National Survey of Student Engagement, 2008

Results from the 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement

Each year randomly selected freshmen and seniors at hundreds of colleges and universities complete the National Survey of Student Engagement. The NSSE survey captures information about how much time students devote to learning, how involved they are in best learning practices, and how fully challenged and supported they feel by their college.

NSSE reveals:

How much freshmen and seniors study and how else they spend their time
How much and what kind of assignments and intellectual activities their classes require
How much contact they have with faculty members
How often they take advantage enriching activities like study abroad, service learning, or student government
How they grade their own progress in key areas of knowledge and skill
How satisfied they are with their educational experience

NSSE results are summarized in five key benchmark scores:

Academic Challenge: The importance of academic effort and the level of expectations for student performance on campus
Active and Collaborative Learning: Teamwork, problem solving, and preparation for dealing with messy, unscripted issues
Student-Faculty Interaction: Faculty members as mentors, guides and role models, not just as lecturers
Enriching Educational Experiences: Opportunities to enhance learning through community engagement, diversity, study abroad, projects, etc.
Supportive Campus Environment: Quality of relationships with students, faculty and staff; support for academic and personal aspects of college life

Table 1. NSSE 2008 Benchmark Scores: Auburn University first-year students compared with peer universities' first-year students

	Auburn	Doc/Highest & Higher			NSSE Top 50%
*Benchmark*	*Indexed Mean^a*	*Indexed Mean^a*	*Sig.^b*	*Effect size^c*	*Indexed Mean^a*	*Sig.^b*	*Effect size^c*
Academic Challenge	87	93	***	-0.23	100	***	-0.55
Active Learning	84	85		-0.06	100	***	-0.46
Student-Faculty Interaction	84	82		0.04	100	***	-0.34
Enriching Experiences	86	93	***	-0.17	100	***	-0.32
Supportive Environment	95	90	***	0.15	100	***	-0.20

Table 2. NSSE 2008 Benchmark Scores: Auburn University seniors compared with peer universities' seniors

	Auburn	Doc/Highest & Higher			NSSE Top 50%
*Benchmark*	*Indexed Mean^a*	*Indexed Mean^a*	*Sig.^b*	*Effect size^c*	*Indexed Mean^a*	*Sig.^b*	*Effect size^c*
Academic Challenge	89	92	***	-0.15	100	***	-0.49
Active Learning	90	87	*	0.09	100	***	-0.33
Student-Faculty Interaction	87	82	**	0.12	100	***	-0.30
Enriching Experiences	82	87	***	-0.14	100	***	-0.49
Supportive Environment	94	87	***	0.23	100	***	-0.19

Notes:

^a Means weighted by gender, enrollment status, and institutional size, then scaled (Mean of Top 50% = 100).

^b * p<.05, **p<.01, *** p<.001 (2-tailed).

^cEffect size is Cohen’s d, the standardized difference between the institution’s mean and the comparison group’s mean, calculated by dividing the mean difference by the pooled standard deviation.

AU scores based on 1,445 responses (29% response rate), with a sampling error of 2.3%.

Click here to see a comparison of Auburn's 2008 benchmark scores with those of national best performers.

Click here to visit the NSSE site.

Last updated: 03/09/2018