OSU Students, Make Your Voice Heard!
The National Survey of Student Experience (NSSE) is a survey administered to first-year and graduating college students across the United States, every three years. It's a way for you to share about your experience at OSU, and a way for OSU to listen and look for opportunities to make changes so we can better serve students!
Here’s how it works: for roughly one month, first-year and senior students are invited to complete the survey at OSU. Once the survey closes, results are sent to the NSSE team, who then compiles and returns the results back to OSU. This allows OSU to better understand how it is or is not serving students as compared to our peer institutions, and helps collect important OSU-specific information helping us know where to put our efforts to make changes for future students.
History
The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), first introduced in 2000, was developed as a measure of students' engagement in high impact educational practices. NSSE annually collects information at hundreds of four-year colleges and universities about first-year and senior students’ participation in programs and activities that institutions provide for their learning and personal development. OSU participated for the first time in 2002 and has since participated ten times.
General FAQ
NSSE is a nation-wide survey run from Indiana University which seeks to better understand the experience of first-year and senior college students around the country. Results are shared back with the participating home institutions. You can find out more about NSSE at this link.
NSSE is specifically designed to collect information at the beginning (first year) and end (graduating senior) of a student's time at college. If you fall into either of these categories, you will likely be eligible. If so, you will receive emails, will be assessed a task in your Beaver Hub, and will be added to a course in Canvas, which will all provide you with your unique NSSE link.
If you feel like you fall in to one of these groups and have not received an invitation, please reach out to Chris Gasser at [email protected].
NSSE collects the information you, the student, shares in the survey. At OSU, we want to know how we are doing, and we rely on your feedback. NSSE helps by collecting your feedback, processing, and sharing the information back to OSU. NSSE also collects information pertinent to accessing the survey, such as time, date, type of device, etc.
OSU receives the information you share with NSSE, from NSSE. We also use information about your survey completion status to stop sending you email invitations once you have completed the survey. We also use your completion status to determine if you are eligible to be entered into a drawing for incentives.
This is where your voice really matters!
NSSE results are regularly referenced when considering changes to the student experience. When thinking about adding, removing, or changing programming, we often look to NSSE data to help us understand the changes that can and should be made.
You can opt out of the survey by selecting the opt out option on the invitation. The link will be available within your unique NSSE survey.
You can access your specific NSSE survey by clicking the link in your NSSE email invitation, clicking the link in your Beaver Hub task, or by clicking the "NSSE 2024" course in Canvas. All three of these avenues will get you to the same place.
We use unique links from the NSSE to help ensure we have a broad and representative sample of the student groups invited to take the survey. It helps us to ensure each person who is invited to take the survey only participates once and helps to collect the most accurate information possible.
You can see additional information from previous NSSE surveys by accessing OSU's NSSE Resources page.
Please reach out to Chris Gasser, [email protected], with any additional questions about NSSE.
NSSE Dashboard
National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) results for OSU Corvallis and Cascades campuses are available in a CORE Report Dashboard. The NSSE survey asks first year and senior undergraduate students about their engagement in programs and activities. Dashboards present results for the 2021 and 2019 surveys. The NSSE dashboard can be accessed in CORE (report ID SSM0114).
For details, see NSSE Dashboard Presentation - University Student-Learning Assessment Council Winter 2023 Meeting
NSSE 2024 Findings:
Pocket Guide Report - Corvallis and Ecampus - (Link currently unvavailable.)
Pocket Guide Report - Cascades - (Link currently unvavailable.)
For additional information on 2024 NSSE findings, please contact Steve Wuhs (Corvallis and Ecampus) or Jane Reynolds (Cascade).