Enhancing Student Success in a Vibrant and Supportive Learning Environment Part II: Using NSSE Resul - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 44
About This Presentation
Title:

Enhancing Student Success in a Vibrant and Supportive Learning Environment Part II: Using NSSE Resul

Description:

Liberal Arts. California State, Monterey Bay. Macalester College. Sweet Briar College ... leadership and service; and (4) cultural, intellectual, and arts events. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:102
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 45
Provided by: jillian6
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Enhancing Student Success in a Vibrant and Supportive Learning Environment Part II: Using NSSE Resul


1
Enhancing Student Success in a Vibrant and
Supportive Learning EnvironmentPart II Using
NSSE Results at the University of Alberta
  • Alexander C. McCormick
  • Jillian Kinzie
  • NSSE Institute for Effective Educational Practice
  • www.nsse.iub.edu
  • May 14, 2009

2
The NSSE Challenge
  • How might the U of A more effectively use data
    about quality in undergraduate education to
  • provide evidence of student learning,
  • motivate and inspire effective educational
    practice,
  • strengthen the learning environment?

3
Reflective Moment
  • Take a look at the NSSE instrument. What items
    might you want to know how your students score?
  • - what comparison group (to peers at other
    similar institutions, among faculty/departments,
    criterion reference) is compelling?
  • What items do you want to know more about what
    students responses really mean?
  • What does prompt feedback mean to students?
  • What assignments do students think require them
    to synthesize ideas?

4
What to Do? Localize Findings
  • Variation in levels of student engagement within
    the university is greater than variation between
    universities
  • Improvement initiatives might best be designed
    and implemented at the department faculty level
    to maximally impact overall student engagement on
    campus.

5
Study effective practices
  • Teaching Learning Center at University of
    Wisconsin-Stout interviewed students to develop a
    more contextualized understanding of student
    engagement results
  • TLC staff distilled a list of effective
    educational practices from the interview data,
    particularly around the most important factor to
    their students student-faculty relationships.

6
Focus on desired pedagogy
  • First-year students less involved in
    service-learning than JMU desired.
  • Workshops conducted to encourage faculty to adapt
    courses to include service learning
  • Studied change in participation of students and
    instructional practice

7
Explore students learning experiences
  • NSSE and CIRP pointed to problems with first year
    students academic engagement, but WTAMU desired
    more holistic picture of students experience
  • Conducted Student Engagement Audit Focus Groups
    2 focus groups per college to discover what
    faculty and students found educationally engaging
    and identify classroom experiences that were
    engaging and disengaging

8
Converting Results to Action
  • Assessment information should be actionable
  • If assessment doesnt help improve teaching and
    learning activities and ultimately, student
    success why bother with it?
  • However, implementing large-scale,
    transformational change in colleges and
    universities is difficult

9
Sharing Results at U of A
  • How have you shared NSSE results and other
    information about the quality of the
    undergraduate experience in your unit?
  • What results captured the interest of faculty
    members and staff?
  • How have you used results?

10
Levels for Thinking about Acting on NSSE Results
  • Institution
  • Explore institutional performance, use in quality
    assurance reports, strategic planning, retention
    studies inform institutional initiatives such
    as, space planning, first year experience
    programs, learning communities etc.
  • School/College or Department/Faculties
  • Examine variation by department faculties
    inform discipline-specific practices
  • Program, Project or Course
  • Influence pedagogy, support services, programs
    for targeted groups, co-curricular events

11
Institutional action
  • What institutional action is needed at U of A to
    improve the quality of the student experience? To
    improve retention and graduation rates?
  • What educational practices best illustrate the
    vision Dare to Discover?
  • What does a vibrant
    learning environment
    look like?

12
Findings from NSSE and AACU
  • Growing evidence that high-impact practices
    provide substantial educational benefits to
    students

13
Effective Educational Practices
  • First-Year Seminars and Experiences 
  • Common Intellectual Experiences
  • Learning Communities
  • Writing-Intensive Courses
  • Collaborative Assignments and Projects
  • Science as Science Is Done
    Undergraduate Research
  • Diversity/Global Learning
  • Service Learning, Community-Based Learning
  • Internships
  • Capstone Courses and Projects

14
Learning More about High Impact Activities
  • NSSE Explored
  • Learning Communities
  • Service Learning
  • Research with a Faculty Member
  • Study Abroad
  • Culminating Senior Experience

15
What is it about these high-impact activities
that appear to be so effective with students?
  • Practices Increase Odds That Students Will
  • Invest time and effort
  • Interact with faculty and peers about substantive
    matters
  • Experience diversity
  • Get more frequent feedback
  • Discover relevance of their learning through
    real-world applications

16
Promise ofStudent Engagement
If faculty and administrators use principles of
good practice to arrange the curriculum and other
aspects of the college experience, students
would write more papers, read more books, meet
with faculty and peers, and use information
technology appropriately, all of which would
result in greater gains in such areas as critical
thinking, problem solving, effective
communication, and responsible citizenship.
Kuh, Kinzie, Schuh, Whitt Associates, Student
Success in College, 2005
17
What does an educationally effective university
look like?
  • Project DEEP
  • To discover, document and describe what high
    performing institutions do and how they achieved
    this level of effectiveness.

