2008 Woodie Awards
Survey aims to address student involvement
Felicia Kreig
Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: News
Originally published: 2/21/08 at 4:15 PM EST
Last update: 2/21/08 at 4:13 PM EST
The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) given to Plattsburgh State freshmen and seniors began Feb. 18.
NSSE "measures the degree to which students are engaged on a college campus," said Robert Karp, the director of institutional research on campus. In NSSE's nine-year history, the 15-minute survey has been administered to 1,458,000 students at roughly 1,200 colleges and universities (both public and private).
PSUC has administered NSSE once before, in 2007.
"We will use the results of the survey to improve how we do things," said Robert Golden, provost and vice president for academic affairs.
And they did. Two programs that began as a result of the NSSE are the First Year Program (FYP) and the Center for Teaching Excellence.
There are six major areas that NSSE measures which they refer to in their 2007 annual report as "benchmarks of effective educational practice."
They are level of academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction, enriching educational experiences and supportive campus environment.
PSUC's main concern with NSSE has been the relatively low participation rate.
"We would like a large number of students to participate because it is very important to us to understand how students view their academic and educational experiences here on campus," Golden said. "It's important to get the student viewpoint. I urge students to participate. It (NSSE) has helped us and it's pointed to some areas where, frankly, we could do some things better."
"We did well," Karp said, referring to the last survey. "We weren't the highest scoring school (in SUNY) but we weren't the lowest."
Golden said PSUC did OK, but added that he thinks they would have liked to do better.
There will be incentives this year to entice students to participate in NSSE such as a chance to win a free iPod nano, $20 college store gift certificates, and free t-shirts.
NSSE "measures the degree to which students are engaged on a college campus," said Robert Karp, the director of institutional research on campus. In NSSE's nine-year history, the 15-minute survey has been administered to 1,458,000 students at roughly 1,200 colleges and universities (both public and private).
PSUC has administered NSSE once before, in 2007.
"We will use the results of the survey to improve how we do things," said Robert Golden, provost and vice president for academic affairs.
And they did. Two programs that began as a result of the NSSE are the First Year Program (FYP) and the Center for Teaching Excellence.
There are six major areas that NSSE measures which they refer to in their 2007 annual report as "benchmarks of effective educational practice."
They are level of academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction, enriching educational experiences and supportive campus environment.
PSUC's main concern with NSSE has been the relatively low participation rate.
"We would like a large number of students to participate because it is very important to us to understand how students view their academic and educational experiences here on campus," Golden said. "It's important to get the student viewpoint. I urge students to participate. It (NSSE) has helped us and it's pointed to some areas where, frankly, we could do some things better."
"We did well," Karp said, referring to the last survey. "We weren't the highest scoring school (in SUNY) but we weren't the lowest."
Golden said PSUC did OK, but added that he thinks they would have liked to do better.
There will be incentives this year to entice students to participate in NSSE such as a chance to win a free iPod nano, $20 college store gift certificates, and free t-shirts.
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