National Survey of Student Engagement—Winter/Spring 2009
The
National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) assesses the institutional
learning environment for undergraduates, focusing on the nature and quality of
student experiences. Items on the NSSE measure
the degree to which student engage in educational behaviors and practices that
are empirically related to desirable educational outcomes, such as learning
gains, personal development, persistence, and graduation.
In
order to represent students at the early and late stages of their college
careers, the survey sample at each participating school includes both
first-year students and seniors.
Portland State University (PSU) participated in the NSSE during winter
and spring of 2009.
The average response rate across institutions participating in the
NSSE was 36%. At PSU, 745 of the 4,987
students included in the sample responded to the survey, for an overall
response rate of 15%. This report
summarizes the PSU survey results for freshmen and seniors and compares them to
results at other urban universities[1]
(UUs) and at other Carnegie Peers [2]
(CPs). All reported differences are
statistically significant (p < .05).
The Executive Summary includes a brief overview of the findings
organized in relation to major initiatives currently underway at PSU. A
detailed review of the findings follows the Executive Summary.
Executive
Summary
At the Fall 2009 Convocation, Portland State President Wiewel reported
on planning, actions, and outcomes related to five institutional themes that
serve as a blueprint for PSU’s future: civic leadership through partnerships,
student success, global excellence, enhanced educational opportunities, and
improved institutional effectiveness.
The NSSE results provide a student perspective on how the institution is
performing in these areas and several NSSE items provide a means of tracking
the effect of the institution’s action plans on the student experience over multiple
administrations of NSSE.
Civic Leadership through Partnerships
Student Success
NSSE
assesses student behaviors, experiences, and practices that are empirically
related to desirable outcomes and therefore many of the survey items inform
Similarly,
PSU students rated the quality of advising they receive as “fair” to “good”,
but their average ratings were lower than those of students at other
institutions. In addition, PSU students
reported that they talked with faculty members or other advisors about career
plans less frequently than either UU or CP students did.
A
second indicator of student success is how well students achieve institutional
learning goals. Many items on the NSSE
measure pedagogically-sound practices that lead to deep learning, and the
instrument specifically includes a section in which students indicated how much
their experience at their institution has contributed to their knowledge,
skills, and personal development in a variety of ways, many of which map onto
the recently adopted
Global Excellence
One
area of emphasis under this theme is pursuing diversity and
internationalization goals for students.
In general, PSU students reported having occasional discussion with
students who hold diverse religious beliefs, political opinions, or personal
values, or who are from diverse racial or ethnic backgrounds. They also reported incorporating diverse
perspectives (different races, religions, genders, political beliefs) into
class discussion or assignments “sometimes” or “often”.
PSU
students felt that their education had contributed to their understanding of
persons from diverse racial or ethnic backgrounds “some” to “quite a bit” and
that PSU offers “some” to “quite a bit” of encouragement for contact among
students from different economic, social, and racial or ethnic
backgrounds. However, seniors at
Two
NSSE items are directly related to
Enhanced Educational Opportunities
Improved Institutional Effectiveness
One
way to enhance institutional effectiveness is through improving the campus
climate. PSU students’ ratings of the
quality of relationships with faculty and administrative personnel were lower
than those of students at other institutions.
PSU students felt they received less support than other UU or CP
students did for succeeding academically.
Additionally, they felt their institution placed less emphasis on
supporting their social and non-academic responsibilities than did UU or CP
students.
Report
of Findings[3]
Overall
Satisfaction & Evaluation of Educational Experience
Overall, PSU students rated their satisfaction with their
educational experience
and the quality of academic advising as fair to good (M = 2.88 and M = 2.55 respectively, on a
4-point scale where 1 = poor, 2 = fair, 3 = good, and 4 = excellent). They indicated that they would probably
attend PSU again if they could start over (M = 2.92, using a 4-point
scale where 1 = definitely no, 2 = probably no, 3 = probably
yes, and 4 = definitely yes).
Compared to student ratings at peer institutions, however, PSU student
ratings were less favorable on these items, as shown in Figures 1, 2 & 3.
