Using Data to Understand and Serve a Unique Student Population
Every institution is unique, with its own story to tell. While many schools may see NSSE as a comparative tool to measure themselves against similar institutions, Indiana University Northwest recognizes the need to contextualize their data in ways that help tell their story and make improvements to their campus. Located in Gary, Indiana, IU Northwest is a regional commuter campus within the IU system, serving approximately 3,800 students. As a commuter campus, how IU Northwest promotes the survey and what it looks for in the data, is distinct.
John Novak, assistant vice chancellor of institutional effectiveness and research, has found success partnering with others at IU Northwest, who then provide information and promote the survey to their deans, departments, faculty, and staff. Having moved away from paper flyers and closed-circuit television ads, their most effective forms of promotion have been online via the school’s LMS system on Canvas, the institutional website, and direct emails. In addition to receiving promotional messages about NSSE online, students who complete the survey also receive $3 added to their Crimson Card (a student ID and debit card for spending around campus). Recognizing that students respond well to receiving feedback early and often, incentives are provided at the end of each week instead of when the survey closes.
Instead of trying to change the behaviors of students whose lives are busy with competing priorities such as work and family, the need is about meeting students where they are—in the classroom.
IU Northwest faces challenges like other commuter campuses. The students tend to come to campus for classes only, and their NSSE responses reflect this. Students report lower co-curricular engagement and engagement outside of the classroom compared to peer institutions. But as John Novak has shared, rather than a deficiency, this indicates student engagement just looks different at IU Northwest. Instead of trying to change the behaviors of students whose lives are busy with competing priorities such as work and family, the need is about meeting students where they are—in the classroom.
Much of the focus at IU Northwest is on student-faculty interactions and course-based pedagogical initiatives to improve student engagement and performance. While co-curricular engagement may be low, IU Northwest students report positive interactions with faculty and fellow students in the classroom. Results like these assist in both acknowledging the work faculty put into creating an engaging classroom as well as finding areas for future curricular improvement. One area the institution is exploring is campus climate and cross-cultural development.
Recently classified as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, IU Northwest has a diverse student population. And while many may think having a diverse student population automatically means inclusion, NSSE results show there is room for enhancing diverse interactions. First-year students report lower interactions with diverse others compared to seniors. While IU Northwest is considered an urban campus, it also attracts students from rural and suburban locales. Many students come from segregated communities, and IU Northwest may be one of the first places they interact with students from another culture. It takes time to grow in this area and step out of your comfort zone as a student.
Even with this contextualized understanding of IU Northwest student engagement, there is still room to explore and understand what IU Northwest students need. Moving forward, John has plans to use NSSE data to examine the campus climate. This includes combining NSSE data with other survey and assessment data already available on campus as well as with data from focus groups—to shed light not only on students’ needs but also on the needs of the surrounding community of Gary.
