Creating Readable, Meaningful and Actionable NSSE and FSSE Reports
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), found a way to disseminate their NSSE and FSSE results in an easy-to-read, meaningful format that engaged a range of campus entities. In fact, FAMU’s inclusive use of NSSE and FSSE results was a hallmark of the institution’s comprehensive approach to assessment that distinguished them as a 2020 Excellence in Assessment Designee.
FAMU’s approach to sharing NSSE and FSSE results exemplifies the importance of tailoring reports and using data to inform productive campus conversations. Specifically, their Office of University Assessment created two reports, “Results of the 2017 National Survey of Student Engagement” and “Comparative Analysis of the 2017 NSSE and 2018 FSSE” based off their NSSE 2017 and introduction to the NSSE and FSSE, a comparative summary of student engagement results, population demographics of the faculty, select item comparisons, and a thematic summary of open-ended items. The executive summary concisely identifies major highlights from the report and indicates how the responses of FAMU’s first-year and senior students compare to those of other institutions. Highlights include that FAMU first-year students and seniors perceived higher levels of engagement with faculty when compared to other students from institutions in the Peer and Aspirational category, Carnegie Classification category and NSSE 2016 & 2017 aggregate. The NSSE & FSSE results show that faculty perceived students to spend considerably less time preparing for class and more time in leisure activities; while students conversely reported that they spent considerable time preparing for class and less time in leisure activities, resonated with several campus audiences. These selected findings quickly helped campus partners identify how they compare to other peer institutions, and the combined NSSE & FSSE results showed areas of congruence and misalignment in perception between faculty and students.
The reports also explain the Engagement Indicators and High-Impact Practices and highlighted the select item comparisons for the five questions on which first-year and senior students scored the highest and the five questions on which they scored the lowest relative to students in the comparison group. The combined NSSE & FSSE report discussed how the comparison results contain a great deal of information; but rather than analyzing and reporting all items, the report intentionally highlighted key indicators of areas of growth or improvement as reported by both faculty and students.
These reports provide a great summary of FAMU’s NSSE and FSSE results and provide a model for other campuses as they work to share their results and engage campus partners in using evidence to improve.
