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National Survey of Student Engagement: CU-Boulder 2000

Encouraging findings

Course availability ranks highest for CU-Boulder and most other schools. This was surprising. Examination of the two items that comprise the scale show that they are answered on a 1-3 rating, with "1" being "none of the time" and "3" being "most of the time." Nearly all other scales are comprised of items measured on at least a 4-point scale. It is possible that the rating scale for the availability items, with only three levels, "forced" students to select the highest ratings category. However, it is equally possible that the results mean what they say: students believe their major and general education courses are available most of the time.

Students from all institutions rate IT/computer use and emphasis on complex cognitive skills high. On each of these scales, UCB falls squarely in the middle of the pack for seniors, and slightly below the middle for freshmen, as compared to other AAU institutions.

UCB freshmen have high ambitions for participating in study abroad. UCB freshmen are considerably more likely than freshmen at other AAU institutions to say they plan to study abroad; more than half are interested in doing so. Among seniors, only two schools outnumbered UCB in the percent of seniors who say they have participated in study abroad. For UCB, that percentage (24%) closely matches results derived from student records rather than self-report.

NSSE 2000 Table of Contents

Last revision 04/26/02

cb - l:\ir\survey\nsse\00\report\AAU_summary text2.doc, last updated 5/08/01