Freshman and senior students at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point are among those invited to participate in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE).

Online surveys are now being sent to random samples of freshman and seniors at more than 770 four-year institutions in the United States and Canada. UWSP is participating for the fourth time since 2001. UWSP students who participate are eligible for a drawing for one of eight $50 cash prizes for the campus.

"The NSSE provides UWSP an opportunity to find out what we’re doing well as an institution and helps us identify possible areas for improvement," said Mark Nook, provost and vice chancellor for Academic Affairs at UWSP. "It also helps us see how we are doing over time and whether changes we’ve implemented are positively affecting students’ experiences."

Both Academic and Student Affairs at UWSP use the results to make improvements. "Some departments might decide to implement new teaching strategies or programs for students," Nook said. "For example, after previous administrations of the NSSE, UWSP increased its efforts to enhance the overall advising experience. That is our goal with all surveys and assessments that we do – to make the findings relevant to our work for the benefit of our students."

"The NSSE survey, developed by the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University, has proven itself a strong and credible source of information," he added. "One of the strengths of the NSSE is that results for our campus are compared to those from a set of national peers, which helps us understand the level of engagement of our students relative to similar students across the country."

Nook encourages UWSP students who are selected for the survey to take a few moments and participate in order to help improve their own education as well as the education of future students. "Please help us make this university as strong as we possibly can," he said.

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