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Measuring Student Success: The Value and Limitations of NSSE Chris Conway, Queen’s University

Measuring Student Success: The Value and Limitations of NSSE Chris Conway, Queen’s University HEQCO/MTCU/OISE Symposium on Defining and Measuring Student Success November 22, 2013. Overview

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Measuring Student Success: The Value and Limitations of NSSE Chris Conway, Queen’s University

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  1. Measuring Student Success: The Value and Limitations of NSSE Chris Conway, Queen’s University HEQCO/MTCU/OISE Symposium on Defining and Measuring Student Success November 22, 2013

  2. Overview • NSSE – The National Survey of Student Engagement – is a survey of undergraduates that measures a range of student behaviours and institutional practices that research has shown to beassociated with knowledge acquisition, skills development and personal growth (i.e. learning)

  3. It is a key component of success/outcomes/quality discussions and practices • MYA’s, strategic plan monitoring, academic program reviews, course-based evaluations (CLASSE), accreditations, external communications, the media, ... • But how well does it really fare as a student success metric? • Strengths • Weaknesses • Complexity of interpretation and application

  4. Strengths • Empirically and viscerally connects the dots between process and outcomes • Implementation options and priorities are reasonably clear, particularly with comparative data • It’s consistent with accepted approaches to accountability • It’s here-and-now

  5. Weaknesses • Results are not 1:1 prescriptive and therefore cannot predict specific LO effects or even identify specific LO dimensions • The most useful form of results (program- and student subgroup-level against single comparators), is cumbersome and requires a translator/intermediary • Theoretically stronger but politically weaker than certain hot button metrics (e.g. labour market outcomes) in measuring learning rather than the assumed impacts of learning

  6. Complexities • Program- and student subgroup-specific engagement dynamics • Actual vs. predicted engagement • Benchmark vs. component item behaviour • Individual institution vs. peer group comparisons • Few general statements about NSSE results are true

  7. The Context for Student Success Measures • Last week’s HEQCO blog by Tricia Seifert and others suggests a lack of consensus on what we mean by student success and how we should measure it • There certainly are lots of options, and NSSE seems to fill a useful role within an overall outcomes metrics framework

  8. Final Thoughts • There is no measurement panacea: student success requires multiple metrics because it is multi-dimensional; “certainty” emerges when all the metrics point in the same direction • Even direct outcomes measures (e.g. CLA) suffer limitations (particularly complexity) • NSSE is a guide – along with other tools - to navigating part of the LO landscape, recognizing that engagement doesn’t fully explain outcomes

  9. Measuring Student Success: The Value and Limitations of NSSE Chris Conway, Queen’s University HEQCO/MTCU/OISE Symposium on Defining and Measuring Student Success November 22, 2013

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