Results of VCU's "Meaning-making Retreat"

Of the National Survey of Student Engagement

September, 2002

In late September 2002, a group of 13 faculty, 17 staff, and 10 students met at the VCU Meeting Center over a Friday night and Saturday morning to consider the results of two years of VCU experience with the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE).  The charge given to the group was two-fold: What are our students telling us?  And, what does this suggest about what VCU should do?  A summary of the group's collective response to the first question is given here.  Attendees were asked to visit VCU's website on NSSE prior to the retreat and absorb carefully the data provided there, most especially the Institutional Benchmark Reports which compared responses of VCU students to those in two peer group institutions, urban universities and doctoral/research extensive universities, as well as the national sample as a whole, consisting of more than 300 institutions nationwide. 

NSSE is a national survey administered by Indiana University.  It was developed by a team of scholars familiar with the research on the most important characteristics of the college experience as they relate to student learning.  In general, the more "engaged" students are, the more they learn.  At NSSE, "engagement" has been defined as consisting of five categories: level of academic challenge, amount of active and collaborative learning, amount of student interaction with faculty, use of enriching educational experiences by students outside of the traditional classroom, and perceived level of campus support for student learning.  Items within each of these categories have been shown to have a significant relationship with measured student learning outcomes.   VCU had two years' worth of NSSE data to examine for the retreat.

At the retreat attendees were assigned to one of six discussion groups, each one a mix of students, staff, and faculty.  Each group had an opportunity to review results for all five NSSE categories, plus offer observations on the findings as a whole.  A summary of these conversations follows.

 Level of academic challenge

"Academic challenge" in this context refers to both the amount of effort required of students (e.g., "I worked harder than I thought I could to meet an instructor's standards or expectations"), and the complexity of the learning itself (e.g., "coursework involves making judgments about the value of information, arguments, or methods").  First-year students at VCU rank below those of both urban universities and doctoral/research extensive universities, while seniors are roughly equal to these benchmarks and to the national sample as a whole.  VCU freshmen are not assigned the same amount of coursework as their peers in other comparable institutions: they scored significantly lower in both the amount of reading assigned and the number of short and mid-length written papers required.  The retreat group interpreted these data as indicating that our diverse student body may present special educational challenges which are not easily overcome in the students' first year; and large classes and the widespread use of graduate student instructors make it more difficult to engage and challenge students, especially freshmen.

 Active and collaborative learning

Here again, an disparity exists between first-year students at VCU and their peers in other urban universities and doctoral/research extensive institutions, one which mostly disappears by the senior year.  The retreat group interpreted the data in this category to mean that due to the prevalence of large classes with traditional lectures, and a general lack of a sense of "community," VCU students are not experiencing a sufficient amount of active learning.  Two cautions are appropriate here.  First, while scores on items in this category were slightly lower than benchmark averages overall, the only single item that was significantly lower statistically was "worked with other students on projects outside of class to prepare class assignments."  This finding could be explained by the large percentage of nontraditional and part-time students at VCU, who often have little flexibility to meet with other students outside of class.  Second, both urban and doctoral/research universities as a group scored significantly lower on active and collaborative learning than the national sample as a whole.

 Student interactions with faculty

The frequency of student interaction with faculty was slightly lower for freshmen and slightly higher for seniors at VCU compared to our urban and research university peers.  None of the individual items reached statistical significance.  As in the previous category, our urban peer institutions as a group also scored lower than the national sample overall.  The retreat group noted several points of concern:

.                    Faculty are perceived as generally unavailable to students, and students perceive a faculty culture that supports this.

.             Large classes preclude meaningful interactions, and students may feel intimidated about seeking out faculty.

These concerns are borne out by specific items in this category.  Less than 50% of students reported receiving "prompt" feedback from faculty on their academic performance, compared to 60% of the national norm; more than three-fourths of freshmen and two-thirds of seniors had "never" worked with faculty members on activities other than coursework, compared to 63% and 55% for the norm group, respectively; more than half of freshmen and 40% of seniors had "never" discussed ideas from reading or classes with faculty members outside of class, compared to 45% and 28% of the national sample. 

 Enriching educational experiences

Of the five NSSE dimensions, this one generated the most positive results.  First-year students gave higher scores than any of the benchmark norms, including the national norm.  Seniors were positive as well, giving higher scores than urban universities, and nearly equal scores to both the "doctoral/ research extensive" norm and the national norm.  The retreat group pointed to the rich diversity at VCU as a probable source of this (sample item: "The campus environment encourages contact among students from different economic, social, and racial or ethnic backgrounds"), as well as the high-profile programs and activities geared toward freshmen.  This conclusion is supported by two items significantly higher for VCU than peer institutions: "had serious conversations with students of a different race or ethnicity than your own"; and "had serious conversations with students who differ from you in terms of their religious beliefs, political opinions, or personal values."  Still, the group noted that the scores were likely depressed somewhat by a lack of a "sense of community" at VCU and a lack of faculty involvement with students.  Fewer VCU seniors than those in other research universities, and NSSE seniors as a whole, had engaged in a "practicum, internship, or field experience" or engaged in "research with a faculty member outside course requirements." 

 Supportive campus environment

Student ratings of the items in this category, alone among the five         general markers of engagement, dropped between their freshman and senior years.  This is true not just at VCU but in all of the norm groups as well. Still, VCU students, both first-year and seniors, scored these items lower than benchmark urban universities, doctoral/ research extensive universities, and the NSSE sample as a whole.   While scores for VCU seniors were lower than those for freshmen, they dropped less than the norm averages.  The retreat group saw the results as pointing to a limited "sense of community" at VCU, a sense that VCU feels "disconnected."  These conclusions are supported by the data: First-year students score lower on quality of relationships with other students, with faculty members (to a statistically significant degree), and with administrative personnel and offices.  Freshmen also rate the quality of advising lower than do first year students at peer institutions.  Data improve to norm levels, or almost so, for seniors.  This suggests that either relationships improve over a student's career or that relatively more students unhappy with their connection to the institution leave before their fourth year.

 Overall observations

Student ratings of their experience at VCU overall are either at or below those of urban universities, doctoral/research extensive universities, and the entire national sample.  VCU seniors evaluate the adequacy of their general education and career preparation roughly on a par with peer institutions.  Both first-year students and seniors evaluate the quality of their entire educational experience as generally "good," about the same as other urban universities but below other doctoral/research extensive institutions, especially for freshmen.  VCU students' responses to questions specific to urban universities were similar overall to those given by students in other urban campuses: time spent on campus, extent of family and work commitments, and anticipated length of time to degree are all comparable. 

The retreat groups had these general observations: