Communications, assessment, and senior leadership from the Division of Student Life at the University of Toronto (U of T) seek to share information on the success and influence of the university’s educational programs. Although increasing student participation in High-Impact Practices (HIPs) is a major goal for the institution, presenting data in a way that inspires interest and change among educational units has been challenging. Through new, compelling data visualization techniques, however, NSSE data have been used to show the relationship between participation in HIPs with student satisfaction and engagement and to generate interest in and conversation about HIPs across campus.
Figure 10 links HIP participation to responses to the survey question, “If you could start over again, would you go to the same institution you are now attending?” Results indicated a small increase in affirmative responses among first-year students who participated in one HIP (5%). However, the affirmative increase among seniors who participated in at least two HIPs was substantial (18%) compared to seniors who participated in none. Simply put, seniors who participated in at least two HIPs were more satisfied with their university than those who did not participate at all in HIPs. Reimagining these data in a new, succinct display allows educators to clearly understand this relationship and creates an enticing narrative for stakeholders to articulate the value of these educational programs.
Figure 11 displays more detailed differences in engagement between seniors who participated in at least two HIPs and those who did not participate in a HIP. The results of this analysis indicate increases in each of the ten NSSE Engagement Indicators for seniors who participated in HIPs, particularly in areas of student-faculty interaction, collaborative learning, and quantitative reasoning. The layout of this display is easy to grasp and clearly communicates the message that students who participate in HIPs are more engaged than those who do not. Also, the image allows the viewer to easily understand the degree to which HIP participation increases student engagement for each of the indicators. This neat and simple graphic of a seemingly complex relationship clarifies a key point: Students who participate in HIPs are more engaged.
With design support from their communications team, senior leaders in the Division of Student Life at the University of Toronto have shared these visualizations and data across the university—with individual departments, faculty members, registrar staff, librarians, and student life staff. As a result of these new data formats, campus conversations about the implementation of HIPs have grown broad and deep. The visualization of these data present a robust case for the importance of HIPs, moving educators past “Why do them?” to “How can we best do them?”
