WHAT HAPPENED! STUDENTS TELL US WHY THEY DIDN’T PARTICIPATE IN NSSE

1. WHAT HAPPENED!STUDENTS TELL US WHY THEY DIDN’T PARTICIPATE IN NSSE Institutional Research Teresa Ward, Ph.D.

2. Goal • Increase the response rate by 10 percentage points • High of 38% in 2003, but hovering around 25% in the years leading up to 2011 • Launch a major publicity campaign around NSSE !!! Result: Decreased by 8 percentage points Institutional Research

3. Traditional Flyers and Posters • Motion Graphics (Buses and monitors) • Websites • PAWS • Social Networking • Incentives Institutional Research Overview of the University Relations’ Publicity Campaign

4. Emphasize: • What students say really matters • Highlight the importance of the survey • Highlight the incentive Institutional Research

5. Institutional Research What Happened? Survey Question: “Spring semester, GSU administered the NSSE (National Survey of Student Engagement). It is one of the most important surveys that the university conducts in the spring. Our response rates were very low (even with the chance to win a new iPad2). If you did not participate in the survey, please share your reasons so that we can better understand how to encourage students to participate in important university surveys in the future.” 985 responses

6. The Number One Reason: Email Spam/Junk Mail “The student email inbox is constantly flooded with junk mail that does not pertain to the student. So, when an email is received by a student in their student inbox, it is automatically thought of as junk mail.” “As a matter of safety, I don't follow unsolicited email links. I would have been happy to participate had the email come from a recognized source.” “I may have received an email from the University, but I get so many that I often delete them without even reading them. Also, the subject lines of emails are often too long to get a general idea of what the topic is when you check your email on your phone (which many people do these days).” Institutional Research REASONS WHY THEY DID NOT PARTICIPATE

7. Too Many Surveys! “As a graduating senior, I have been bombarded with surveys, donation requests, and numerous other things that involve me having to fill out and take time out of a schedule where there is no time to give.” “GSU students are hit for so many different surveys for so many different things. We have a lot of other things to do than fill out millions of surveys from the school.” “Outside and inside of school I get a lot e-mails about surveys, so it's not necessarily that easy to discern which ones are very important and applicable to me or other students.” Institutional Research

8. The Number Two Reason: Not Aware of the Survey (16.2%) “I've never heard of this survey or I would have taken it.” “I didn't even hear about it. If I did hear about it is possible that I could have forgotten.” And the Flyers/Posters? “I personally just forget about it after I see the flyers.” “If there were flyers around campus, I probably just ignored them”. Institutional Research

9. Too Busy! “With all of the responsibilities I've had as an incredibly busy graduating senior, the last thing I have time to do is complete a survey that isn't required. It really came down to prioritizing tasks, and something like that goes at the bottom of my list, regardless of the possible reward.” Who Really Cares! “Past surveys, which we are required to fill out at the end of every semester, seem to go unnoticed. It is important that students do feel their voices are heard and what we say makes a difference. No wonder no one wants take ANY survey. In order to be encouraging we have to really feel that things will change instead of wasting our time.” “Most students don't think that these surveys are even read, and their opinions don't matter to the decision makers anyway. The reason being, most students don't see any of the results.” Institutional Research

10. Other Reasons: Technical (Access Issues) “I think I heard of it once, was going to fill it out, but then it was so complicated to do it or get to it, that I just said forget it.” Length of Survey (Too Long) “The survey is too long, it is very hard to put that into my schedule.” Timing of Survey (Spring Semester) “There is so much going on in the final semester surveys fall to the back burner and get lost in the shuffle of preparing to graduate.” General Lack of Interest

11. The Number One Recommendation (10%): Make the Survey Mandatory Institutional Research “If a survey is important enough it will be required by the school. In the case of the NSSE it was not a requirement to graduate. If GSU feels that this survey is important enough, they will require it as part of the curriculum.” “Maybe have the survey pop up when students are using a computer in the library...insisting that they take it immediately if they wish to continue to use that computer.” Recommendations for Increasing Response Rates

12. The Number Two Suggestion (9.2%): Involve Professors “I wasn't aware of the survey. Now that I think of it, I saw the flyers but I was never spoken to about it. I am a marketing major and we always talk about how we are bombarded with print ads all day and we ignore many of them. Having professors speak about things like these would be very helpful because our focus is on school and many of us do not pay attention to much else while we are on campus.” “I think it should be disseminated through the professors as to how important the survey is because they are the people who have the most contact with the students.” Institutional Research

13. Incentives: “I would recommend guaranteed incentives (discounts, gift cards, tickets to a Braves or Hawks game), not 'a chance' to win an iPad2.” “I don't like survey's and instant gratification is a must, therefore add food, drink and entertainment and you might get an increase in responses.” “Offering a discount at the book store might work. A coupon that could be redeemed at the end of the survey might encourage more participation. If students think they can save a little money on practical things, they might participate more willingly.” “MONEY. Offering students fancy gadgets sounds nice, but honestly, money sounds MUCH better.” Institutional Research

14. What Did We Learn? • Posters and flyers are not effective. • Social media had little impact. • Library screen savers helped. • Emails originating from GSU regarding NSSE were helpful, but emails from NSSE were ignored. • Drawings for expensive items were “too good to be true.” • The email subject line is critical. Institutional Research

15. What We Will Do Next Time • Engage the faculty. • Solicit support from student leaders. • Advertise on main web page early in the semester. • Continue library screen savers. • Everyone receives an incentive. • Most important, revisit the policy around student emails and surveys. Institutional Research

16. Considerations for NSSE • Timing of the survey • Length of the survey • Most important, reconsider how NSSE is administered Institutional Research

17. Teresa Ward, Ph.D. Sr. Research Associate Office of Institutional Research Georgia State University tward@gsu.edu Institutional Research