Institutional Surveys

Continuously Learning

The office of Institutional Research and Assessment at Champlain College conducts and interprets the results of campus-wide surveys about students, faculty, programs, campus, and more. Some of the surveys conducted include NSSE, Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) (Ruffalo Noel-Levitz), MISO, Incoming Student Survey, Culture of Consent Survey, and Cybersecurity Survey.

In order to ensure that high-quality and useful information is obtained from surveys, and to minimize survey fatigue, the College provides a Survey Policy that applies to faculty, staff, and students.

National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)

National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) is a survey designed to measure and gauge student participation at Champlain College. It is used by other colleges and universities throughout the United States to measure student engagement. The results help administrators and professors assess student engagement and understanding of the material.

In this web-based, quantitative survey, responses exist on a four point Likert scale for all questions. In the first question block, students rank their self-reported frequency of personal information use on a scale of (1) never; (2) sometimes; (3) often; and (4) very often. In the second and third question blocks, students rank how much their instructors emphasized proper information use and their experience at the institution’s contribution to effective information use from (1) very little; (2) some; (3) quite a bit; to (4) very much. For the first time, the college included the Experiences with Information Literacy module — an additional, optional module developed in collaboration with academic librarians.

At Champlain College, the NSSE Survey is conducted every three years during the students’ first years and senior years, in rotation with the SSI Survey and MISO Survey; it has been offered for the following years: 2007, 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018.

The NSSE survey is made up of four sections, each being modified to cover a different area of research:

  • Pocket Guides (formerly Student Experience in Brief) (2009, 2012, 2015, 2018)
  • Engagement Indicators (formerly Benchmark Comparisons) (2009, 2012, 2015, 2018)
  • High Impact Practices (2015, 2018)
  • Narrative for Champlain Community (2009, 2012, 2015 Summary, 2018)

The survey is used to gauge student engagement through the following interactions:

  • Students’ personal use of information. How often they have sought, used, and evaluated information in relation to assignments or course of study.
  • Instructor emphasis on aspects of proper information use. How often their course instructors emphasized plagiarism, citation, source type, use of disciplinary conventions, etc.
  • The institution’s contribution to students’ effective information use.

This data is used to analyze the following points:

  • Individual Champlain cohort (first-years and seniors) responses and the distribution of their answers
  • Comparison between Champlain first-years and seniors
  • Comparison between Champlain students and their comparison groups

View past years’ NSSE Reports (internal):

Student Satisfaction Inventory (SSI) (Ruffalo Noel-Levitz)

The Student Satisfaction inventory (SSI) (Ruffalo Noel-Levitz) measures not only how satisfied students are with the college, but also which issues are important to them.

The survey asks students to rate 73 items for both satisfaction and importance on diverse topics affecting the entire campus, including academics, student life, admissions, financial aid, and security. The SSI calculates the difference between the average satisfaction score and the average importance for each item; this difference is referred to as the “performance gap.” A large performance gap for an item indicates a relatively low level of satisfaction for an item of relatively high importance.

At Champlain College, the SSI Survey is conducted in rotation with the NSSE Survey and the MISO Survey; past years include: 2004, 2008, 2011, 2014, and 2017.

The survey inquires about student experience on campus, offering a 1-7 scale for Importance and Satisfaction, as rated by the students.

Example Items Related to Faculty

  • Faculty care about me as an individual.
  • Faculty are fair and unbiased in their treatment of individual students.
  • Faculty provide timely feedback about student progress in a course.
  • Faculty take into consideration student differences as they teach a course.
  • Faculty are usually available after class and during office hours.
  • Nearly all of the faculty are knowledgeable in their field.

Example Items Related to Instructional and Culture

  • The content of the courses within my major is valuable.
  • The instruction in my major field is excellent.
  • The quality of instruction I receive in most of my classes is excellent.
  • Adjunct faculty are competent as classroom instructors.
  • There is a good variety of courses provided on this campus.
  • Graduate teaching assistants are competent as classroom instructors.
  • I am able to experience intellectual growth here.
  • There is a commitment to academic excellence on this campus.

Survey Results

The survey is interpreted using six criteria:

  • Strategic planning overview – Learn your strengths and challenges, and identify the top issues for discussion on your campus.
  • Demographic summary – See responses to the demographic items on the survey, providing important context for the data.
  • Scale summary – Understand the importance and satisfaction scores for each composite scale.
  • Institutional summary – Review the importance and satisfaction scores, item by item, and the performance gap scores. (The gap scores subtract the mean satisfaction from the mean importance score, revealing the gaps between satisfaction and priorities.)
  • Summary items – Compare the responses to three questions concerning overall satisfaction with your institution to the national scores.
  • Conclusion – See ideas for converting your data to action.

Measuring Information Service Outcomes (MISO)

The Measuring Information Service Outcomes (MISO) is designed to measure how faculty, staff, and students consider library and computing services at Champlain College. Its objectives include finding services and resources that can benefit students and ensure delivery from faculty; communicating with members and communities within the college; ensuring that students, faculty, and staff are familiar with campus-wide technologies and services; and analyzing programs, skills, and sources used campus-wide to perform tasks.

The MISO analyzes student input about the importance and satisfaction of library and computer services around campus, including group study spaces, quiet study spaces, database collections, and overall service of the library.

At Champlain College, the MISO survey is conducted in rotation with the SSI Noel-Levitz Survey and the NSSE Survey; it has been offered during the following years: 2010, 2014, and 2016.

The survey tries to answer the following questions to improve the satisfaction of the graduate and undergraduate students with library services:

  • How do graduate students currently give the library feedback on services and how can it be improved?
  • How can the library better integrate information literacy into graduate program curricula?
  • How can the eBook collection be made more relevant to each graduate program?
  • Is the library scaling down its physical resources for graduate programs? If not, can those resources be used elsewhere?
  • What do graduate students value about the library’s website specifically? How can those design components be utilized in other online resources?
  • How would an improved library discovery service improve the online experience for graduate students?

View past years’ MISO Reports (internal):