Academic Advising (Updated for 2025)
This module, updated for 2025, examines students' experiences with academic advising, including experiences with advisors and advising practices that reflect NACADA core values. It also asks students to identify who has been most helpful. The module complements a question on the core survey about the quality of students' interactions with academic advisors. A FSSE version is available.
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Career & Workforce Preparation
This module represents a collaboration between NSSE and Strada Education Network to assess how the college experience prepares students for their future. Questions address institutional contributions to students’ career plans, influences on their goals, confidence in work-related skills, career exploration in the curriculum, and use of career resources and services. A FSSE version is available.
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Civic Engagement
Originally adapted from a survey of democratic engagement developed by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, this module has been updated to ask students to assess their institution’s emphasis on civic issues and their abilities to resolve conflicts, participate in dialogue and contribute to community well-being, and how often students have engaged with campus, local, state, national, or global issues. Items align with the Civic Learning and Democracy Engagement (CLDE) Framework (collegeciviclearning.org). The module complements questions on the core survey about service-learning, community service or volunteer work, and becoming an informed and active citizen. A FSSE version is available.
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Development of Transferable Skills
Adapted from a pilot survey that was developed by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, this module examines activities that develop useful and transferable skills for the workplace and beyond (such as verbal and written fluency, critical thinking, creative thinking, problem solving, project management, and time management). The module complements questions on the core survey about higher-order learning, reflective and integrative learning, and students' perceptions of their development in a variety of areas. A FSSE version is available.
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Experiences With Information Literacy
Updated for NSSE 2024, this module was developed in collaboration with college and university librarians from the Association of College & Research Libraries. Items focus on students' use of information sources, research-based inquiry, and experiences traditionally associated with research libraries. It complements questions on the core survey about reflective & integrative learning, higher-order learning, and assigned reading and writing.
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Experiences With Online Learning
This module, first offered during the 2021 administration, was developed in collaboration with Quality Matters (QM), a leader in online learning quality assurance. Based in part on Standards from the QM Higher Education Rubric (6th Ed.) it has been updated in accordance with the QM Higher Education Rubric (7th Ed.) that was released in July 2023. The questions in the module measure aspects of students’ online experience that signify high quality. The module also assesses how students engage in online and hybrid courses, their degree of comfort with online learning and experience of support, and ideas about how the online learning experience can be improved.
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Experiences With Writing (Updated for 2025)
This module is the result of an ongoing collaboration between NSSE and the Council of Writing Program Administrators. The questions touch on various aspects of good writing assignments—interactivity, meaning-making, and clarity. Revisions also include questions about the use of generative AI, the use of writing portfolios, and courses on writing. The questions on this module complement questions on the core survey about how much writing students do, the nature of their course assignments, and perceived gains in written expression. An updated FSSE version is in development.
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First-Year Experiences & Senior Transitions (Updated for 2025)
This module includes two distinct sets of items: one for first-year students and for seniors, based on institution-reported class level. The first-year questions ask students to report on academic support, goals, and institutional commitment. The .
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Global Learning Experiences (Updated for 2025)
NSSE's Global Learning Experiences module assesses student experiences and coursework that emphasize global affairs, world cultures, nationalities, and other international topics. The module pairs with items on the core NSSE questionnaire about student experiences with people from different backgrounds, course emphasis on integrative and reflective learning, and participation in study abroad. Items complement the American Council on Education's Mapping Internationalization on U.S. Campuses survey (2021) and UNESCO’s global citizenship education conceptual framework.
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HIP Quality (Updated in 2023)
This module—originally developed for the Assessing Quality and Equity in High-Impact Practices project, supported by Lumina Foundation—explores the extent to which HIP experiences incorporate elements theorized to account for their educational benefits and enables participating institutions to examine quality and equity concerns related to high-quality HIP experiences. Students who indicated on the core NSSE that they had done or are doing at least one HIP receive a set of questions—Questions for HIP Participants—probing their experience, while those who have not done any of the HIPs receive an open-ended item—Question for HIP Non-Participants—to describe another powerful learning experience they may have had.
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Inclusiveness & Engagement With Cultural Diversity
This module examines environments, processes, and activities that reflect the engagement and validation of cultural diversity and promote greater understanding of societal differences. Questions explore students’ exposure to inclusive teaching practices and intercultural learning; perceptions of institutional values and commitment regarding diversity; and participation in diversity-related programming and coursework. A FSSE version is available.
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Mental Health & Well-Being (new in 2023)
The Mental Health and Well-Being Topical Module provides colleges and universities an opportunity to understand and address current concerns about students’ emotional, psychological, and social wellness. Results will help institutions promote well-being by purposefully creating supportive environments and providing necessary resources for students to thrive. This module assesses students’ experiences related to a range of dimensions for mental health and well-being. It also examines sources of support and explores students’ perceptions about campus resources. Some components for this set were influenced by the Butler University Student Well-Being Institutional Support Survey (SWISS).
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