A small group of students sitting in a row of tables at the Skinny Pancake on campus. The two students in the front facing each other appear most visible – the one on the left is wearing a faded red tie-and-dye shirt and eating a meal. The student on the right is wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt, and smiling while working on their laptop.

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) is a survey for eligible first-years and seniors. The NSSE asks undergraduates about their participation in programs and activities to get a better sense of how undergraduates are spending their time and what are they gaining from their college experience. By participating in the NSSE, students get to provide feedback on how the university is performing and how their undergraduate experience can be improved.

 

Students

Deans, Faculty & Advisors







About NSSE

The NSSE is administered by the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University-Bloomington. It is widely popular as nearly 1700 four-year colleges and universities and approximately 6.5 million students have participated in NSSE since 2000. In 2022 alone, 469 four-year colleges and universities and over 250,000 students participated in NSSE.
(Adapted from NSSE website)

NSSE Content

The survey asks students questions on these four categories:
(1) Participation in dozens of educationally purposeful activities
(2) Institutional requirements and the challenging nature of coursework
(3) Perceptions of the college environment
(4) Estimates of educational and personal growth since starting college
These categories form the basis of 10 Engagement Indicators (EI) and 6 High-Impact Practices (HIPs) that provide insights on various aspects of student engagement – linked here.
(Adapted from NSSE website)

The current version of NSSE’s main survey is comprised of 39 questions and can be accessed here. In addition, two topical modules will be asked of students:
(1) Academic Advising: This module has questions on students seeking academic advising. The current version is comprised of 6 questions and can be accessed here.
(2) General Education: This module has questions on students demonstrating some learning outcomes of UVM’s current general education program. There are 10 questions in this module – can be accessed here.

Use of NSSE Data

NSSE data can be used to examine student learning taking place inside and outside of the classroom by a range of users, including program assessment coordinators, academic advisors, academic leadership, student affairs professionals, and institutional research officers. As Deans, faculty, instructors, and academic advisors, you are active stakeholders in utilizing the results obtained from the NSSE. A high response rate among your students will allow for data to be disaggregated by academic unit.

NSSE Data Reports

NSSE offers a variety of data reports that allow for institutions to compare responses of their student cohorts with the previous administration year, and with students at selected groups of comparison institutions. Comparisons are available for all survey questions including sets of questions that form the 10 Engagement Indicators and 6 High-Impact Practices. All archived reports can be found here.

Starting this year, OIRA will be providing a data dashboard that will enable users at UVM to access comparative data of the last two NSSE administrations (2020 and 2017), disaggregated by academic unit. This dashboard is currently being built and a link for use will be posted here by Summer 2023.

NSSE Timeline

  • NSSE Promotions on Campus: February to April 2024
  • NSSE Emails to Students: February 28, March 5, March 18, March 28, and April 3.
  • OIRA Data Reports: Summer 2024

Help Promote the NSSE

Given many of you work directly with undergraduate students, your help with survey promotion can greatly aid in maximizing the response rate among students.

Deans Promoting NSSE

  • In department meetings, introduce this website to your faculty and staff.
  • Share NSSE flyers (below) with your students in your unit buildings, classrooms and Blackboard/Brightspace courses.
  • Help OIRA reach out to faculty and instructors that have majority first-year and senior enrollment in their classes – email their contact info to assess@uvm.edu
  • If possible, identify a staff person in your unit to serve as a NSSE liaison with OIRA.
  • Plan to introduce NSSE in any unit events that are targeted at undergraduate students.
  • Consider sending an email to first-years and seniors of your unit and encourage them to participate. If requested, OIRA can provide you with an email template for this.

Faculty & Instructors Promoting NSSE

  • Share NSSE flyers (below) with your students in your unit buildings, classrooms and Blackboard/Brightspace courses.
  • Connect with OIRA if your class is comprised of students that are mostly first-years or seniors.
  • If possible, consider using NSSE participation as extra credit in your class. You can ask students to email you a screenshot of their completion page.
  • Consider sending an email to first-years and seniors of your unit and encourage them to participate. If requested, OIRA can provide you with an email template for this.

Academic Advisors Promoting NSSE

  • Share NSSE flyers (below) with your students in your unit buildings, classrooms and Blackboard/Brightspace courses.
  • Connect with OIRA if you are teaching a class or seminar that is comprised of mostly first-years or seniors.    
  • Consider sending an email to first-years and seniors of your unit and encourage them to participate. If requested, OIRA can provide you with an email template for this.                                     

Help Spread the Word

We would love for you to help us spread the word. Below are mobile-friendly flyers that you can share with your students and co-workers. 

A portrait layout flyer that has some logos, pictures and text against a the UVM gold color background. The first logo is of NSSE placed at the top left corner against a while textured circle. Underneath the circle, the text says Rally up Catamounts. Next to the circle is UVM’s mascot catamount that appears to be pouncing out of an enlarged V alphabet symbolizing V for Vermont. The V alphabet appears in the UVM green color with UVM gold border. Below there is text on incentives that reads: Tell us about your UVM experience by taking the NSSE survey this March! First 100 takers get a $10 e-gift card. More incentives include 25 E-gift cards $30 each, 3 Virtual Surround Headsets and 3 Gaming Keyboards. Each of these incentives are accompanied by their photo – a gift card that has UVM catamount mascot pouncing out of UVM V alphabet icon and says UVM Bookstore, a black and deep red color headset and a black color keyboard in which keys appear backlit by rainbow-colored lights. At the very bottom of the flyer is a link to UVM’s NSSE website that reads: www.uvm.edu/oir/uvms-national-survey-student-engagement

Click here to save a pdf version of this flyer on your device

A landscape layout flyer that has some logos, pictures and text against a the UVM gold color background. The first logo is of NSSE placed at the top left corner against a while textured circle. Underneath the circle, the text says Rally up Catamounts. Underneath this text is UVM’s mascot catamount that appears to be pouncing out of an enlarged V alphabet symbolizing V for Vermont. The V alphabet appears in the UVM green color with UVM gold border. On the right side, there is neon green half-circle background, against which there is text on incentives that reads: Tell us about your UVM experience by taking the NSSE survey this March! First 100 takers get a $10 e-gift card. More incentives include 25 E-gift cards $30 each, 3 Virtual Surround Headsets and 3 Gaming Keyboards. Each of these incentives are accompanied by their photo – a gift card that has UVM catamount mascot pouncing out of UVM V alphabet icon and says UVM Bookstore, a black and deep red color headset and a black color keyboard in which keys appear backlit by rainbow-colored lights. At the very bottom of the flyer is a link to UVM’s NSSE website that reads: www.uvm.edu/oir/uvms-national-survey-student-engagement

Click here to save a pdf version of this flyer on your device

 

A Note About Accessibility

The UVM Office of Institutional Research and Assessment is committed to ensuring that reported data are accessible. If the data presented are not accessible to you, please contact the UVM ADA/504 Coordinator. OIRA will work to get you all requested data in a timely fashion.