NSSE and The Student Voice: Understanding

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NSSE and The Student Voice Understanding
Student Experience, Student Engagement and
How These are Measured April 26, 2007
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CONTEXT Paul Davenport, President and
Vice-Chancellor
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Introducing NSSE Dr. Jerry White, Advisor to the
Provost
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What is the NSSE?

• Measures student participation in programs and
  activities that institutions provide for their
  learning and personal development
• first Pilot was 1999 and first full survey with
  276 colleges and Universities
• items in NSSE represent empirically confirmed
  "good practices" in undergraduate education

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What is it supposed to tell us?

• a proxy for learning, understanding, and
  postgraduation commitments that we cannot measure
  very well directly
• a diagnostic tool for institutional improvement
  and accountability
• NSSE does not support using results for ranking
  schools
• student engagement data should lead to improved
  approaches to accountability

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How did we get involved?

• Western one of the first to join into the NSSE
  survey in Canada
• In 2004, Western and several Canadian
  universities participated for the first time
• Western has taken a leadership role in making
  data public

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The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)
Dr. Debra Dawson Director, Teaching and Learning
Services
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Outline

• What is student engagement?
• NSSE benchmarks
• What were some of the key results?
• What can we do to enhance student success?

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What is student engagement?

• Students sustained involvement, intense effort
  and concentration in learning activities
• Students use of cognitive and meta-cognitive
  strategies that lead to deep learning
• Institutions learning opportunities and services
  that induce students to take part in such
  activities
• Mighty ( 2006)

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National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)

• Designed to obtain information about student
  participation in programs and activities that
  foster deep learning
• In 2006 Western and all Ontario universities
  participated.
• http//nsse.iub.edu/html/sample.cfm

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NSSE Benchmarks of Effective Practice

• Level of academic challenge
• Active and collaborative learning
• Students interactions with academic staff
• Enriching educational experiences
• Supportive campus environments

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BenchmarkSupportive Campus Environment

• Students perform better and are more satisfied at
  institutions that are
• -committed to their success
• -cultivate positive working and social
  relationship among different groups on campus

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Supportive Campus EnvironmentBenchmark
Comparisons
Senior Students
First-Year Students
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To what extent does your institution
emphasizeproviding the support you need to help
you succeed academically? ( responded quite a
bit or very much)
First-Year Students
Senior Students
Supportive Campus Environment
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Mark the box that best represents the quality of
your relationship with other students ( rated 6
or 7 on scale)
First-Year Students
Senior Students
Unfriendly, Unsupportive, Sense of
Alienation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Friendly, Supportive,
Sense of Belonging
Supportive Campus Environment
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Mark the box that best represents the quality of
your relationship with faculty members ( rated 6
or 7 on scale)
First-Year Students
Senior Students
Unavailable, Unhelpful, Unsympathetic 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 Available, Helpful, Sympathetic
Supportive Campus Environment
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BenchmarkEnriching Educational Experiences

• Opportunity to integrate and apply knowledge
• Experience diversity
• Participate in internships, field placements,
  undergraduate research projects
• Senior capstone experience

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Enriching Educational ExperiencesBenchmark
Comparisons
First-Year Students
Senior Students
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Which of the following have you done or plan to
do at your institution? Study Abroad
First-Year Students
Senior Students
Enriching Educational Experiences
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Study Abroad

• Development of International Curriculum Fund
  (ICF) focus on internationalization and in
  particular study abroad
• http//international.uwo.ca/

Enriching Educational Experiences
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Which of the following have you done or plan to
do at your institution? Practicum, internship,
field experience, co-op experience,or clinical
assignment
First-Year Students
Senior Students
Enriching Educational Experiences
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BenchmarkStudent-Faculty Interaction

• Students learn how experts think about and solve
  practical problems by interacting with faculty
  members inside and outside the classroom.
• Faculty are role models, mentors and guides for
  continuous, life-long learning.

