Applying NSSE Results in Assessment, Accountability, and Accreditation
Georgia State University (GSU) first participated in NSSE seeking an assessment instrument that would go beyond student satisfaction and help measure student engagement in curricular and co-curricular activities. GSU has administered NSSE six times to date and triangulates findings from NSSE with other assessment instruments including BCSSE, FSSE, and the institution’s Survey of Recent Graduates. As a member of the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA), GSU uses NSSE data for its College Portrait. NSSE results are also used to inform GSU’s internal assessment of critical thinking and writing.
These assessment efforts provide GSU faculty, staff, and administration with a much broader understanding of student engagement—one that includes the perspectives of incoming students, first-year students, seniors who are graduating, and faculty. NSSE results are shared with and used by a variety of stakeholders. For example, the Office of Undergraduate Studies explores retention by comparing NSSE responses of those students who left the institution with those who are still enrolled. This comparison is part of an important initiative at GSU to develop a retention model based on both direct and indirect data.
GSU is also crafting a new comprehensive strategic plan focused on the advancement of undergraduate student success and seeks to become a national model for undergraduate education. NSSE data have informed the way the university has positioned itself as an institution whose students value diversity, academic achievement, and community and global engagement.
NSSE results were used in the preparation of GSU’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) for reaccreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), in 2008. The focus of the QEP was to increase undergraduate students’ critical thinking and writing skills in their major field of study. Upon review by the QEP Leadership Committee, NSSE data revealed that when compared to their Carnegie peers, GSU seniors wrote fewer short papers and felt their undergraduate experience did not contribute much to their critical thinking abilities. The committee found similar results from an internal survey administered each semester to recent graduates that measures learning outcomes and academic program satisfaction. These findings informed the final QEP, Critical Thinking Through Writing, which proposed targeted efforts to improve students’ critical thinking and writing skills in their major field of study.