18
Project DEEP Schools
Higher-than predicted NSSE scores and
graduation rates
  • Doctoral Extensives
  • University of Kansas
  • University of Michigan
  • Doctoral Intensives
  • George Mason University
  • Miami University (Ohio)
  • University of Texas El Paso
  • Masters Granting
  • Fayetteville State University
  • Gonzaga University
  • Longwood University

Liberal Arts California State, Monterey Bay
Macalester College Sweet Briar College The
Evergreen State College Sewanee University of
the South Ursinus College Wabash
College Wheaton College (MA) Wofford
College Baccalaureate General Alverno College
University of Maine at Farmington
Winston-Salem State University
19
DEEP Results Conditions to Promote Student
Success
  • Living Mission and Lived Educational
    Philosophy
  • Unshakeable Focus on Student Learning
  • Environments Adapted for Educational Enrichment
  • Clearly Marked Pathways to Student Success
  • Improvement-Oriented Ethos
  • Shared Responsibility for Educational Quality

20
Lessons from Project DEEP
  • Living Mission and Lived Educational
    Philosophy
  • Missions, values, and aspirations are transparent
    and understandable.
  • Sustained widespread understanding and
    endorsement of educational purposes.
  • Complementary policies and practices tailored to
    the schools mission and students needs and
    abilities.

21
Living Mission
  • Macalester College students, faculty and staff
    understand and articulate the Colleges core
    values of academic excellence, service,
    multiculturalism and internationalism. These
    values are enacted in the curriculum and
    co-curriculum.

22
Lessons from Project DEEP
  • Unshakeable Focus on Student Learning
  • Student learning and personal development are
    high priorities.
  • Extensive use of engaging pedagogies
  • Faculty and administrators challenge students
    with high standards Work with the students we
    have, in contrast to focusing only on the best
    and the brightest
  • Make time for students

23
Ample applied learning opportunities
  • CSUMB requires all students to complete a lower
    and upper-level service learning experience. The
    capstone experience requires students to connect
    their project to community needs and reflect on
    how will you act on what you know?

24
Lessons from Project DEEP
  • Environments Adapted for Educational Enrichment
  • DEEP schools make wherever they are a good place
    for a college!
  • Connected to the local community in mutually
    beneficial, educationally purposeful ways.
  • Buildings, classrooms, and other physical
    structures are adapted to human scale.
  • Psychological size fosters engagement with peers,
    faculty and staff.

25
U of Kansas Digital Environments
Technology-enriched learning
  • Faculty make large lecture classes engaging via
    PowerPoint, Blackboard software, and other
    technology including slides and videos, and
    interactive lecturing, which incorporates
    various opportunities for students to
    participate.

26
Lessons from Project DEEP
  • Clearly Marked Pathways to Student Success
  • Mutually reinforcing student expectations and
    behavior, institutional expectations, and
    institutional reward systems.
  • Redundant early warning systems and safety nets
  • Clear messages to students about the resources
    and services available to help them succeed and
    clear expectations for their use.

27
Socialization to academic expectations
  • At Wheaton, new students read a common book
    and essays by faculty that respond to the
    reading. Assigned readings, faculty responses,
    and the website combine to introduce incoming
    students to preferred ways to grapple with
    intellectual issues.

28
Intentional acculturation
Rituals and traditions connect students to each
other and the institution
KUs Traditions Night. 3,000 students gather
in the football stadium to rehearse the Rock
Chalk Chant, listen to stories about the Jayhawk,
learn the Im a Jayhawk school song, and hear
stories intended to instill students commitment
to graduation
29
Intentional acculturation
  • Miamis First Year Experience (FYE) brings
    coherence to the first-year by linking (1) Miami
    Plan Foundation courses taught by full-time
    faculty (2) optional first-year seminars (3)
    community living options that emphasize
    leadership and service and (4) cultural,
    intellectual, and arts events.

