All freshmen and all seniors
Watch for an invitation in your email, February 9th
So VCU and your major department can learn what you see as strengths and weaknesses
Every student who completes the survey will be entered into a drawing for one of the six prizes - iPod Touch 8GB or Xbox 360 4GB
The National Survey of Student Engagement is a survey specially designed for students like you to provide information about your undergraduate experience, including your views about the quality of your education and how you spend your time. The survey has a broad scope, with hundreds of colleges and universities of all types and sizes participating each year. But the main reason VCU is participating is so they can learn more about what freshmen and seniors think and do. This information will enable VCU to improve the undergraduate program.
At VCU, every first-year student and every senior is invited to take the survey.
Simply put, VCU needs to know what you think of your undergraduate experience, the kinds of activities in which you engage, and how you are benefiting from your studies. Without this information, it's not very easy for your faculty and staff to identify the areas that can and should be improved.
Unlike many other surveys, the National Survey of Student Engagement has a real chance of making a difference in terms of how people at VCU use the information. There is great interest in this study for two reasons. First, VCU chose to participate; it wasn't required. This means there are people who want to see the results. Second, there are numerous people who would like to know how well your school is doing - prospective students, their families, alumni, and others. So, your answers - after they are combined with those of your classmates - will be read with interest by a wide variety of people.
All VCU students who have completed NSSE no later than noon, April 15, will be entered into a drawing. The names of three freshmen and three seniors will be drawn. Winners will be contacted via campus email address on Friday, April 15. Prizes will be distributed on a first-come first-serve basis. Prizes unclaimed by noon on Thursday April 21st will be submitted to an additional drawing.
Absolutely not. Your identity is kept secret. No person is able to find out your personal answers.
The Focused Inquiry Program and the department you are majoring in will be able to examine the information in different ways, such as learning about the experiences of women and men or the experiences of students in different major fields. With this information, the University and academic departments can identify areas where the student experience can be improved. In other words, the more VCU knows about it your experiences and what you think of the University, the more likely it is that faculty, academic and student life administrators and others can take appropriate action.
VCU will also use the information in reporting to external authorities, such as regional accrediting agencies, which are responsible to the general public for assuring quality in higher education. Additionally, the information will be of keen interest to prospective students as it reveals what you and other students do and think of your VCU education. Perhaps the most important is for VCU to learn about you and your classmates, and where it should focus attention to improve.
No. Each year, hundreds of schools are involved in the survey. This is an annual study, so the information you provide will become part of a database that researchers will be able to use to compare your responses with those students in the future. These studies will look at the collective experiences of undergraduate students, not individuals.
You've heard the expression, 'think globally, act locally’? This is a national project with immediate local implications; thousands of students are getting the same survey. And people will be interested in what undergraduate students as a group think about their education. But it's also important that VCU finds out directly from you about your experience and then share what it learns through comparisons with other colleges and universities. This will give your faculty and administrators an answer to the question: 'How well are we doing?'
The project is located at Indiana University and is directed by Alexander C. McCormick. The Center for Survey Research at IU, directed by John Kennedy, administers the surveys. These people are supported by dozens of others who help design, package, mail, and collect the surveys and then analyze and report the results to your school and the other participating colleges and universities around the country. These people were originally asked by a philanthropic organization, The Pew Charitable Trusts, to do this study.