Academic
and Intellectual Experiences
Respondents
indicated how often they participated in academic and intellectual experiences
using a 4-point scale (1 = never, 2 = sometimes, 3 = often,
and 4 = very often). PSU students
worked most often on papers or projects that required the integration of ideas
and information from various sources (M = 3.21). Other frequent classroom activities included
discussing ideas from readings or classes with others outside of class (M
= 2.94) and asking questions in class or contributing to class discussions (M
= 2.93). Students reported that they
frequently used e-mail to communicate with an instructor outside of class (M = 3.14).
Academic
experiences that involved interaction with faculty included discussing grades
or assignments with instructors (M = 2.58), working harder than students
thought they could to meet instructor standards or expectations (M =
2.54), and receiving prompt feedback from faculty on academic performance (M
= 2.60). Students reported that they sometimes
talked with faculty members outside of class about class readings (M = 1.82) or career plans (M = 1.92). Student rarely worked with faculty on
activities other than coursework (M =
1.51).
Frequent
forms of interaction with other students included conversing with students from
diverse ethnic backgrounds (M = 2.59) or with students who hold diverse
religious or political beliefs, opinions or values (M = 2.60). In addition, PSU students worked often with
other students on projects during or outside of class (M = 2.55 & M
= 2.54 respectively).
As shown in Figure 4, PSU
seniors more frequently engaged in many academic and intellectual practices
when compared to freshmen. In particular,
seniors more frequently integrated ideas from different courses or sources to
complete projects, participated in community-based projects, and discussed
career plans with an instructor or advisor.
Seniors were also more likely than freshmen to use electronic media
(e.g., Internet, instant messaging, e-mail) to discuss or complete assignments
and to communicate with instructors. PSU
freshmen were more likely than seniors to include diverse perspectives in class
discussions or assignments (M = 2.97 & M = 2.85
respectively), prepare multiple drafts of papers (M = 2.61 & M =
2.38 respectively), and work with classmates on projects during class (M =
2.62 & M = 2.50 respectively).
PSU seniors differed from other UU
or CP seniors on 17 academic and intellectual practices; in most cases, PSU
seniors reported engaging less frequently in these practices compared to UU or
CP seniors. On only three items, PSU
seniors reported more frequent activity than students at peer
institutions. PSU seniors engaged more
frequently than UU or CP seniors in community-based learning projects as part
of regular coursework, use of electronic media to discuss or complete
assignments[4],
and discussions of their readings or assignments with others outside of classes
(see Figure 5).
PSU freshmen differed from other UU or CP freshmen on 13
academic and intellectual practices. For
half of these items, PSU freshmen reported engaging more frequently in these
practices than students at peer institutions.
When compared to UU or CP freshmen, PSU freshmen more frequently
made class presentations, included diverse perspectives in class discussion or
writings, and worked with other students during class and outside of class[5]. PSU freshmen were less likely than other
freshmen to talk about career plans with an instructor or advisor, use e-mail
to communicate with instructors; and work harder than they thought possible to
meet instructor expectations. (See
Figure 6.)
Critical
Thinking, Reading
Respondents
used a 4-point scale (1 = very little, 2 = some, 3 = quite a
bit, and 4 = very much) to estimate how much their coursework emphasized
five mental activities corresponding to levels of critical thinking. PSU students indicated that “quite a bit” of
their coursework emphasized analyzing the basic elements of an idea,
experience, or theory (M = 3.19),
applying theories or concepts to practical problems or new situations (M = 2.97), and synthesizing and
organizing ideas into more complex interpretations and relationships (M = 2.96). Freshmen and seniors had similar ratings of
the emphasis PSU places on these critical thinking activities.
When
compared to students at peer institutions, PSU students reported less emphasis
on rote memorization, however, they also reported less emphasis on making
judgments about the value of information, and applying theories in new
situations. Seniors at PSU also reported
that their coursework emphasized synthesizing and organizing ideas,
information, or experiences into new, more complex interpretations less than
seniors at CP and UUs. (See Figure 7.)
