National Survey of Student Engagement

LINK TO CHARTS AT LEFT

LINK TO QUESTIONS USED IN EACH AREA BY CLICKING ON Q

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) is a survey of freshmen and seniors. The Survey measures student engagement in many important activities that research studies show are positively related to learning and personal development, provides information on the types of teaching that takes place, and analyzes how postsecondary institutions are using their resources in engaging their students. Nationally, over 185,000 students at 649 four-year institutions participated in the survey over the last two years. The instrument is not meant to provide year-to-year comparison.

Kentucky’s eight public universities participated in the 2003 NSSE as part of a consortium organized by the Council on Postsecondary Education. The survey was conducted by the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research and Planning. Surveys were mailed to a randomly selected group of 350 freshmen and 350 seniors. Students were given the option to respond by mail or on the web. Murray State University’s response rate is 49%. The response rate for Kentucky Institutions is 38%. It is 41% for Master’s Institutions and 43% for all NSSE Institutions. The Kentucky Consortium will participate in NSSE again in 2005.

Benchmark Report: More detailed information about the benchmarks can be found on the NSSE website at http://www.indiana.edu/~nsse/ .

Groups of items from the survey are assigned to five clusters of similar activities and conditions to make up the national benchmarks of effective educational practice. The summary of Murray State’s performance in these five areas is displayed in the following pages. The benchmark scores are presented and compared to schools in Murray State’s consortium, Carnegie Classification, and the NSSE national norms.

There are three charts for each benchmark. You can access the charts from the list of links at the left of the page. To the right of each of the five areas in the list on this page is a Q. Clicking on the Q will open another window which contains the questions assigned to that specific area.

The Excel file of the frequency, etc. is available for your review.

There is also a .pdf file of questions included in each area. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them. This software is free and may be downloaded at Adobe.