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Dear Colleagues,

At the Senate meeting in September, the President spoke about the importance of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) as a major source of data for York, and how we would, therefore, be actively promoting it to students this year. This Toolkit is part of that promotion and it shows what you can do to increase participation rates.

NSSE is a widely recognized tool for collecting data about academic quality that allows universities to benchmark measures of engagement, both within their own university and in comparison with other institutions. The survey results help us measure what we do well and what we need to improve, particularly in relation to enriching the student learning experience. More engaged students improve retention and student success.

NSSE is one of the key data-gathering exercises we participate in as an institution and it has been listed by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities as a potential system-wide metric. To get good data, however, we need higher participation rates.

In 2011, York’s overall NSSE participation rate was 17 per cent – the lowest of any Ontario university. Our goal for 2014 is to increase this rate to 35 per cent, which is consistent with the 2011 participation rates of our principle competitors – Ryerson University and the University of Toronto – and with the Ontario average.

Once the data are available in fall 2014, we will share them with Faculties and administrative units. We also plan to convene focus groups of students to get their insights into what kinds of initiatives would improve student engagement and then form an intervention and assessment committee to coordinate improvement efforts around campus.

As the academic and administrative leaders of York, we are looking to you to champion NSSE so that we get the highest participation rates possible. We need every faculty member and administrator to encourage undergraduate students in the first year and the final year of all four-year undergraduate programs (excluding law and education) to take the survey. Successful institutions often cite the involvement of faculty and staff as key features of their promotional efforts. Having a faculty or staff member emphasize how much value York places on NSSE will help students see that NSSE is a survey worth completing.

To support you in effectively promoting participation in the survey we have created a Communications Toolkit for faculty members and administrators. This Toolkit, part of the comprehensive print and online communications campaign we have launched to promote participation, is designed to elicit conversation between peers as well as between faculty/staff and students.

The Toolkit includes a PowerPoint presentation, FAQs, postcards to hand out, an easel-backed sign for service area desks, protocols for promoting NSSE to students and talking points. Components of the kit will be available for download from http://nsse.info.yorku.ca/nsse-toolkit/.

In previous rounds of NSSE at York, some Faculties had higher participation rates than others. To encourage a little friendly competition, we are inaugurating the NSSE Champion Cup. The President will award the Champion Cup to the Faculty with the highest participation rate after the survey ends on March 31, 2014. The winning Faculty gets to keep the Cup – and the bragging rights – until the next administration of NSSE.

The survey opens on February 11, 2014 after which the York community will be able to track the percentage of participation by Faculty, updated weekly, on the NSSE microsite at http://nsse.info.yorku.ca/see-how-were-doing/.

For more background on NSSE, its impact for York and details on the comprehensive plan to increase participation in the 2014 survey, please visit http://nsse.info.yorku.ca/nsse-toolkit/.

If you have questions, suggestions or concerns, please contact one of the following NSSE steering committee members:

·   Richard Smith, richard.smith@yorku.ca

·   Clara Wong, cmwong@yorku.ca

·   Donna Cope, dcope@yorku.ca

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

 

Sincerely,

 

REQUIRES -- signature from Provost’s office

 

Rhonda Lenton

Vice-President Academic & Provost

York University