What is the Natonal Survey of Student Engagement?

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE; pronounced “nessie”) collects information annually from samples of first-year and senior students about the nature and quality of their undergraduate experience. In 2008 it was administered to first-year and senior students at 769 baccalaureate schools in the US and Canada. Responses were received from 478,079 students. The survey provides each participating institution with the data from its students as well as comparison data from three comparison groups selected from a menu provided by NSSE. You can download the NSSE survey for 2008 at the NSSE website. The questions will be the same in 2009.

What is the CSWC Consortium?

The Consortium for the Study of College Writing (CSWC) is a group of schools that all wish to have their students answer a set of 27 writing questions in addition to the regular NSSE questions in spring 2009.

How will joining the CSWC benefit my school?

CSWC results will provide an overview of student writing across your school’s curriculum. You will learn how students write, what they write, and how instructors assign and support writing. With this knowledge, your school can evaluate and improve its efforts to prepare its graduates to write well, a key outcome of higher education.

The results can also used as assessment data for professional accrediting agencies, such as NCATE, ABET, AACSB, and for the regional agencies that accredit entire schools.

How will joining the CSWC benefit our WAC / WID program(s)?

CSWC results will enable writing-across-the-curriculum and writing-in-the-discipline programs to learn about the writing students do and the ways faculty assign and support writing. This information can help formulate objectives and devise workshops, consultations, and other services that will help faculty across the curriculum more effectively.

By analyzing the data from students in different majors, different sexes, and the like, WAC/WID programs can target their programs to specific groups of faculty and specific topics.

By comparing the results from its students with the results from other consortium schools, WAC/WID programs may find evidence of their success or of a need for more support that they can present to their internal funding sources.

Individual departments and colleges can use the CSWC data to better understand the writing practices of their undergraduates. Individual departments, colleges, and other units can isolate the data for their students and examine their writing practices. A special analysis from NSSE (for a fee) could compare students in a major from your school with similar students from other schools in the consortium.

How will joining the CSWC benefit our first-year writing program?

CWC results will provide first-year writing programs with an overview of the writing students are doing in all their first-year courses. Although students are asked to respond concerning their total experience during the year, first-year writing programs can make some inferences about what’s happening in the programs’ writing courses. For example, if students say that they rarely or never brainstorm, the program may infer that its own instructors are not succeeding in teaching students to use this process.

How will joining the CSWC benefit writing assessment at my school and nationally?

The CSWC question set may provide data that can be used to proactively shape conversations about writing assessment on their campuses and beyond. Specifically, it may help address several important and timely issues in writing assessment, including accountability, transparency, and comparability. (Learn more . . . .)

What are the CSWC writing questions about?

The full set of 27 CSWC questions supplements five questions about writing on NSSE’s regular survey. They fall into four groups.

• Students’ writing processes. Eight questions ask students how often they brainstorm, receive feedback from other students, use a writing center, and perform other elements of the writing process.
• Types of writing students do. Nine questions ask students how often they write certain kinds of documents, such as summaries and multimedia projects.
• Instructors’ ways of assigning and supporting student writing. Eight questions ask students how often their instructors explain grading criteria in advance, ask students to peer review, or follow other common advice about helping students learn from their assignments.
• Students’ writing plans. Two questions ask if they plan to create an electronic portfolio and they plan to writer or co-author something for publication.

What writing questions does the regular NSSE survey include?

The regular NSSE survey asks five writing questions.

• During current school year, about how many papers have you written that were 0-4 pages, 5-19 pages, and 30+ pages? [three questions]
• During current school year, how often have you prepared two or more drafts of a paper before turning it in?
• To what extent has your experience at your institution contributed to your ability to write clearly and effectively?

Where can I find the question set?

You can get a PDF of the set of 27 questions at http://comppile.org/wpa+nsse/docs/27_Question_Supplement.pdf.

Can my institution add questions to the set?

No. All member institutions of a consortium agree to use the identical question set.

How was the question set developed?

