On Feb. 13, 2020, the first invitation for the National Survey of Student Engagement [NSSE] was sent to students at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse via email. 

The survey is designed for feedback from first-year students and seniors. Recently, response invitations have been extended to sophomore- and junior-level transfer students.  

“We try to focus on an entry point, and then as students are leaving,” said University Assessment Coordinator at UWL Patrick Barlow.  

There are three main parts of the engagement survey.  

“One is a standard set of questions which ask students about their academic activities in the classroom, how they spend their time during a typical week, things related to the skills they are getting from their UWL education, and some other interesting questions about the quality of their relationships with various groups of people on campus like staff, faculty, other students,” said Barlow. 

“The second set of questions we added specifically to look at high impact practices and the quality of those experiences for students. For example, the survey asks about students who have participated in research with a faculty member,” said Barlow. “This extra set of questions is designed to dig into those experiences.  

“The third part is related to academic advising that focuses on the relationship between student and advisor,” said Barlow  

The survey only takes about 15 minutes for students to complete. 

“All in all, not a lot of student time but of great value to the University,” said Barlow. 

After receiving the results, the University then sends them to different departments on campus, presenting and providing some sense into what that means for making improvements on campus. 

“We will be getting the reports in August and putting them together to send to faculty and staff groups on campus to guide their work,” said Barlow. “A lot of the questions do relate to academics and students interacting with faculty so we do report to the Faculty Senate. We also send a report to the Student Life Office Directors, and in 2017 we also sent a report to the Student Government.” 

Those who respond to the survey before March 13 will be automatically entered to win one of 40 $25 gift cards to the University Bookstore.