I’m super excited that my colleagues have finally made the new version of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) publicly available! We’ve spent a lot of time working on this over the past 3-4 years, including focus groups, interviews, two pilot administrations, tons of literature review and data analysis, (seemingly) thousands of meetings, and many other events and undertakings. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have been part of this process from nearly the beginning as I’ve learned a lot about survey development and project management. I’m leaving NSSE at the end of the month so although I won’t be here when the new survey is administered next spring I’m still happy to be here to see the final version.
I’m particularly excited that the technology module (optional set of questions) has made it through all of our testing and will be part of the new survey. There are other cool modules but this one has been my baby for over two years. My colleagues here at NSSE – Allison and Heather – and my colleagues at EDUCAUSE – Eden and Pam – have been wonderful collaborators and I hope that they have had half as much fun and fulfillment working on these questions as I did. It’s poignant to have spent so much time on this project only be handing it off to others just as it sees the light of day but I know it’s in good hands. I am very hopeful that a significant number of institutions will choose to use this module and we will continue to continue to what we know about the role and impact of technology in U.S. and Canadian higher education.
Throughout all of this, I’ve remained especially thankful to have been so involved in the development of this new survey as a graduate student. Although I work half as many hours as the full-time doctorate-possessing research analysts, they have been very open about allowing me to be involved and never shied away from adding me to projects and giving me significant responsibilities. I was never treated as “just a grad student” or a junior colleague, just one that worked fewer hours and had some different responsibilities. Consequently, I had genuine responsibilities and made significant, meaningful contributions; I can honestly point to the survey and see my own fingerprints on some parts of it! When I speak about meaningful educational experiences in the future, I’ll certainly think of this one as an excellent example. And I will work to ensure that my students and colleagues can have similar experiences that allow them to learn, grow, and meaningfully contribute by performing important work with trust and support.