It was developed through a multi-year collaboration between NSSE and the WPA. The WPA collaborators included more than 70 professors with expertise in writing program administration, writing across the curriculum, writing in the disciplines and writing-center theory and practice. Before and during the 2007 WPA Conference, these WPA collaborators created over 100 questions that were collapsed, refined, focus-grouped and finalized by a smaller team. More information about the development of the question set can be found on WPA/NSSE web pages (which are wrangled, designed, and maintained by Glenn Blalock at CompPile.org).

Can my school use the CSWC questions for its own survey?

Yes. Any school can adopt or modify these questions for a survey it administers on its own. Of course, your school’s data would not be analyzed by NSSE and your school’s data will not become part of the consortium’s comparison-group data. If you do use the survey, please cite Charles Paine, Robert Gonyea, Paul Anderson, Chris Anson, “Continuing the WPA-NSSE Collaboration: Preliminary Analysis of the Experimental Writing Questions and Next Steps” Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference, 11 July 2008, Denver, Colorado.

What will my school receive?

Your school will receive a detailed report for all of the regular NSSE questions and for the additional 27 CSWC writing questions. For each question, you will receive the number and percentage of your school’s students who chose each response as well as the average response. You will also receive the same information for three comparison groups. One comparison group will be the other schools in the CSWC consortium. The other two are selected by your institution from among all institutions that participate in NSSE 2009. In addition, the report will indicate whether there is a statistically significant difference between the mean response from the students at your school and from the students in the three comparison groups.Your school will also receive a data set, including student identifiers, which contains all responses from it students for both the regular NSSE items and the CSWC writing questions.What kinds of analyses can my school do with the results?

The possible analyses might be grouped into four sets. All will provide information of value.

• Non-statistical analyses. Most schools depend solely on studying the statistical results provided by NSSE. Examining the responses to each question, they determine how well they believe their students’ responses compare with the school’s own standards and with the three comparison groups. With respect to the CSWC questions, for instance, your school could see how often your students said they wrote assignments where they argued a position using evidence or how often they talked with an instructor about a writing project before they began drafting.
• Basic statistics. Using the data set provided by NSSE, you could compare the results from various subgroups of students according to such demographic characteristics as their sex, ethnicity, and academic major. This sort of analysis could be conducted by your school’s Institutional Research Office or by anyone (even a student employee) who has a basic knowledge of SPSS, SAS, or other statistical package.
• Correlations. Because your school will have the complete data set from its students, it will be able to examine possible correlations that responses to one question or set of questions might have with another question or set of questions. Moreover, you will be able to look for correlations between questions between questions on the CSWC questions and questions on the regular NSSE survey. For example, you could determine whether students who visited the campus writing center a great deal (CSWC question) also reported greater gains in writing (a regular NSSE question). In addition, because the data set you receive will identify the responses by each specific student, you will be able to look for correlations between CSWC responses and other data your school has about students in its own database. Some correlational studies are simple enough that students in majors that use statistics could perform them. Others will probably require the help of your Institutional Research Office or other statistical advisers.
• Exotica. There are lots of other possibilities that persons with expertise in statistics can tell you about.

Where can I learn more about understanding NSSE data?

Several helpful resources are available at NSSE’s Webinar Archives, especially “Getting Down to Basics: Working with your NSSE Data,” a two-hour introduction to NSSE, its data, and uses. You could also read the 14-page PDF “Using NSSE Data.”

Also, if enough schools participate in the consortium, NSSE will conduct a webinar devoted to interpreting the CSWC survey results. The webinar will take place in October of 2009 (about three months after you will have received your data from NSSE) and be produced and hosted by Associate Directors of NSSE Bog Gonyea and Jillian Kinzie. This will be a free live webinar that you can participate in real time or view later.

How much does it cost to join the CSWC consortium?

The fee for consortia participation is based on overall undergraduate enrollment:

Fewer than 4,000 4,000 to 7,999 8,000 to 12,000 More than 12,000

$200 $300 $400 $500

How much does NSSE cost?