Respondents
rated the amount of reading and writing they accomplished during the current
school year using a 5-point scale (1 = none, 2 = fewer than 5, 3
= between 5 and 10, 4 = between 11 and 20, and 5 = more than
20). On average, PSU students read between
five and ten assigned textbooks, books, or book-length packets of course
readings (M = 3.33), whereas they read fewer than five unassigned books
on their own (M = 2.36).
PSU
students wrote brief papers (i.e., fewer than 5 pages in length) most frequently
(M = 3.22). They wrote fewer than
five short papers or reports (i.e., 5 to 19 pages in length) (M = 2.48)
and fewer than five long papers or reports (i.e., 20 or more pages) (M =
1.47). Students also worked on fewer
than five long (i.e., take more than an hour to complete) or short (i.e., take
less than an hour to complete) problem-based homework assignments (M = 2.65 and M = 2.36 respectively). PSU
students read more books for enjoyment and wrote more brief papers when
compared to UU or CP students. In
addition, PSU seniors read more assigned text books, books or packs of
course-readings than UU or CP students did (see Figure 8.)
In
a typical week, PSU freshmen work on two to three problem sets that take longer
than an hour to complete and two or three more that take less than an hour to
complete (M = 2.70 and M = 2.67 respectively, using a scale
where 1 = None, 2 = 1-2, 3 = 3-4, 4 = 5-6, 5 = More than 6). This is on par with freshmen at UU and CP
institutions[6]. PSU seniors work on long problem sets (M = 2.61) more frequently than short
ones (M = 2.12). PSU seniors were similar to UU and CP seniors
in the number of long problem sets they worked on, but PSU seniors worked on
fewer short problem set than UU and CP seniors did (M = 2.36 and M = 2.42
respectively).
PSU
students also described how much their exams challenged them to do their best
work using a 7-point scale (1 = Very little to 7 = Very much). The ratings of both freshmen (M =
5.15) and seniors (M = 5.27) at PSU were lower than those of other
students (M = 5.41 for freshmen and M
= 5.44 for seniors at UU; M = 5.39 for freshmen and M = 5.43 for seniors at CP institutions).
Learning
Outcomes
Respondents
rated the extent to which their college education contributed to their knowledge,
skills, and personal development using a 4-point scale (1 = very little,
2 = some, 3 = quite a bit, and 4 = very much). PSU students indicated that their college
education contributed the most to their ability to think critically and
analytically (M = 3.14) and to their broad, general education (M
= 2.99). Students also rated PSU
education highly for contributing to their ability to write clearly and
effectively (M = 2.88), to work effectively with others (M =
2.89), and to use computing and information technology (M = 2.93).
PSU
seniors more than freshmen felt that their college education had contributed to
their broad, general education (M = 3.04 and M = 2.88, respectively) and work-related knowledge and skills (M
= 2.68 and M = 2.40, respectively). Freshmen were more likely than seniors to
indicate that their experiences at PSU had contributed to their understanding
of people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds (M = 3.67 and M = 2.48, respectively) and their voting
in elections (M = 2.50 and M =
2.32, respectively).
PSU
students indicated that their college education had contributed least to
helping them develop a deepened sense of spirituality (M = 1.56) and a
personal code of ethics (M = 2.35).
These results do not mean that PSU students lack a sense of spirituality
of ethics; instead, these results indicate that students did not feel that PSU
contributed to these aspects of their personal development, regardless of
individual levels of growth in these areas.
PSU
students rated their institution’s contribution to their education and personal
growth lower than students from UU or CPs did, with few exceptions. Freshmen and seniors at
Enriching
Educational Experiences
The
survey items pertaining to enriching educational experiences asked students to
report past or expected future participation.
Therefore, seniors were more likely to report past actual behavior and
freshmen were more likely to report a mix of past actual behavior and predicted
future behavior on these items.
The
majority of PSU students reported that they participated or expected to
participate in culminating senior experiences (88.6%); practica, internships,
or field experiences (75.4%); and community service or volunteer work (81.2%)
before graduating. Fewer PSU students
participated or expected to participate in independent study or self-designed
majors (20.5%), study abroad programs (37.5%), or research projects with
faculty members outside of course or program requirements (33.2%).
