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National Survey of Student Engagement 2013

CU-Boulder is participating in the 2013 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). The NSSE is designed to provide data that colleges and universities can use to improve undergraduate education. The survey, administered by a team at Indiana University, gathers information from freshmen and seniors about college experiences, skills acquired during college, and academic and non-academic activities.

The 2013 NSSE is the inaugural administration of "NSSE 2.0," the first major revision of the NSSE questionnaire since its initial administration in 2000. Compared to NSSE 2012, 23% of the 2013 questions are new, and 22% are unchanged; 27% of survey items were substantially changed, and 28% of items were modified slightly. To maintain the overall length of the survey, some items were deleted.

CU-Boulder customized its 2013 NSSE administration to include a topical module of 13 questions on "experiences with writing" and participation in the Association of American Universities Data Exchange  NSSE Consortia, which administered 13 optional questions to students as part of NSSE.

More than 620 four-year colleges and universities are participating in NSSE 2013. NSSE invited 1.6 million students to take part.

Data collection for NSSE 2013 at CU-Boulder began on February 12, 2013, when invitations to submit a NSSE survey were sent to a random sample of 3,797 CU-Boulder new fall 2012 freshmen and 3,437 seniors. The sample comprises half of the eligible freshman and senior populations. Email messages were sent to students on the following schedule:

• Invitation:         February 12, 2013
• Reminder 1:     February 20, 2013
• Reminder 2:     February 28, 2013
• Reminder 3:     March 12, 2013
• Final reminder: April 2, 2013

Our NSSE 2013 data collection closed on May 1, 2013.

• Of the 7,234 students invited to fill out a survey, 47 (29 freshmen and 18 seniors) declined to participate and one senior did not have a valid email address. Of the remaining 7,186 students, 1,915 submitted a survey, for an overall response rate of 26.6%.
• Response rates were comparable for freshmen (25.6%; 965/3768) and seniors (27.8%; 950/3,418).
• The 2013 response rate is lower than for CU-Boulder's 2009 participation in NSSE (35%) but somewhat higher than the average 2012 participation rate for institutions with enrollments of 10,000 or more (21%).

The spring 2013 administration of NSSE overlapped with the Seniors' Future Plans Survey, which was distributed to graduating seniors. Response rate for that survey was 47%, and preliminary findings are posted at http://www.colorado.edu/pba/surveys/senior_plans/13/index_preliminary_20130508.htm.

NSSE will deliver its Institutional Report to CU-Boulder and make the data file available to us in August 2013. We anticipate posting findings from our analyses in October 2013.

CU-Boulder also participated in national administrations of the NSSE in 2000, 2002, 2006, and 2009. For information on those earlier surveys, please see National Survey of Student Engagement 2009 and our list of cyclical PBA surveys.

Last revision 05/16/13