Details about NSSE costs are available at the NSSE FAQ webpage for institutions.

What is a NSSE Consortium?

As NSSE explains on its website, “A NSSE consortium is a group of six or more colleges or universities participating in NSSE the same administration year that want to ask students additional questions that will follow the NSSE core survey.[…] You can see the diverse functions of NSSE consortia since the survey's inception in 2000.”

Can my school join both a state system and a consortium?

It depends. If you belong to a state system that asks additional questions, then you cannot join a consortium. If the state systems does not ask questions, then you can. To find out if your state system asks additional questions, email Chuck Paine (cpaine@unm.edu) or consortium coordinator Dan Bureau (consorti@indiana.edu). (Learn more about NSSE consortia, systems, and comparison groups.)

What are consortia, "comparison groups," and "systems," and how do they differ?

Systems and consortia are kinds of comparison groups. All consortia ask additional questions; some systems ask additional questions; ordinary comparison groups do not ask additional questions. Institutions register with systems and consortia in the fall before the NSSE administration; they select comparison groups in May, after the NSSE administration. (Learn more about NSSE consortia, systems, and comparison groups.)

Why does NSSE restrict an institution to just one consortium?

This strict NSSE rule is designed to prevent "survey fatigue." Each consortium uses an additional question set. If students were asked to complete two additional question sets, many might feel overburdened or might give up.

To join the CSWC consortium, does my school have to participate in NSSE?

Yes.

Are these questions available for community colleges who administer the CCSSE?

They could be but currently are not. The CSWC is a NSSE consortium, and only baccalaureate-granting institutions can administer the NSSE. CCSSE (Community College Survey of Student Engagement) is administered out of the University of Texas and also allows for consortia (http://www.ccsse.org/aboutccsse/groups.cfm). If CCSSE or its participating institutions wanted to begin a similar consortia, they could use these questions.

How can my school see what other schools have signed up?

Yes. The list of participating schools is regularly updated at the ”NSSE 2009 Consortia” webpage. You can also email the CSWC coordinator, Chuck Paine.

What if my school is scheduled to administer NSSE in 2010 rather than 2009?

Many schools participate in NSSE every other year or every third year. The CSWC consortium has been established for one year only. However, it could be renewed if there is sufficient interest. Email Chuck Paine for more information.

What is the procedure for registering?

Institutions will be sent an invitation to register in the consortium on or after September 5, 2008. Speak with the person at your school in charge of NSSE enrollment.

When is the signup deadline?

Institutions need to enroll in the consortium by October 5, 2008.

How can I persuade my school to join NSSE?

More than 1,300 baccalaureate-granting colleges and universities have participated in NSSE, including 769 in 2008 alone. The benefits of joining are too numerous to discuss here. (Learn more . . . .)

 

Email one of the following people with your questions.

• Chuck Paine (cpaine@unm.edu), Coordinator of the Consortium, is an associate professor of English at the University of New Mexico. He’s the consortium factotum. Write to Chuck with general questions. If he can’t answer your question, he’ll direct you to the person who can.
• Paul Anderson (anderspv@muohio.edu), Consortium Collaborator, is Professor of English and Director of the Roger and Joyce Howe Center for Writing Excellence at Miami University (Ohio).
• Chris Anson chris_anson@ncsu.edu), Consortium Collaborator, is University Distinguished Professor of English and Director of the Campus Writing and Speaking Program at North Carolina State University. Chris is a national leader in WAC/WID and assessment.
• Dan Bureau and Tony Ribera (consorti@indiana.edu) serve as managers for the consortium process. They can answer questions about consortium policies and registration.
• Client Services Project Associates: Each institution is assigned two project associates who work as a client services team to provide support during your NSSE administration. You can view your institution’s project associates at http://nsse.iub.edu/html/staff.cfm.
• Client Services Manager Jennifer Brooks (brooksjl@indiana.edu) manages client services and can direct your question to the appropriate person at NSSE.

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