NSSE - National Survey of Student Engagement

The NSSE Institutional Report Builder is an interactive tool that instantly generates custom reports. Expanding on the public version, this secure version of the Report Builder generates reports using your institution's NSSE data. Create tables of Benchmark statistics or individual item frequencies that compare subgroups of students within your institution or that compare your students to those from a selected comparison group of institutions. You may also compare your results across years or combine results from multiple years. Access your customized institution's Report Builder via the Data and Reports page on the Institution Interface.

We are pleased to announce the updated BCSSE 2013 survey! The update includes new items to increase alignment with NSSE 2013 for a more comprehensive analysis of the first-year experience. The update maintains BCSSE's focus on gathering information from entering, first-year students regarding their high school experiences and their expectations for engagement during their first year in college.

The report, Promoting Student Learning and Institutional Improvement: Lessons from NSSE at 13-Annual Results 2012, details results from NSSE's 2012 survey of 285,000 first-year students and seniors attending 546 U.S. colleges and universities. Findings released on November 15, 2012 include how financial challenges affect college students, how social media can be a mixed blessing, and updates to key findings from NSSE's first 13 years on topics such as deep approaches to learning and high-impact practices.

These findings demonstrate the need for colleges and universities to monitor how emerging issues and trends facing today's college students affect their ability to thrive and succeed.

The NSSE staff was well represented at Association for Institutional Research (AIR) Annual Conference in New Orleans, June 2- 6, 2012, presenting papers, demonstrations, roundtables, and hosting a NSSE special interest group meeting. The NSSE team shared information about the updated NSSE survey which rolled out on June 4.

We are pleased to announce that the NSSE Institutional Report 2012 binders have shipped to participating institutions. Downloadable reports and data files are now available through NSSE's secure Institution Interface. The Institutional Report 2012 features a wealth of information from this year's NSSE administration, plus several documents of value to all NSSE users. It also includes material related to NSSE's two companion surveys, the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE) and the Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE). Over one and a quarter million first-year and senior students from 577 U.S. and Canadian institutions were invited to participate in NSSE this year. Of this survey population, approximately 320,000 students responded. Also available for non-participating institutions is an Overview of this year's administration, and a sample Institutional Report 2012.

View the Webinar, "Your Institutional Report 2012" for a step-by-step walkthrough of the report.

The Lessons from the Field series serves as a repository of practical ideas for NSSE institutions to improve evidence-based assessment and improvement initiative.

In the recently released Moving from Data to Action: Lessons from the Field - Volume 2, we highlight new examples of how institutions are using NSSE data to enhance undergraduate teaching and learning. The stories illustrate the ways assessment can:

• be a worthwhile undertaking when meaningful data are generated and discussed with a wide campus audience
• use NSSE results to inform efforts to improve educational effectiveness

Understanding how colleges and universities use results and achieve improvements in undergraduate education is important to advancing systemic improvement in higher education. The examples in this volume encourage institutions to continue to move from collecting data to taking action. Both publications are available for download in PDF format.

The NSSE Report Builder instantly creates tables of NSSE aggregate results based on student and institution characteristics of your choosing. Formerly the Custom Report Generator, the NSSE Report Builder features a more user-friendly interface, better functionality, additional variables for customization, and improved report formatting.

You choose the group. We'll show you the results.

Campus assessment professionals have many questions about patterns of engagement for different populations of students and institutions. The NSSE Report Builder instantly generates reports from a secure database containing the two most recent years of NSSE, and can be queried using many combinations of student and institutional characteristics. Variable options include individual items and benchmarks. Give it a try!

Go to the NSSE Report Builder

The Spanish-language version of the National Survey of Student Engagement's (NSSE) Pocket Guide to Choosing a College -- Una Guia de Bolsillo Para Escoger una Universidad: Preguntas a hacer en tus visitas universitarias -- expands access to Spanish-speaking families. The college exploration process is complex and choosing a college can be difficult. Too often, students and their families are challenged to obtain accessible and useful information. What kinds of questions should students ask on a college visit? Who and what are the best resources to consult? NSSE's Pocket Guide includes important questions that students and parents should consider as they visit colleges and universities or explore them online.

We are pleased to announce that an updated version of the National Survey of Student Engagement will launch with the 2013 administration. The update incorporates what we have learned over the past decade while preserving NSSE's signature focus on diagnostic and actionable information related to engagement in effective educational practice. With an updated survey, we aim to refine existing measures and scales, incorporate new dimensions of effective teaching and learning, and improve the clarity and applicability of survey language.

If you have questions about the updated survey please contact us by e-mail at nsse@indiana.edu or by phone at 812-856-5824. For more information, visit nsse.iub.edu/nsse2013.

Each year, more campuses use their NSSE results in innovative ways. We've highlighted these examples in publications including Using NSSE Data and Lessons from the Field. All these examples are now searchable via a new database of more than 500 examples of NSSE use. You can search for examples by keywords, institution name, or Carnegie classification, and by type of use such as for accreditation, or general education assessment, or using results to study retention, or strengthen advising. These campus examples provide instructive accounts and inspiring examples of how other colleges and universities are using their NSSE results to improve undergraduate education.