Assessment Matters 1/25/17

In this issue, Assessment Matters includes a reminder about the College’s new survey policy, news about upcoming surveys, and details about the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE).

Reminder about Meredith College survey policy
In the December 7 Campus Connections, we outlined the new Meredith College survey policy. In future, all surveys deployed to students, faculty and staff of Meredith College need to be directed through RPA. Please familiarize yourself with the policy by going to My Meredith>>RPA and scrolling down to “Requesting a Survey” to review the policy. A form requesting approval can also be located on the RPA’s My Meredith page or by clicking here.

Upcoming Surveys
We are preparing to deploy two surveys to students in spring. First is the annual Student Satisfaction Survey which will be available to all students towards the end of January. Thereafter, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) will be distributed to freshmen and seniors on February 8. This is a nationally normed survey in which we participate every three years. Both surveys provide important assessment and trend data, so it is important to encourage student participation. Thus, the RPA staff ask that you please encourage students to participate in both surveys, when you have the opportunity.

National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)
NSSE is a survey instrument designed to measure students’ participation in activities and programs that directly impact their educational experiences. NSSE results are used by Meredith to assess common learning outcomes and to benchmark our performance against that of peer institutions and other women’s colleges.  If you are interested in the NSSE trend data over the last many years, there is a summary available on the RPA MyMeredith site. RPA also provides reports to departments comparing students in that particular department to all students in other departments on campus. RPA can also generate other reports by specific sub-group. Please contact us if you have a particular request.

The last time Meredith participated in the NSSE was in 2014. Overall, our students reported high levels of satisfaction with their Meredith experiences. For instance both first year and senior students rated their levels of engagement with faculty significantly higher than those at other women’s colleges and peer institutions. 94% of seniors rated their Meredith College experience as “excellent” or “good” and 98% had participated in one or more High Impact Practice (defined as participation in an internship or field experience, research, service-learning, study abroad, and/or culminating senior experience), again higher than students reported at other women’s colleges and peer institutions.

–Submitted by Dianne Raubenheimer, Director of Research, Planning and Assessment