The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), a project to gauge the effectiveness of undergraduate education in four-year colleges and universities, released its second annual report in Fall, 2001. Using data gathered from surveys of students at 470 colleges and universities, NSSE findings suggest that among other things, students are spending much less time studying and researching than their faculty expect them to be spending. NSSE was started in 1999 to provide a student learning-centered alternative to other methods of college rankings and a means for campuses to use assessment data to improve student learning outcomes.

There are five key factors that research studies show are linked to desired outcomes in college, and which serve as a basis for NSSE questions:

1) level of academic challenge
2) active and collaborative learning
3) student-faculty interaction
4) enriching educational experiences
5) supportive campus environment

Last year's report presented benchmarks of effective educational practice for five areas of student engagement. A survey of student engagement for two-year institutions, the Community College Survey of Student Engagement, will be conducted next year. Most of the questions will overlap with those of NSSE.

The good news

• Almost all students (98%) "occasionally" ask questions in class or contribute to class discussions.

• Most students (90%) report working with other students on projects during class at least "occasionally."

• Many institutions provide first-year seminars, service learning, research opportunities, capstone experiences, and other activities to increase the frequency of student-faculty interaction.

• Two-thirds of all seniors are involved in community service and volunteer work and 72% participate in internships.

• About half of all first-year students and seniors frequently have serious conversations with students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

• More than two-thirds of all students rate the quality of their academic advising as good or excellent.
  

The bad news

• About one-fifth of both first-year students and seniors say their institutions give little emphasis to studying and spending time on academic work.

• Forty-five percent of first-year students never discussed ideas from their classes or readings with a faculty member outside of class.

• Commuter students and part-time students view their campus environments as less supportive than their on-campus residential student counterparts.
  

DID YOU KNOW?

• Nearly 50% of all seniors did not write a paper longer than 20 pages during their senior year.

• The lowest median scores for active and collaborative learning were found among doctorate-granting universities, suggesting that a "teaching as telling" instructional style is paramount even during senior year.

• Eighteen percent of first-year students report to have "never" given a presentation in class.

• Only 41% of students reported taking a foreign language course during college; only 17% had studied abroad.

• Seventy-two percent of seniors reported holding an internship at some point during college.

• The "extracurriculum" or learning outside the classroom currently has a low profile in learing: almost two-thirds of commuting students do not participate, nor do one-fourth of students who reside on campus. Half of seniors reported to have "never" worked with faculty members on committees or in a related way beyond the classroom environment.