• NSSE Welcomes New National Advisory Board Members

NSSE Annual Results 2018 Correction

Kudos to the observant reader who pointed out a production error in NSSE’s Annual Results 2018.

Table 3, on page 13, lists the percentages of students who participated in High-Impact Practices by selected institution and student characteristics. No, internship participation did not drop precipitously in 2018! The table misreported the values for senior internship and field experiences for the eight Carnegie Classifications. So, rather than showing participation rates stable around the 42% to 68% range, it looked as if internship participation had plummeted by 30 percentage points.

We regret the error and any inconvenience this has caused. Go to our website to view or download the corrected electronic version of Annual Results 2018.

BCSSE 2019 Registration Opens with New Options in Content and Administration

BCSSE works with colleges and universities across the US and Canada to collect important information about incoming students’ experiences and expectations for college. Institutions use BCSSE results to inform academic advising, first-year experience programs, retention initiatives, faculty development, and key activities focused on learning and development. While richly informative as a stand-alone survey, BCSSE realizes its maximum benefit when paired with an administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) the following spring.

New for 2019 — BCSSE now targets three distinct groups of entering students: 1) recent high school graduates, 2) transfer students, and 3) delayed-entry students with little or no prior experience in higher education. For more information about BCSSE, join us for a free live webinar on March 26.

To register or to learn more about BCSSE, go to bcsse.indiana.edu.

Fourth Annual Teaching and Learning National Institute Registration Is Open

Are you looking for highly effective, targeted ways to use your NSSE data, specifically to study and create more equitable, high-quality learning and teaching experiences? If so, bring your team to an intensive, adult summer camp on the Puget Sound — the 4th annual Using Evidence to Improve: Teaching and Learning National Institute (TLNI), July 28–July 31, 2019. Apply now!

NSSE co-sponsors TNLI in partnership with the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), the Washington Center for Improving Undergraduate Education, and Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (WSBCTC).

For the past three years, TLNI has brought together teams of faculty, student affairs professionals, institutional researchers, and administrators to foster data-informed change initiatives that improve the quality of students’ experiences in courses and educational activities across the curriculum—leading to improvements in student engagement, retention and graduation, and learning outcomes. With a mix of plenaries, concurrent sessions, team time, and small- and large group sessions facilitated by experienced educators from across the country, this residential institute, held at The Evergreen State College, provides a learning space for campus teams to use evidence to develop plans that can guide the work of examining, improving, and supporting what happens in learning contexts across their campuses. Teams work intensively on their campus action plans, with time to run or walk on the college’s network of forested trails, or on the Evergreen beach, and maybe even see a geoduck.

The registration fee of $1,375 (if you apply before April 1, 2019) covers four nights’ lodging in on-campus housing, meals, workshops, sessions, plenaries, and institute materials.

At previous TLNIs, institution teams engaged in a variety of projects featuring NSSE results including the following:

• Boise State University focused on increasing data use via their new data sharing platforms, in particular, using student engagement data to inform program level improvements.
• Thompson Rivers University designed a range of plans to share data across campus and to increase their commitment to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and to faculty development. Teams are encouraged to use a variety of forms of evidence in their action plans.
• The Saint Mary’s University team used NSSE to inform a comprehensive communication strategy for new students and to develop a first-year experience.
• The team from Evergreen State College brought together student and academic affairs to develop an effective and equitable first-year experience.
• Eastern Washington University focused on faculty development and their use of assessment data to improve teaching and learning.
• Western Carolina University focused on high-impact practices (HIPs), using their NSSE results to examine students’ participation in and faculty views of HIPs and to design enriched HIPs.
• Western Michigan University developed a plan for new approaches to share assessment data with faculty and to coordinate institutional efforts to use data to inform student success efforts.
• In one way or another, all of the teams focused on using evidence to identify areas of the student experience that could be strengthened and then—building on what is known about successful practices—to shape more effective approaches both in and outside the classroom.

The invitation to apply for the fourth annual TLNI is on the NSSE website and also on the website of the Washington Center at The Evergreen State College.

NSSE’s Conceptual Framework Refreshed

It’s not on The New York Times bestseller list, nor is it a quick read, but the freshly updated NSSE Conceptual Framework, based on the current version of the survey first administered in 2013, is worth reading nonetheless—for how much you will learn about NSSE and about what influences our efforts to improve undergraduate education.

