‘Nessie’ provides good news/bad news of post-secondary performance

“Student engagement” as defined by NSSE is both the amount of time and effort students put into their studies and other educationally purposeful activities, as well as how the institution deploys its resources and organizes the curriculum and other learning opportunities to get students to participate in activities that decades of research studies have shown are linked to student learning.

Some good news:

• Two-thirds of all seniors are involved in community service and volunteer work, and 72 percent participate in internships. Forty-one percent reported doing community work or service learning as part of a class assignment.

• Nearly two-thirds of all students rate the quality of their academic advising as “good” or “excellent.”

• Half of all first-year students and seniors reported having serious conversations with students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

• “Teachers of the future”–seniors intending to teach within a year or two of graduation—show more engagement in college compared to students pursuing other vocations.

Some bad news:

• Many students spend only about half as much time preparing for class as faculty members claim is necessary. That tallies to about one hour of study for each class hour instead of two.

• Twenty percent of all students “frequently” come to class unprepared.

• Nearly half of all seniors do not write a paper of 20 or more pages during their last year of college. Nearly 18 percent of all first-year students had “never” made a class presentation.

• Nearly 45 percent of first-year students “never” discussed ideas from their classes or readings with a faculty member outside of class.