National Survey of Student Engagement

Through its student survey, The College Student Report, NSSE annually collects information at hundreds of four-year colleges and universities about first-year and senior students’ participation in programs and activities that institutions provide for their learning and personal development. The results provide an estimate of how undergraduates spend their time and what they gain from attending college.

The NSSE provides participating institutions with a variety of reports (see below for more information about each report).  These NSSE generated reports typically summarize responses for UW-Tacoma first-year students and seniors, alongside responses from students from one or more customized comparison groups of peer institutions (see the "Peer Institutions" report for more information).

For more information, please check out the NSSE Pocket Guide.

Report Name and Link Report Description
NSSE 24 Snapshot This collection of key findings includes an overview of NSSE’s Engagement Indicators, High-Impact Practices, key academic challenge questions, students’ perceptions of their cognitive and affective development, as well as their overall satisfaction with the institution, and administration details.
NSSE 24 Engagement Indicators This high-level summary of responses to related NSSE questions provides and overview of ten distinct aspects of student engagement, organized by theme: Academic Challenge, Learning with Peers, Experiences with Faculty, Campus Environment
NSSE 24 High-Impact Practices Because of their positive associations with student learning and retention, this report focuses on the six high-impact practices in NSSE: service-learning, learning communities, research with faculty, internships or field experiences, study abroad, and culminating senior experiences.
NSSE 24 Frequencies and Statistical Comparisons This report presents question-by-question student responses to NSSE. For student responses to NSSE’s demographic questions, see the “Respondent Profile – All University” report.
NSSE 24 Topical Module - First-year Experience and Senior Transitions This topical module includes a set of questions only for first-year students and a set only for seniors. First-year questions focus on academic perseverance, help-seeking behaviors, and institutional commitment, while the senior questions explore post-graduation plans, links between the academic major and future plans, and confidence with skills developed during college. Note that the peer institution comparison group for this topical module report is further customized based on the available institutions that also participated in this module.
NSSE 24 Topical Module - Experiences with Online Learning This module, updated in 2021, was developed in collaboration with Quality Matters, a leader in online instruction.  Based in part on Standards for the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric (6th Ed.), the item set measures instructional aspects that experts consider to be ideal for online courses. The set also assesses how students engage in both online and hybrid courses, their degree of comfort with online learning and experience of support, and ideas about how the learning experience can be improved
NSSE 24 Respondent Profile This report presents both student- and institution-reported demographic information for NSSE respondents.
NSSE 24 Multi-Year Report Year-to-year comparisons for Engagement Indicators, High-Impact Practices, and key academic challenge questions are displayed for WSU’s 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021 NSSE results. This report does not include peer institution comparison groups.
NSSE 24 Administration Summary This report provides an overview of your NSSE administration, including details about your population and sample, response rates, representativeness of your respondents, and survey customization choices. This information can be useful for assessing data quality, maintaining a record of survey choices, and planning future NSSE administrations.
NSSE 24 Selected Comparison Groups This report summarizes how peer institution comparison groups were constructed and list our university-selected comparison groups.