Source: Inside Higher Ed via Academica | November 21, 2014
The results of the annual National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) were released on Thursday. 73 Canadian and 640 US institutions participated in the survey this year. Among the survey’s findings are that the number of meetings with an academic advisor was positively linked with perceptions of a supportive campus environment; however, one-third of first-year students said they rarely met with an advisor. Moreover, the survey found that the use of social media was common among institutions, but that institutions were less likely to use social media to provide students with information about educational or career opportunities, financial aid, or to allow students to connect with faculty. Approximately two-fifths of first-year students and one-third of seniors said that social media substantially distracted them from their coursework. The NSSE also revealed that the more time faculty spent trying to improve their teaching, the more time they spent engaging students in discussion, group activities, and experiential activities rather than lecturing. Institutional selectivity and enrolment size were not found to have a significant impact on student engagement or their experiences with faculty. This year’s survey also introduced questions on sleep habits, classifying 12% of students as morning students, 11% as evening students, and 77% as flexible.