Using Incentives and Learning Management Systems to Boost Survey Response: Do They Work?

Shimon Sarraf
February 25, 2021

Survey incentives and the posting of links to learning management systems (LMS) appear to substantially improve response rates regardless of institutional control and enrollment size. Incentives and, more recently, posting survey links to LMSs are increasingly used to boost response rates among NSSE participating institutions. Past studies aimed at understanding the impact of incentives among a college student population, however, have often relied […]

New in 2021! Developing the Career and Workforce Preparation Topical Module

Josclynn Brandon
February 9, 2021

Due to a growing concern over students' preparation for the workplace by employers and higher education institutions alike, the need for evidence of employability as an educational outcome has increased. Institutions utilize resources such as career services, experiential learning, and interactions with members of the campus community in order to prepare students for the labor market and the expectations that come along […]

In name only? Assessing Quality and Equity in High-Impact Practices

Brendan Dugan
January 25, 2021

Often lauded as transformational educational experiences, High-Impact Practices (HIPS) play a key role in the undergraduate experience. Yet the success of these practices depends in part on implementation that may vary between programs and institutions. The eagerness to label practices high-impact, or to focus exclusively on participation in these activities, may have distracted educators and administrators from ensuring these activities provide the particular and […]

Person-Centered Approaches to Inclusive Data Analysis

Thomas Kirnbauer
December 3, 2020

At the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) Virtual Forum 2020, Allison BrckaLorenz, Thomas Nelson Laird, & I presented a live-simulated session about person-centered approaches to inclusive data analysis. A person-centered approach focuses on identifying different groups of individuals that share similar experiences and outcomes in higher education. This approach is designed to complement a traditional variable-centered approach that focuses on the association […]

Friendly Preparation Tips for NSSE Administration

Yihan Zhu
November 12, 2020

We'd like to highlight two important administration topics for you: incentive messages and disposition files! Incentive messages Sometimes institutions wonder about how specific and detailed the information included in incentive texts should be. Here is an incentive template NSSE provides when schools decide to offer gift card drawings, which includes all the specifications required for the incentive to adhere to IRB guidelines: […]

So Many NSSE Topical Modules… Making Your Decision for NSSE 2021

Jillian Kinzie
October 1, 2020

NSSE annually offers the option of Topical Modules--short question sets, appended to the core survey, on focused areas such as academic advising, civic engagement, transferable skills, writing, first-year experiences and senior transitions, global learning, and diversity and inclusion. Institutions can append up to two additional sets of questions, either a customized set as part of a consortium or a Topical Module. About 90% […]

NSSE’s New Content: Effective Teaching, Covid, Online Learning, and Work Preparation

Shimon Sarraf
September 24, 2020

Given the COVID-19 pandemic's substantial impact on higher education, the content of NSSE 2021 will differ from previous years in several ways. Our aim is to ensure that institutions have a robust set of assessment tools to help them during this unique time. We are changing a number of items on the core survey instrument and adding to our Topical Module offerings. To make […]

Response Rates of FSSE Between 2019 and 2020

Kyle Fassett
September 10, 2020

Given the almost universal impact of COVID-19 on higher education institutions, we decided to descriptively see how response rates differed between last year (2019) and this year (2020) for the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE). FSSE captures information from instructional staff at four-year colleges and universities about their experiences teaching, interacting with students, and filling many other roles. Faculty from 120 institutions […]

Data on Display: NSSE, FSSE, and BCSSE in Graduate Student Coursework

Josclynn Brandon
August 27, 2020

Doctoral students are often tasked with conducting research in and outside of their required coursework. When reviewing assignment details, a phrase that some students find daunting is, "provide your own data." I was one of those students. Where can you get data? How do you know it's reliable? Then a classmate of mine told me about the Center for Postsecondary Research (CPR) and how […]

Is Time on Your Side? A Look at Time Use Patterns for Honors Students

Angie Miller
July 9, 2020

Adapted from a paper presented at the World Gifted Conference, 2019.

How do honors college students spend their time compared to other students? Previous research suggests that honors college students are more engaged in certain ways: more frequently interacting with faculty, reflecting on their learning, learning collaboratively, and reporting higher quality of interactions (Miller & Dumford, 2018). Most honors programs include more academically rigorous […]