NSSE provides statistical
comparison among peers based only on the percentage of respondents who
indicated they have “done” each activity.
Therefore, this measure has greater relevance for seniors (who have had
more time to participate in these activities than freshmen have. Despite this, both
As
shown in Figure 11, more PSU seniors than other UU or CP seniors participated
in a senior culminating experience.
However, fewer PSU seniors participated in research projects with
faculty outside of course requirements and in practica, internships, or other
field experiences when compared to UU or CP seniors.
Use of Time
Student
use of time is likely to be related to the number of classes in which they
enroll; the NSSE samples included both full- and part-time students. Possible differences in student load within
groups, between class levels, and among PSU, other UUs, and CPs were not
factored into the reported responses, but should be kept in mind when
interpreting the results.
Students
used an 8-point scale (1 = 0 hrs, 2 = 5 or fewer hrs, 3 = 6 –
10 hrs, 4 = 11 – 15 hrs, 5 = 16 – 20 hrs, 6 = 21 – 25 hrs,
7 = 26 – 30 hrs, and 8 = more than 30 hrs) to estimate the hours
they spend during a typical week engaging in a variety of activities. On average, PSU students spent the most hours
preparing for class (M = 4.38), relaxing (M = 3.59), and working off campus (M = 3.33). They spent the fewest hours working for pay
on campus (M = 1.87) and participating in co-curricular activities (M
= 1.76).
PSU
seniors were more likely than freshmen to spend time preparing for class (M
= 4.44 and 4.23, respectively) and working for pay on campus (M = 1.90
and 1.70, respectively) and off campus (M = 3.87 and 2.76,
respectively). They also spent more time
than freshmen providing care for dependents who live with them (M = 2.66
and 1.85, respectively). PSU freshmen
spent more time than seniors participating in co-curricular activities (M
= 1.90 and 1.67, respectively) and relaxing or socializing (M = 4.00 and
3.34, respectively).
PSU
students are generally similar to their PC and UU peers in how they spend their
time, with a few differences. Both PSU
freshmen and seniors spend less time on co-curricular activities than CP
students and more time commuting to classes.
PSU seniors spend more time that CC or CP peers preparing for
class. In addition, PSU seniors spend more
time than seniors at other UUs working for pay on-campus and less time working
for pay off-campus. (See Figure 12.)
College Support Environment
PSU
students used a 4-point scale (1 = very little, 2 = some, 3 = quite
a bit, and 4 = very much) to rate the extent to which PSU emphasized
a supportive college environment. PSU students
indicated that PSU emphasized using computers in academic work (M = 3.40) and spending significant
amounts of time studying (M =
2.90). They reported that PSU placed
less emphasis on helping students cope with non-academic responsibilities such
as work and family life (M = 1.81) or
providing support for students to thrive socially (M = 1.93).
More
freshmen than seniors experienced
Students
experienced a less supportive environment at
Quality
of Relationships
Respondents
rated the quality of their relationships with people at their school using
7-point scales (1= unfriendly, unsupportive, sense of alienation to 7 = friendly,
supportive, sense of belonging). On
average, PSU students were neutral to favorable in their ratings of other
students, faculty, and administrative personnel. PSU students indicated that their
relationships with other students were somewhat friendly and supportive (M
= 5.02). They described faculty members
as somewhat available, helpful and sympathetic (M =4.93). PSU student ratings of administrative
personnel and offices were more neutral (M = 4.21). PSU freshmen and seniors were similar in
their ratings of relationships with faculty and staff and students. PSU students made less favorable ratings than
UU or CP students of their relationships with other students, faculty[7],
and administrative personnel. (See
Figure 14 for seniors’ ratings.)
Conclusions
The
results of the NSSE indicate the extent to which students are engaged in good educational
practices and what they gain from their college experience. Items on the NSSE ask about student behaviors
that correlate with positive learning and personal development outcomes of
attending university. PSU students were moderately satisfied with
their educational experiences at
For
more information about these results and future administrations of NSSE, please
contact Juliette Stoering, Office of Institutional Research and Planning,
503-725-3427, stoeringj@pdx.edu.