2010 National Survey of Student Engagement
Columbia’s performance among both freshmen and seniors has improved over time on all five scales of engagement reflecting the college’s Columbia 2010 strategic goal to become an exemplar student-centered arts, media, and communications college. (Enriching Educational Experiences among seniors is the one exception, that scale has remained essentially flat over time.)
The rate of improvement between 2004 and 2010 is greater for freshmen than for seniors across the five scales, reflecting the college’s focus in recent years on improving the first-year experience.
The difference in the freshmen and senior trends may indicate that the college has opportunities to carry improvements in the first-year experience through to graduation. (Nationally, senior scores are about 5 points higher than freshmen scores; the difference in Columbia scores is about 1.5 points.)
Improvements In Supportive Campus Environment and Level of Academic Challenge
Columbia has made the greatest improvements on the supportive campus environment and level of academic challenge scales. From 2004 to 2010, the scores for these two scales have improved markedly for both freshmen and seniors. These trends are consistent with the college’s student-centered approach which emphasizes demonstrated student learning outcomes and an active, holistic, student learning environment.
As of 2010, Columbia’s scores are close to the national averages at both class levels on the supportive campus environment scale. On the level of academic challenge scale Columbia outperforms the national average for freshmen and is essentially the same for seniors.
Improvements in Active and Collaborative Learning and Student/Faculty Interaction
Columbia has made significant improvements on the active and collaborative learning and student/faculty interaction scales among freshmen. These trends are particularly notable because of the known relationship between students forming bonds with other members of the college community and retention.
Columbia outperforms the national averages for active and collaborative learning, especially at the freshmen level. Columbia also outperforms the national average on student/faculty interaction for freshmen. The senior score on this scale is comparable to the national average.
Improvement Lagging in Enriching Educational Experiences
Enriching educational experience is the area in which Columbia has the greatest room for improvement. This scale includes learning experiences such as internships, community service, and research projects. Because providing these types of learning experiences is fundamental to student-centered learning, the college’s new strategic plan includes a specific commitment to improve undergraduate participation in research activities.
Between 2004 and 2010, the college made significantly less progress on the enriching educational experience scale among freshmen than on the other four scales. On average, Columbia’s freshmen performance ratings improved 6.4 points, but the college’s performance on this scale improved by only 3.3 points. Over the same period, the college’s senior score remained essentially the same.
Columbia underperforms the national average by 4 points at the senior level and matches the national average at the freshmen level.
This executive summary highlights the broad areas in which the college has improved its performance over the last six years. The summary also suggests areas in which the college can build upon its past success and one area, Enriching Educational Experiences, in which the college has some challenges.
The upcoming full report will provide additional information on the college’s performance on the five scales, including information about results on the individual components within each scale. Those results will help the college pinpoint areas for additional improvement in the Academic, Learning, Interaction and Environment scales, and can help the college develop strategies for tackling its challenges in the areas of internships, community service, and undergraduate research.
Introduction
In spring 2010, Columbia College Chicago participated in the National Survey of Student Engagement (N.S.S.E.), conducted by the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research. The N.S.S.E. is designed to assess the extent to which undergraduate students are involved in activities and practices that can be linked to levels of learning and development. The intent of the survey is to enable colleges to measure their educational effectiveness as well as identify strengths and weaknesses associated with the student educational experience. In addition to providing internal measures of effectiveness, N.S.S.E. also provides comparison results from national norms and selected comparison groups.
Methodology
The N.S.S.E. is a highly rated survey instrument with statistical reliability and validity, used by hundreds of colleges and universities nationwide. In spring 2010, the N.S.S.E. was completed by 360,600 students at 714 four-year colleges and universities. At Columbia College Chicago, the sample included 1,961 first-year and 1,163 senior year students. A total of 867 students responded to the survey, a 28% response rate.
In spring 2010, the college asked students to complete the survey via the web. The college assured students of the confidentiality of individual responses before taking the survey. To preserve the anonymity of student responses, the college did not collect names and it used student identification numbers for tracking purposes only. In addition, the college assured students that no sub-group analysis with less than five respondents would be released in order to ensure that individual responses could not be identified.
NSSE Benchmark Clusters
- Level of Academic Challenge
- Active and Collaborative Learning
- Student-Faculty Interaction
- Enriching Educational Experiences
- Supportive Campus Environment
