Survey enriches education

By Catherine Jablonski

When assessing college quality, U.S. News and World Report is a well-known place to find answers.

However, another study, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), in which Rider is currently participating, provides more inclusive data about colleges across the country, according to Ron Walker, Rider’s associate vice president for institutional analysis.

NSSE aims to help administrators better the learning experience for students and faculty. It works as a “counterbalance to U.S. News and World Report, which everybody uses to pick colleges, and the survey really says what goes on in the classroom and what goes on in the total intellectual experience here,” Walker said.

The survey provides a way for college administrators to evaluate the quality of learning as well as the students’ overall experience in their institution. According to its Web site, www.nsse.iub.edu, “the results will provide an estimate of how undergraduates spend their time and what they gain from attending college.”

Patricia Tritt, associate director of institutional analysis, said NSSE is more comprehensive than other surveys because “U.S. News does not get as specific as asking how many papers do you write on average or if you have to do a group project. NSSE really gets specific where U.S. News doesn’t come close.”

Focusing only on a sample of freshmen and seniors, the study attempts to measure five benchmarks: level of academic challenge, student interactions with faculty members, supportive campus environment, active and collaborative learning and enriching educational
experiences.

“It was really designed as an academically responsible alternative to college rankings,” said Walker. “It’s an opportunity to see what’s going on in the classroom, which then allows us to see how we compare to other schools nationally.”

A sample of Rider freshmen and seniors were invited to partake in the survey by e-mail, and all the participants remain anonymous. Walker urges all those who were sent invitations to respond soon.

Some examples of questions in the survey include how often the respondent has contributed to class discussions, how often the respondent worked with a faculty member on non-classwork activities and if the respondent would choose to go to Rider again if given the choice.
Rider has taken part in the survey twice in the past, with the first time in the spring of 2001 and the last time in the spring of 2004.

“It’s good because we’re getting an index of how we’re progressing,” Walker said. “We will get the score on the level of academic challenge, for example, and we can chart that over the five years to see if we’re making progress in terms of becoming a more rigorous school.”

Tritt said this study is important to the campus community because it provides an insight into the average college student’s life.

“It helps us portray the student to the faculty,” she said. “It helps us make a snapshot of the student.”

Indiana University’s Center for Postsecondary Research and its Center for Survey Research handle the technical aspects of the survey and the calculation of the data. Once everything is computed, the University gets the results. The data are already quantified into measurements, such as mean and frequency, and are compared to peer institutions as well as the national average.

The results of the current survey will not be available for some time. However, the outcomes from the first two studies are available. For example, comparing the last two surveys’ results, 80 percent of the sample said “Rider contributed quite a bit or very much to thinking critically and analytically” in 2004, which is a 7-percent increase from 2001.

Based on information compiled by Walker and Tritt, other results are that “Rider seniors come to class prepared more often than national,” and “Rider seniors work less with classmates outside of class to prepare assignments.”

With the current survey, Walker hopes to learn how Rider students are doing academically, intellectually and socially. The survey will give Rider the information that can help administrators assess whether Rider challenges its students to their academic potential or whether the students are able to skate through, said Walker.

Based on the survey’s conclusions, many times focus groups are established to find answers to what is behind the data’s results. Walker feels that this way they can get anecdotal evidence that allows them to understand where the students are coming from.

“You start to have conversations on how you could improve the experience for students,” he said. “You want satisfied grads who go out, get a good job and become happy alumni.”