Hundreds of colleges and universities are participating in the upcoming NSSE 2021 administration. Behind the scenes, NSSE’s staff have been busy revising existing survey items and creating new survey content to address the disparate needs of its participating institutions during these unique, pandemic times. Updates in 2021 include:
- Four new items related to effective teaching practices have been added to explore student experiences across multiple course modalities (online, face-to-face, & hybrid), as well as an item to help identify each respondent’s primary learning modality.
- A revised student background question allows students to better represent their disability status.
- The option for schools to draft their own open-ended survey question to solicit student feedback, providing an excellent qualitative dimension to NSSE results. Alternatively, institutions can–as usual–select from among four standard prompts.
- Three new Topical Modules on critical higher education topics: Career and Workforce Preparation; Coping with COVID; and Experiences with Online Learning.
Visit the NSSE survey posted online to review these changes in closer detail. To learn more about any of these changes or to suggest ideas about how NSSE can further improve, send an email to .