Making NSSE Data Part of a Systematic Assessment Approach
The University of California (UC) Merced is the first new American research university of the 21st century. NSSE was a part of the UC Merced assessment strategy beginning with its very first student body in the 2005-2006 academic year. In addition to fulfilling accreditation requirements, the administrators at UC Merced saw a need for data to track progress over time as both the students and the campus develop and grow—or formative feedback according to Nancy Ochsner, Director of Institutional Planning & Analysis.
Prior to beginning their positions at UC Merced, key administrators such as Ochsner had worked with NSSE data at other institutions. When they were hired by UC Merced and tasked with opening a new university, these administrators immediately turned to NSSE as a source of credible data to help them monitor student support services and encourage faculty to embrace a holistic view of students’ UC Merced experience. In particular, administrators involved in assessment and planning hope to use NSSE data to help faculty and staff understand the student experience and maintain effective academic and co-curricular connections with students. UC Merced has not yet received a Carnegie classification. In the future, the institution will be classified as a research university. However, for now, the ability to compare their institution with other institutions participating in NSSE is critical to UC Merced administrators. The customization of the peer comparison groups is particularly important as the institution grows and expands. They want to be able to benchmark UC Merced experiences both with research universities (mostly much larger) and with selective liberal arts colleges (more similar in size).
NSSE allowed the campus to define both groups for comparisons and, as UC Merced develops, they will redefine their comparison groups appropriately. UC Merced has received data from two past NSSE administrations and is participating again in 2009. Results already reflect the unique UC Merced student experience. For example, during the first academic year of operation, there were no classrooms on the campus and classes were held in the library as facilities were being built and opened for use. Responses to NSSE reflected that experience. NSSE responses also mirrored student responses to other surveys conducted by UC Merced, including the system-mandated University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES).
UC Merced administrators carried out additional analyses to further confirm that NSSE results reflected the student experience on campus. They disaggregated NSSE data using different demographics to understand the experiences of a number of selected groups such as first-generation and transfer students, students of different races or ethnicities, and students in different majors. UC Merced considers these analyses, made possible by using NSSE raw data, to be essential for an institution with such a diverse student body.
UC Merced has also made use of other NSSE resources, particularly the PowerPoint presentation included with the Institutional Report and research papers and presentations available on the NSSE website. These materials have helped administrators and staff make sense of the large amount of data returned to NSSE participants, and to share results with other campus audiences. In sorting through the data, Ochsner found it helpful to focus attention on effect sizes since there was so much information to process.
Thus far, UC Merced administrators have shared their NSSE data with senior administration, including the Chancellor’s Cabinet and various deans, and students, including the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Advisory Group. “The students at UC Merced get excited about the findings too,” Ochsner told NSSE staff. “The goal is to familiarize them with survey data,” she continued. Some next steps for Ochsner and other administrators involved in assessment include beginning discussions with faculty on using NSSE data and working on their partnership with the newly formed Center for Research on Teaching Excellence.