30
Lessons from Project DEEP
  • 5. Improvement oriented ethos
  • Self-correcting orientation
  • Positive restlessness
  • Continually question, are we performing as well
    as we can?
  • Decision-making informed by data
  • We know who we are and what we aspire to.

31
Lessons from Project DEEP
  • 6. Shared responsibility for educational quality
  • Leaders articulate and use core operating
    principles in decision making
  • Supportive educators are everywhere
  • Student and academic affairs collaboration
  • Student ownership
  • A caring, supportive community

32
Difference Makers
  • Student success is the product of thousands of
    small gestures extended on a daily basis by
    caring, supportive educators sprinkled throughout
    the institution who enact a talent development
    philosophy.

33
To Ponder
  • What institutional action might
    U of A consider given its student engagement and
    success results?
  • Which conditions from DEEP institutions might be
    useful to consider at U of A?
  • How do community members students, faculty,
    staff, others describe the institutions
    physical setting and appearance? To what extent
    do they identify a vibrant, supportive
    environment for learning?

34
DEEP Practice Briefs
  • DEEP Practice Briefs - Promoting Student
    Success Series 16 Papers available
    www.nsse.iub.edu
  • Kuh, G.D. (2005). What campus leaders can do.
    Occasional Paper No. 1.
  • Kinzie, J. (2005). What faculty members can do.
    Occasional Paper No. 6.
  • Chickering, A.W. Kuh, G.D. (2005). Creating
    conditions so every student can learn. Occasional
    Paper No. 3.
  • Kezar, A. J. (2005). The importance of shared
    leadership and collaboration. Occasional Paper
    No. 4.

35
Faculties - Department Action
  • School/College or Department/Faculties
  • What are the signature learning experiences
    in your faculty?
  • To what extent are these reflected in your NSSE
    results?
  • Which educational experiences could be enhanced?

36
(No Transcript)
37
Focusing on Engaging Practice at U of Alberta
  • Exercise for faculty
  • Which activity listed in NSSE question 1 if
    increased would lead to greatest learning and
    development for U of Alberta first-year students?
    for 4th years/seniors?
  • What can your department or you do to influence
    this item?

38
Active Collaborative Learning and
Student-Faculty Interaction
  • Active Collaborative Learning (ACL)
    appreciation of varied learning styles
    experience in collaboration, working with others
    is desired learning outcome
  • Student-Faculty Interaction (Stu-Fac) important
    to stretch students thinking get feedback on
    performance connect to adults on campus not
    just about AMOUNT but quality - no research shows
    more contact is better.
  • ACL Stu-Fac represent dimensions that faculty
    can do something about in class,
    department-level, to increase engagement

39
NSSE Results and the First Year Experience at U
of A
  • First year students experiences with active and
    learning
  • 23 FY never asked questions
  • 51 FY never made a presentation in class
  • 28 FY never worked with peers on projects in
    class
  • The good news 4th year-seniors do these things
    to a greater degree, but how might you expose
    students to these engaging practices earlier in
    their career?

40
Active and Collaborative Learning
  • Reinforce academic engagement outside the
    classroom
  • University of Michigan, George Mason and UTEP
    sponsor writing centers, science centers, math
    centers to help students connect with peers and
    study in groups. Students are advised, and in
    some courses, required to use these services to
    complete assignments.

41
Program, Project, Course
  • Dare to Discover
    Create exceptional experience for students
    through curricular extra-curricular offerings
    that integrate learning, discovery, and
    citizenship
  • Service-learning experiences rare
  • FY and 4th year/seniors report high levels of
    institutional emphasis on spending significant
    time studying
  • FY and 4th year/seniors report low levels of
    institutional emphasis on attending campus events
    activities

42
Dare to Discover A Vision for a Great
University
  • Vibrant and supportive learning
    environment
  • Create exceptional experience for students
    through curricular and extra-curricular offerings
    that integrate learning, discovery, and
    citizenship
  • Engage students through peer-based activities to
    inspire and improve retention and success

43
For discussion
  • Which engaging teaching practices interest you?
    What might you do differently in your own
    practice to increase student engagement? To
    realize the vision of Dare to Discover at U of A?
  • Identify 1 student behavior to be changed. Note
    how the behavior is to be changed and indicate
    how you will determine if it has.
  • Identify 1 faculty behavior to be changed
    (preferably your own behavior!)

44
Improvement Positive Change
  • Implementing large-scale, transformational change
    in universities is difficult start in units,
    faculties
  • Link data to develop a solid foundation for
    action.
  • Improvement begins in small ways so start
    something!
  • Evaluate effectiveness of action. Celebrate and
    tweak.
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com