Sharing Results and Using Data for Quality Enhancement
The University of Texas at Tyler (UT Tyler) has made use of its NSSE data in a number of ways. During the 2014 faculty and staff convocation, the president highlighted NSSE results to show that the student-faculty interaction scores among first-year students at UT Tyler were significantly higher than those for any other UT System university, Carnegie peers, and all NSSE schools—supporting the university’s commitment to maintaining a 16:1 student-to-faculty ratio and its emphasis on student-faculty interaction. The president’s fall newsletter, distributed on campus and to the community-at-large, featured information from UT Tyler’s Snapshot report, the NSSE Institutional Report’s easily digested summary of key findings. Notably, the results reflected improvement in senior student scores over time. The newsletter reminded faculty and staff that student engagement increases a student’s likelihood of success and congratulated those whose efforts contributed to the institution’s improved results.
NSSE’s ten Engagement Indicators were included in program-level conversations at UT Tyler about assessment for ongoing improvements based on student feedback. The university also launched an initiative to fully document the use of high-impact practices (HIPs) in undergraduate education. Using assessment rubrics drawn from NSSE reports and HIP criteria and curriculum-mapping templates, the institution has been documenting course-related HIPs in each academic program. NSSE results have also been used in the campus’s strategic planning to increase levels of student engagement overall.
NSSE data were used to develop UT Tyler’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) for regional accreditation through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). During this process, NSSE results on diversity experiences captured the attention of faculty members and demonstrated a need for more cross-cultural exposure at UT Tyler. The data provided some evidence for the warrant in the QEP proposal, and the institution made the case that significant work could be done to develop students’ understanding of others’ opinions and beliefs as well as to focus on global and cultural education. To address these needs, the university developed the Global Awareness Through Education (GATE) program. After this initial use of NSSE data for the QEP rationale, for ongoing assessment of the QEP, GATE has continued to rely on NSSE results including a range of items focusing on discussions with diverse others, understanding someone else’s views by imagining how an issue looks from his or her perspective, and students’ level of interest in study abroad. For the specified NSSE items, GATE staff track responses and set goals for encouraging these educational practices. The results allow GATE staff to gauge the feasibility of the program to significantly impact the UT Tyler student population going forward. Preliminary results show an increase for all students in Discussions with Diverse Others, with senior responses higher than the average of all three peer groups.
NSSE results have provided UT Tyler evidence of educational effectiveness as well as needed indicators to plan, implement, and track improvement efforts.