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Student-Faculty Interaction Benchmark Comparisons
First-Year Students
Senior Students
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In your experience at your institution during the
current school year, about how often have you
discussed grades or assignments with an
instructor ( responded Often or Very Often)
Senior Students
First-Year Students
Student-Faculty Interaction
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In your experiences at your institution during
the current school year, about how often have you
discussed ideas from your readings or classes
with faculty members outside of class? (
responded NEVER)
First-Year Students
Senior Students
Student-Faculty Interaction
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BenchmarkActive and Collaborative Learning

• Active
• where students learn by doing, by hands-on
  experimentation or where they get the opportunity
  to think through to a realization
• Collaborative
• where students work in
• teams or groups towards
• a common goal

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Active and Collaborative Learning Benchmark
Comparisons
First-Year Students
Senior Students
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In your experience at your institution during the
current school year, about how often have you
asked questions in class or contributed to class
discussion ( responded Often or Very Often)
First-Year Students
Senior Students
Active and Collaborative Learning
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In your experiences at your institution during
the current school year, about how often have you
made a class presentation? ( responded NEVER)
First-Year Students
Senior Students
Active and Collaborative Learning
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Community Service-Learning

• Form of experiential learning
• Designed to foster civic responsibility, address
  community needs, and enhance student learning
• Reflection following community service relates
  classroom content to S-L experience

Active and Collaborative Learning
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In your experiences at your institution during
the current school year, about how often have you
participated in a community-based project (e.g.
service-learning) as part of a regular course? (
responding Sometimes, Often or Very Often)
First-Year Students
Senior Students
Active and Collaborative Learning
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Service-Learning Initiatives

• Alternative Spring Break
• Western Heads East
• Curricular Service-Learning

www.servicelearning.uwo.ca
Active and Collaborative Learning
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Benchmark Level of Academic Challenge

• Challenging intellectual and creative work
• High expectations for student performance

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Level of Academic Challenge Benchmark
Comparisons
First-Year Students
Senior Students
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During the current school year, about how often
have you worked harder than you thought you could
to meet a meet an instructors standards or
expectations? ( responded Often or Very
Often)
First-Year Students
Senior Students
Level of Academic Challenge
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Total number of papers or reports between 5 and
19 pages written during the current school year
First-Year Students
Senior Students
Level of Academic Challenge
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Two Key Questions
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How would you evaluate your entire educational
experience at your institution? ( rated good
or excellent)
First-Year Students
Senior Students
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If you could start over again, would you go to
the same institution you are now attending? (
responded probably yes or definitely yes)
First-Year Students
Senior Students
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Promoting Student Success

• What Can Campus Leaders Do?
• Student success is everybodys business
• Students thrive when an institution enacts a
  holistic philosophy of talent development and
  provides support from multiple sources
• We need to seek effective ways of putting vision
  into practice

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References

• Boyer, E.L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered
  Priorities of the Professoriate. Princeton, NJ
  Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
  Learning.
• Chickering, A. W. Gamson, Z. F.(1987). Seven
  principles for good practice in undergraduate
  education, American Association of Higher
  Education Bulletin, pp. 3-7.
• Kuh, G. (2003). What were learning about student
  engagement from NSSE. Change March/ April , 24-32
• Mighty, J.(2006).From admission to
  graduationopportunities and strategies for
  student engagement. Paper presented at Fall
  Perspectives on Learning, UWO, London, Canada
• National Study on Student Engagement(NSSE).
  http//nsse.iub.edu/index.cfm. Last retrieved on
  March 4, 2007.
• Steffes, J.S.( 2004). Creating powerful learning
  environments beyond the classroom. Change, 36(3),
  46-50.
• Promoting Student Success NSSE Deep Practice
  Briefs http//nsse.iub.edu/institute/?viewdeep/br
  iefs. Last retrieved on Apr. 18, 2007.

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Q A?

• What questions about NSSE, or Westerns results
  do you have for Deb or Jerry or others?

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Leaders Forum

• Next Steps
• Use your Meeting in a Bag to share todays
  information with your staff
• Check Leaders Digest for notes and summary from
  today
• Next seasons Leaders Forum dates will be
  emailed to you

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Leaders Forum

• Thank You to Our Student Guests!

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Thank You to Our Facilitators

• Carol Abraham
• Jenn Ashenden
• Ross Beatty
• Becca Carroll
• Krys Chelchowski
• Donna Chute-Dolan
• Rod Crichton
• Debra Dawson
• Frank DeGurse
• Sharon Farnell
• Andrew Fuller
• Chantal Gloor
• Paula Greenwood
• Stephanie Hayne

Ruth Heard Ruta Lawrence Scott May Donna
Moore Nancy Patrick Terry Rice Peggy
Roffey Malcolm Ruddock Nancy Stewart Glen
Tigert Peggy Wakabayashi Penny Westmacott Carolyn
Young
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Have a Great Summer!