Creative Survey Promotion
Anderson University (AU), a private university in Anderson, Indiana, has participated in six NSSE administrations, including the 2015 administration. In previous NSSE administrations, the campus offered incentives for NSSE participation, like a drawing for iPods and gift certificates. Their response rate was satisfactory, but not at the level the campus would have liked. So, in response to this, for the 2012 NSSE administration, the campus decided to take a new approach to survey incentives.
As they prepared for their 2012 administration, like many campuses, AU had already experienced budget cuts and so did not have much available spending for NSSE incentives. After some creative thinking, the campus decided to draw on their values as a smaller institution. With just over 2,000 undergraduate students, the campus embraces personal connections and relationships, so they decided to take a personalized approach to their NSSE incentive prizes. The revamped, personalized incentives were a huge success in 2012, with AU achieving a 62% response rate.
In preparation for their 2015 administration, the director of campus assessment decided to take the same approach. She reached out across the entire campus to solicit donations for incentives. The goal was to have every campus department and office participate and donate. Many offices committed to donate baskets of baked goods, breads, or cookies, which could be offered as incentives to the students. A faculty member who is a black belt in karate donated complementary karate lessons as a prize. A gourmet chef on campus donated a custom-prepared meal at the chef’s home for that student and a number of friends. Parking services donated a parking pass for the next term. Another prize was a personal “cake” day with an administrative department. Prizes were promoted on posters (see Figure 10) and were awarded weekly, at the required chapel on campus, via a drawing of students who have completed the survey. In addition to being less expensive than gift certificates and technology devices, these more personalized prizes emphasize the value of relationships engrained in the AU culture. Anderson’s quirky, customized incentives contributed to the institution’s high response rate.
