Student Learning at the First-year and Senior Level: 2023 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Results

As reported in the 2023 National Survey of Student Engagement Summary of Key Evidence for UCORE (PDF), results from the 2023 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) indicate that most WSU seniors (93%) have considerable confidence in their ability to complete tasks requiring critical thinking and analysis of arguments and information. In addition to Critical and Creative Thinking, results from the 2023 NSSE also provided indirect evidence of student learning on Written Communication, Non-Written Communication, Quantitative Reasoning, Diversity, and Integrative Learning at the first-year and senior levels for UCORE assessment—see the 2023 NSSE Summary of Key Evidence for UCORE (PDF) for more information. 

The NSSE survey annually collects information at hundreds of four-year colleges and universities about first-year and senior student participation in activities and programs that promote their learning and personal development. WSU’s UCORE curriculum is bookended by a required first-year course [ROOT] and a senior capstone experience [CAPS], which aligns particularly well with NSSE. Note: NSSE is an externally developed survey administered by the University of Indiana (Bloomington). As such, questions on the NSSE survey are not specifically tailored to WSU and/or UCORE.

“NSSE results help faculty and leadership understand our students’ perceptions of the undergraduate experience at WSU,” said UCORE Director Ashley Boyd. “For the UCORE general education program, we examine NSSE results in combination with other UCORE assessments of first-year students and seniors as we consider the UCORE curriculum and design faculty development initiatives.”

At WSU, NSSE is offered to all first-year and senior students on all WSU campuses every other spring. In 2023, 2,130 seniors and 1,361 first-year students responded to the survey at WSU. The WSU response rate was 29% for seniors and 33% for first-year students, compared to the average national response rate of 19% for participating institutions with undergraduate enrollments of 10,000 or more.

The Office of Assessment for Curricular Effectiveness (ACE), in collaboration with the Office of Institutional Research (IR), coordinates the administration of NSSE at WSU. For additional information, see UCORE’s National Survey of Student Engagement Key Assessment page.