displaying-results

Displaying NSSE Results on Institution Websites

Many institutions have made some or all of their NSSE survey results publicly available online in response to national calls for transparency around learning outcomes. Posting standard-issue NSSE reports, such as the Snapshot, Engagement Indicators, or the former Benchmark Comparisons Report,can be helpful. We encourage institutions to go further by displaying NSSE results in modified, accessible formats for internal and external audiences.

Benefits of Publicizing NSSE Data

Displaying results is critical at a time when transparency and public accountability are prominent in discourse about colleges and universities. Publicly displaying your student engagement results has many benefits including:

Increasing the public’s understanding of college quality
Supporting institutional improvement efforts
Demonstrating to students that their voices were heard

Considerations for Creating Public Data Displays

Creating public data displays is a common practice today. Data displays can be as complex or as simple as you'd like. Several considerations go into designing data displays. Below are a few considerations for institutions exploring publicizing their NSSE results.

Clearly Define Your Audience: Translating results into accurate, accessible formats for different audiences can be challenging. Different institutional stakeholders may want different data reported. Similarly, different stakeholders may interpret available data visualizations differently. For example, admissions professionals at colleges and universities may want to highlight results that demonstrate distinct undergraduate experiences to visitors and prospective students. That could include reporting on the variation in engagement by student majors or the results from a self-study to provide insights beyond those provided in the NSSE Institutional Report. In this case, the readability of a display targeted toward prospective students and families may need to be less complex than a display with the same purpose created for professionals and stakeholders within the institution who are using the data to collaborate across focus areas.
Consult Contemporary Data & Reporting Standards: Data transparency and privacy go hand in hand. As technology advances our ability to create unique and meaningful data visualizations. Many official entities monitor the data and reporting landscape in the education community to provide guidelines and standards for responsible data use. Below are some suggested resources to guide your thinking around displaying data:
- The Association of Institutional Research Tips & Insights on Visual Data Displays
- Statistical Methods for FERPA Compliant Aggregate Reporting (NCES)
- Education Data 101: What is Responsible Data Use (Quality Data Campaign)
- Institution-specific data and reporting guidelines
Interpret Data Responsibly: Responsibly interpreting your results means taking care to both use and communicate the data in the way it is intended.For example, often institutional researchers like to present data in easy-to-understand intervals, like with percentages. However, items such as NSSE’s engagement indicatorsare not intended to be converted to percentages.Each standard NSSE report includes a one-page guide designed to aid in interpreting your results. Researchers may find our psychometric portfolio useful for understanding how to interpret results.

NSSE is committed to helping institutions display their results. We regularly review institutional websites for creative displays that meet basic data representation and interpretation standards. Below are examples to illustrate the varied ways institutions have posted their results. These sites are consistent with NSSE’s policy against rankings and the considerations described in this guide.

Humboldt State University

On a web page of the Center for Teaching and Learning entitled “Who Is the HSU Student?” at the website of Humboldt State University, visitors can view findings from HSU’s 2017 participation in the NSSE and FSSE core surveys and NSSE’s Inclusiveness and Engagement with Diversity Module. Findings are presented in several user-friendly formats: video, PowerPoint, PDF, and text.

Kent State University

Results from multiple administrations of NSSE, BCSSE, and FSSE are displayed at Kent State University’s website for the Office of Accreditation, Assessment, and Learning (AAL). These displays illustrate AAL’s efforts to improve the Kent State student and employee experience by collecting and sharing data that (1) gauge student learning and practices associated with student success across students’ educational experiences, (2) assess faculty and staff experiences related to work and campus climate, and (3) provide accountability and demonstrate compliance in external reporting and accreditation processes.

Brock University

Brock University created a set of dashboard web page displays of its NSSE data for use in committee meetings. The displays feature bar graphs and a heatmap highlighting comparisons between Brock and other Ontario universities, all of which participate in NSSE as a consortium.

Utah State University

Utah State shares its NSSE results in an interactive online format created in Tableau, a leading data visualization program. Data displays include Highlights, Respondent Characteristics, Engagement Items, Background Items, Academic Advising, and Transferable Skills. Data can be displayed by class level, gender, race/ethnicity, and enrollment status. Divergent Stacked Bars show differences across various student groups in their responses to selected questions. Results from Utah State's 2012 participation are currently at the website.

Winthrop University

Winthrop University has participated in NSSE every year since 2001. The institutional website contains a description of NSSE, some general response characteristics of students who participated in the survey, and multiple displays of comparisons of Winthrop’s results with national results for the current year. The site also provides links to summary results from 2009, 2011, and 2014.

Hampshire College

In News and Events at the Hampshire College website, results on multiple key indicators of educational quality drawn from the college's NSSE data and comparison data from 150 peer institutions are provided and explained as reflecting Hampshire's challenging, independent, community-based learning environment and the effectiveness of educational practices such as use of narrative evaluations instead of grades, student self-evaluation, and interdisciplinary concentrations in which students design their own majors.

Ohio University

The Office of Institutional Research website illustrates how Ohio University transforms data into information that supports university planning and policy making. They display descriptive analyses and repackaging of NSSE reports that highlight their assessment initiatives.

McKendree University

NSSE is one of many instruments McKendree University uses to provide evidence of student learning and engagement. The website provides an overview of how NSSE results are included in the larger context of their assessment efforts.

Ferris State University

The Ferris State University website offers a detailed display of its institutional NSSE results. It includes actual NSSE created reports and additional summary documents. FSU provides eight years of NSSE results as part of an overall assessment plan which focuses on "making certain our programs and courses provide students with the best possible learning experience so that they will have the skills and knowledge to be successful in their careers and lives."

Colorado State University

Colorado State University posts NSSE survey results from 2001-2016, a number of research briefs analyzing CSU’s overall and subgroup data from NSSE, and an analysis of results for advising including longitudinal results from eight NSSE administrations.