It starts out by reviewing the historical roots of the concept of engagement, taking you all the way back to the 1930’s, providing background for understanding the context in which NSSE emerged at the beginning of the 21st century—namely, an increasing skepticism about popular but narrowly conceived institutional rankings to gauge college quality and an intensifying search for educational “process” indicators empirically related to collegiate outcomes. The framework document then shifts its attention to how NSSE measures engagement and explains the project’s emphasis on institutional benchmarking, followed by a recounting of the development of NSSE 2.0, the current version of the survey instrument. The literature defining and justifying the use of Engagement Indicators (NSSE scales) and High-Impact Practices is also discussed.

Whether you are trying to explain engagement to colleagues on campus or writing a report for your institution’s leadership about your results, NSSE’s updated conceptual framework is here to help you. After taking a look at it, if you have questions, comments, or suggestions for improvements, don’t hesitate to contact us at nsse@indiana.edu.

Research Highlights from NSSE Sightings

NSSE Sightings, NSSE’s blog, shares current findings and more from NSSE, FSSE, BCSSE, and other projects at the Center for Postsecondary Research.

The latest postings feature an invitation to apply to the 4th Annual Teaching & Learning National Institute, a summary of NSSE’s National Advisory Board meeting in January, and an overview of a new FSSE report about faculty time. Other posts include information about graduating seniors with unconventional career plans, some tips for disaggregating faculty data and for building and maintaining a portfolio of data quality, and an examination of the learning behaviors of international students. Posts from earlier this winter include characteristics of students participating in high-impact practices, insights on preparing students for work and careers, the engagement of biracial students with White heritage, inclusive excellence in liberal arts education, and the benefits of students living on campus and including diversity in the curriculum.

The blog also features stories from our participation at conferences. The following are just some of the professional meetings where NSSE staff have presented since last fall:

• Association for the Study of Higher Education
• Assessment Institute
• First-Year Experience Conference

University of South Florida Deploys BCSSE Data to Support First-Year Students’ Success

The University of South Florida (USF) began administering BCSSE to its first-year students in 2014, and every year the campus reviews how it distributes and utilizes BCSSE data to support student success efforts across the university. Most notably, USF uses the data to deploy predictive analytics, to inform support personnel about the students they serve, and to identify students for early intervention.

Using pre-matriculation characteristics to predict the risk of attrition has allowed support offices to start intervention efforts in the first few weeks of classes, when new students are in the early stages of connecting with the institution. The lists of at-risk students are shared with academic advisors, academic foundations (first-year seminar) instructors, and housing and residential education personnel, with the expectation that these entities will provide the students targeted interventions. After reviewing their students’ BCSSE Advising Reports, the academic advisors, first-year seminar instructors, and housing and residential education personnel conduct intentional conversations with individual students informed by their BCSSE responses.

You can learn more about how USF combines BCSSE data with additional pre-matriculation data to identify and support new first-year students at risk of not persisting to the second year of college here.

NSSE at AIR 2019 Annual Forum

NSSE will be well represented at the upcoming Association for Institutional Research (AIR) Annual Forum in Denver, CO—in our staff’s paper and poster presentations, group discussions, and at our NSSE-hosted special interest group meeting.

Check out the following sample from the many NSSE-related events that institutions will find useful and interesting. Come join us if you plan to attend the conference!

Aggregate Measures: Development, Creation, and Validation
Allison BrckaLorenz, Kyle Fassett, and Thomas Kirnbauer
Abstract:

Crises and Considerations for Assessment
Allison BrckaLorenz and Kyle Fassett
Abstract:

How Are Survey Response Rates Changing? Findings from NSSE
Shimon Sarraf
Abstract:

How International Students Use Vague Quantifiers on Student Surveys
Alexander McCormick; Amber Dumford, University of South Florida; and Louis Rocconi, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Abstract:

Measuring Quality in Online Education: A NSSE-QM Collaboration
Shimon Sarraf; Barbra Burch, Quality Matters; and Jillian Kinzie
Abstract:

Tableau Tips and Tricks: Building Dynamic Dashboards with Survey Data
Allison BrckaLorenz and Thomas Kirnbauer
Abstract:

The Effect of Nonresponse Bias in Undergraduate Student Surveys 
Robert Gonyea, James Cole, and Kevin Fosnacht
Abstract:

NSSE Welcomes New National Advisory Board Members

The NSSE team is delighted to welcome three higher education leaders to our National Advisory Board. We look forward to learning and benefitting over the coming years of the project from the wealth of diverse experiences they bring to the board.

Loren J. Blanchard, Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs, The California State University

José Luis Cruz, President, Lehman College, The City University of New York

Dennis Groth, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Indiana University Bloomington