Winter 2008 — Vol. 61, No. 1

Clemson students are engaged ...
and that’s a good thing

All teachers know that students need to be active participants in their own educations to get the most out of college.

If they simply sit there on the receiving end of a one-way flow of information, we know that not much long-term learning is taking place.

If, on the other hand, they talk or write about what they are learning … if they work together in project teams … if they must apply what they’ve learned to real-world problems and situations. If some or all of these things happen, it can lead to a deeper, richer, more valuable kind of learning.

There has been a growing demand for greater accountability from colleges and universities on whether or not we are delivering this kind of deep learning.

We are all familiar with the U.S.News & World Report rankings, and at Clemson, our goal-setting relative to U.S. News has been a tremendous catalyst for positive change. We realize, however, that U.S. News relies a great deal on “inputs” — things like the SAT scores of incoming freshmen.

How do you measure outcomes? How do you know if students are really learning?

Engagement — another important measure

Another important measure is the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), commonly called “Nessie.” The survey is given to more than 160,000 first-year students and seniors at more than 1,000 colleges and universities nationwide, both public and private.

Many consider this the best way to evaluate the quality of a school’s undergraduate program. Engaged students, in general, are successful students. Parts of the NSSE survey will be used in a new Voluntary System of Accountability, which Clemson also supports and helped to develop.

NSSE specifically does not rank institutions. However, last fall, for the first time, it released data on about 250 individual schools that agreed to have their results published. It also provided us with a report that shows how we compare to selected peers and to all schools in the survey.

There is much for Clemson to be proud of in our NSSE results, but there are also opportunities for improvement.

On the five major composite benchmarks of effective practice, our scores are equal to or higher, by a statistically significant margin, than those of our peers and all other NSSE participants. These benchmarks are clusters of questions that gauge:

• Level of Academic Challenge
• Active and Collaborative Learning
• Student-Faculty Interaction
• Enriching Educational Experiences
• Supportive Campus Environment

To repeat, there was not a single benchmark where Clemson’s average score was below that of other institutions. That is true for both freshmen and seniors.

Bottom line: Our students say Clemson provides a supportive and challenging academic environment.

A closer look

When we look at specific questions from the NSSE survey, we find that:

• 92 percent of freshmen and seniors rate their entire educational experience at Clemson as good or excellent. This is 12 points higher than our peers.
• 90 percent would choose Clemson again if given the chance.
• 80 percent of freshmen and 70 percent of seniors rate the quality of academic
advising as good or excellent.

Among Clemson seniors:
• 78 percent worked on a research project with a faculty member.
• 78 percent did community service or volunteer work.
• 68 percent had an internship, practicum or field experience.
• 41 percent completed a culminating senior experience, like a capstone project.

Among Clemson freshmen:
• 83 percent say their courses emphasize applying theories or concepts to new situations.
• 86 percent say Clemson provides substantial support for academic success.

On all of these specific questions, our students’ responses were higher, by a statistically significant margin, than those of our peers and all other NSSE schools.

One cluster of NSSE questions related to “Mental Activities” and is particularly significant. Clemson students report that they are expected to analyze the basic elements of an idea, experience or theory, and then to apply those theories and concepts to practical problems or in new situations.

In other words, they are learning to think. Our academic program is working.

Questions to consider

On some specific questions, however, we would like to see improvement. For example, fewer freshmen and seniors at Clemson report having had a serious conversation with students of another race or ethnicity. We know that increasing diversity and preparing our students for a diverse world remain important challenges for us.

We also must remember that comparing one institution’s average response to another can be misleading. Individual student performance varies much more within institutions than average performance does between institutions.

More important than comparisons, then, are the questions we must ask ourselves: Is Clemson as challenging as it might be for high-achieving students? Are we doing the best we can for the students who are the least engaged in their academic pursuits?

We feel very good about our students’ responses on the National Survey of Student Engagement, but we are using the survey in the right way, to study and continuously improve what we are doing at Clemson.