Using engagement data to make improvements on campus is our raison d’être! Have you thought about how you are going to use your NSSE/FSSE data? A first step is to form a team of interested staff on your campus. Data use teams have become a popular approach to increase the use of evidence to inform improvement in K–12 schools and districts as well as some colleges and universities. Our studies of NSSE data use suggest data get more traction on campus when a team is charged with promoting the survey, interpreting data, and acting on results. Adopting a team approach to a NSSE administration promotes successful survey administration and action on results.

To encourage this approach, beginning in 2016, NSSE has invited participating colleges and universities to form a team of interested staff to support their NSSE administration and action on data. Using the Data Use Team section under the Data & Reports table on the NSSE Institution Interface, institutions identify team members, in addition to the NSSE Campus Project Manager and Campus Administrative Contact already named.

As of February 2017, we are pleased that 556 data use team members from 443 distinct institutions have been identified. Here is some information about these teams:

• Most institutions added 2 or 3 team members to their current roster of NSSE contacts, for teams of about 5.
• Official titles of team members are primarily from the institutional research office or an assessment unit, but just as many are associated with student affairs or academic affairs, including provost and dean of faculty.
• The wide-ranging campus roles of team members include librarian; registrar; dean; student affairs director; first-year experience coordinator; Title III grant administrator; and faculty in history, economics, mathematics, and sociology, among others.

We hope to learn more about how these teams are assembling and thinking about NSSE results. If you have a story about your team's NSSE data use, please tell us your story!