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From the issue dated November 14, 2003
Student 'Engagement' in Learning Varies Significantly by
Major, Survey Finds
By JEFFREY R. YOUNG
The amount of quality time that students spend with their
professors varies significantly, depending on a student's
major. Nationwide, business students report the least contact
with faculty members, while chemistry students report the most
student-faculty interaction.
Those are among the major findings of the latest National
Survey of Student Engagement (http://www.indiana.edu/~nsse/).
In its fourth year, the survey -- known as "Nessie," after its
acronym, NSSE -- covered 145,000 freshmen and seniors at 437
four-year colleges in the spring of 2003.
By measuring "engagement" -- how involved students are in the
material they study and in the learning process itself -- the
survey's organizers hope to provide a better measure of an
institution's quality than is offered by popular rankings,
like those of U.S. News & World Report.
A national summary of the results was released this week. Data
on individual colleges are not publicly released.
Participating colleges receive detailed reports about their
students' performance and how it compares with that at other
colleges, but many institutions refuse to release those
findings. That secrecy has drawn complaints from critics ever
since the survey began. For their part, college administrators
hope they can use their results to make changes that will
improve student engagement, although there is little evidence
that such changes have occurred.
Technology's 'Disturbing' Impact
In general, national averages did not vary significantly from
previous surveys, says George D. Kuh, director of the survey,
who is a professor of higher education at Indiana University
at Bloomington.
Mr. Kuh says the biggest surprises came from 18 new questions
about the impact of technology on learning. These questions
were asked only of the 60,000 students who filled out the
survey online. Of them, 87 percent said their peers had copied
and pasted material from the Internet into their academic
papers without proper attribution at least "sometimes." He
called that finding "more than mildly disturbing."
Eighty percent said their professors require them to use the
Internet for assignments, and 62 percent said they frequently
use e-mail to clarify assignments with professors. Mr. Kuh
says those findings suggest that technology is improving
student engagement.
The survey shows that students who participate in athletics
are at least as engaged in academics as others are. What's
more, freshman athletes are more likely to participate in
"active and collaborative learning" than their classmates.
"This goes against the so-called 'dumb jock' notion," says Mr.
Kuh.
Students at women's colleges are generally more engaged than
are students at other institutions, according to the survey.
Students at women's colleges report more interaction with
professors, more active and collaborative learning, and
greater levels of academic challenges than students elsewhere
do. Women at all institutions are typically more engaged than
men are, the survey found.
When it comes to grades, 41 percent of freshmen and seniors
reported earning mostly A's, and 42 percent said they earned
grades of mostly B or B+. Only 3 percent of students said they
get mostly C's or lower.
Some colleges have significantly lower indicators of
engagement than others. The survey report broke down the
collective performance of the 5 percent of colleges ranked at
the top, along with the national averages. For instance, 58
percent of students nationwide said they discussed readings
outside of class either often or very often; among colleges in
the top 5 percent on that item, the proportion was 68 percent.
About 1,300 students who took the NSSE survey in 2000 were
asked to take the survey again this year, which gave colleges
the chance to see how those students' experiences have changed
now that they are seniors. The students interacted more with
professors than they did as freshmen, they contributed
slightly more to class discussions, and they wrote more long
papers and gave more presentations than they had earlier. But
they also reported spending fewer hours per week studying than
when they were freshmen, and had fewer assigned readings.
Pilot Test for Professors
For the first time, professors on some campuses were asked to
give their views on their students' level of engagement -- a
pilot test of the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement, which
is to be conducted nationwide next year. About 14,000 faculty
members at 143 four-year colleges participated in the
experiment. On average, professors expected freshmen to spend
5.6 hours per week preparing for each class, though freshmen
said they spend only 3.4 hours per week doing so.
Eighty-five percent of the professors in the pilot study
reported that they encouraged students to use computers in
their academic work either "quite a bit" or "very much," while
only 16 percent said they do so "some" or "very little" of the
time. Forty-eight percent of the professors said they never
worked with undergraduates on research, while 38 percent said
they did so for one to four hours per week.
John N. Gardner, executive director of the Policy Center on
the First Year of College at Brevard College, in North
Carolina, says being able to compare the perceptions of
professors to those of students should produce powerful
insights in years ahead -- and not all of them positive for
professors, who are asked how long they spend preparing for
their classes.
"I suspect there are going to be a lot of red faces on this,"
says Mr. Gardner. "We're not used to this kind of external
scrutiny, especially that compares our behavior teaching."
But are the survey results leading to reform on campuses?
The survey's organizers point to a few colleges that have made
changes based on Nessie data, like improving
student-orientation programs. But most institutions are still
working to inform their constituencies about their campus's
results.
At Oregon State University, Rebecca A. Sanderson, director of
student-affairs research and evaluation, says she has
presented what she calls her "NSSE dog-and-pony show" to at
least 25 campus groups in the past year, based on the results
of last year's survey. She says she has not had time to see
how the university did on this year's survey.
"Some have been quite surprised by the results and kind of
mystified," she says. "One surprising piece was the sense that
students didn't feel as supported on campus as we would like
them to feel," despite a number of orientation and service
options offered by the university.
"It has certainly spurred some invigorating conversation," she
adds. "I think it has brought some things up to the surface
that sparked other conversations that may lead to some
changes."
Oregon State officials also shared the data with a group of 17
freshmen and asked them what they would do to improve student
engagement. The students, who are on a committee called
Student Leaders of Positive Innovation, presented their
thoughts to a group of senior administrators in May. Among
their suggestions: Reduce class sizes in required writing
classes, encourage professors to hold more office hours, and
improve academic advising.
So far only one of the students' suggestions has led to a new
policy -- the housing department plans to make changing rooms
in midyear more difficult, says Larry Roper, vice president
for student affairs.
Mr. Gardner, however, says the survey has helped remind
college leaders to think about what students are getting out
of college.
"Before the NSSE, the concept of engagement was not deeply
rooted in the thought process of the academy," he says. "But
it is now. NSSE is being used in the whole process of taking
assessment more seriously."
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Copyright 2003 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
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