Category: Research
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New NSSE Survey and Technology Questions
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…
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Media Spin and Attention Grabbing Headlines
The Washington Post published a story yesterday describing some research that says that college students today study less than college students in the past.  The story is largely based on a tiny bit of NSSE data that we first published several months ago describing self-reported time spent studying as it differs across majors. At the…
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When Did Student Affairs Begin Discussing Technology as a Competency?
At a presentation I attended at this year’s ACPA conference, the presenters discussed technology as a competency for student affairs professionals. It’s a discussion that’s been going on for many years but I don’t know if many people – particularly younger professionals – know just how long it’s been going on. The presenters of this…
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“Best” Practices?
In a recent blog post releasing a (very nice!) infographic about “Best Practices in Using Twitter in the Classroom Infographic,” Rey Junco writes: I’d like to point out that I’m a real stickler about using the term “best practices.” It’s a concept we toss around a lot in higher education. To me, a “best practice”…
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Additional (older) #SAchat data: Participation, Geography, and Gender
In a comment to my previous post sharing some of my thoughts about #sachat in advance of their “State of #SAchat” discussion tomorrow, Gary Honickel asked about demographics of #sachat participants. In our forthcoming chapter (I’m not trying to advertise it – honest! Just trying to explain why I have all of this information. I’m…
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Reflections on #sachat
Tomorrow, the members of the #sachat community will be engaging in introspection and discussing “The State of #SAchat” instead of their usual weekly discussion of topical student affairs topics. I have been conducting research on the #sachat community for a couple of years now so I thought it might be helpful for the community if…
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Look Ma – I’m a Thought Leader!
Researchers at Elon University and the Pew Internet & American Life Project have released a report describing some opinions about the future of the Internet and its impact on society, particularly the younger generations. One of the themes is that educational practices must change to address information literacy. Although I agree with some of its…
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Thumbs Down for CBS News NSSE Article
There are many different angles one could take in reporting on the 2011 NSSE Annual Results; it’s a dense 50-page report. I know that every group has its own agenda and every reporter has his or her own personal interests but it’s very disappointing that CBS News chose the snide headline “Business majors: College’s worst…
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Fun Time of Year: NSSE Annual Results Released
The 2011 NSSE Annual Results were released today. I don’t want to focus on the content of the report in this blog post. Instead, I am briefly noting how fun it is to work on a project with a large impact that regularly receives attention from the press (even if some of the attention is…
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Part-time Students Are Not (Yet) The Majority
Right after I posted a screed about how some recent research about Twitter’s relationship with students’ grades has been misunderstood, along came another study that is being mischaracterized. I’m not looking for these things; I don’t want to be some kind of education research watchdog or bully. But this is important and I must speak…