HI, Jim,
Thanks for having scheduled a meeting with Steve and Patty to talk about the NSSE.  Thanks, too, to Patty and Steve for having taken their time to talk to our group.  I'm sorry that I had to leave early to attend another meeting so I didn't have opportunity to hear the discussion after the PowerPoint presentation.

I went to our college website to view the entire Patty/Steve NSSE Power Point.
I have several questions about NSSE data. If the questions were answered in the Teaching Breakfast discussion after I left, I hope some one will let me know what was said.
If the questions were not asked, I would like to do so here.

My questions are all based on the general premise that data will be a lot more beneficial to our institution if we can decide how to use them. 

If the generally held belief that higher levels of student engagement will produce higher levels of student academic accomplishment is accurate, how can we raise our student engagement?  

If we are at a certain level of student engagement, how can we improve it?  Which areas of our curricula, what sorts of classroom behavior and leadership, result in higher levels of student engagement?

We have seen INSTITUTIONAL data for our school. 

Can we break NSSE data down to the departmental level?

If my department has any problems with student engagement, or student study habits, or class attendance, or any of the other engagement and success criteria studied in NSSE, I'd like to know that so I can seek to improve it at the departmental level.  Similarly, if my department is experiencing success with specific NSSE criteria, I'd like to know that so I can be sure we continue whatever activities have been successful.

Our INSTITUTIONAL levels of success have a better chance of improving if individual DEPARTMENTS know what areas of their programs may need attention.

Although NSSE measures student engagement, the reason for measuring engagement is to improve academic performance, so perhaps this may be a issue that the College Curriculum committee may want to study.

Are the NSSE student data generally reflective of the size of the departments on campus?  In other words, if my department accounts for 11 percent of the SUNY Oneonta population, are the NSSE data taken from enough Music Industry students to make an actual reflection of the Music Industry cohort?  If our NSSE data do not reflect our actual student population, can we be confident that our NSSE data give us an accurate picture of our actual student body?

I am delighted that Steve pioneered the use of NSSE at Oneonta, and his work with Patty Francis gives us a strong and knowledgeable team that can be of immense value to us. Faculty are fortunate to have this high level of administrative support.  I'm asking my questions because I'd like to be sure that I can use the data they gather and share with us effectively.

Thanks
Janet






Dr. J. Nepkie
SUNY Distinguished Service Professor
Professor of Music and Music Industry
Music Department
State University of New York College at Oneonta
Oneonta, New York 13820
Ph. (607) 436 3425
Fax 607 436 2718
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-----Original Message-----
From: Teaching Breakfast List on behalf of Jim Greenberg
Sent: Thu 4/2/2009 8:33 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Apologies to TB Group
 
My apologies to Steve Perry and to the Teaching Breakfast group for missing today's get together.  Can someone let me know how it went (or didn't go).  

:-( 

My bad. 

Mr. James B. Greenberg 
Director Teaching, Learning and Technology Center 
Milne Library 
SUNY College at Oneonta 
Oneonta, New York 13820 

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