The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) is administered nationally by the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research and provides information about students’ participation in programs and activities that institutions provide for their learning and personal development. This is the second year WFU has participated in the NSSE, joining 473 US institutions in 2023.
The NSSE was distributed electronically by the Office of Institutional Research during the Spring of 2023 to all first-year and senior students (N = 2,601). A total of 595 students submitted responses, representing a 23% response rate. The respondents were not representative of their respective classes when comparing distributions across gender and race/ethnicity. To address some concerns around nonresponse bias, all analyses were performed with post-stratification weights by gender and race/ethnicity (noted as N* throughout).
For the purposes of this report, students who entered at least one major or expected major on the NSSE are included. These majors are self-reported and have not been confirmed internally. Any student who indicated that their major belongs to one of the following fields is considered a STEM major: Biological Sciences, Agriculture, & Natural Resources; Physical Sciences, Mathematics, & Computer Science; Business; and/or Engineering.
For each item below, a statistical test for the difference between STEM and Non-STEM majors is performed. If the difference between groups is found to be statistically significant, this analysis reports effect sizes to allow one to compare the magnitude of the difference. Each item that is found to have a difference between groups and indicates at least a small effect size is highlighted in the following colors. (See here for more on survey analysis methodology.)
| Size | Criteria |
|---|---|
| Large Effect | ≥ 0.80 |
| Medium Effect | ≥ 0.50 |
| Small Effect | ≥ 0.20 |
Due to the large number of individual questions asked and the complexity of assessing specific areas of potential concern, NSSE developed ten Engagement Indicators which group information gathered from numerous items into a more reliable, cumulative measure. Each Engagement Indicator is expressed on a 0 to 60-point scale (e.g. Never=0, Sometimes=20, Often=40, and Very Often=60) then averaged together to compute student-level scores.
Due to their positive associations with student learning and retention, NSSE asks students about six undergraduate opportunities that are considered High-Impact Practices (HIPs). Participation in a High-Impact Practice is reported as the percentage of students who responded “done or in progress” for all HIPs (except service-learning, for which they reported at least “some” of their courses included a community-based project). For first-year students, it is not unreasonable to see small participation rates as the respondents have only had two semesters to participate in any activity at this stage.
The NSSE presents students with items about their backgrounds and goals. As many of these questions contain several categories, no statistical tests are performed within this section.
Although less stable than Engagement Indicators, responses to individual survey questions may provide a closer look at specific issues and notable differences across groups.
Wake Forest included two Topical Modules with this year’s survey. The Inclusiveness and Engagement with Cultural Diversity (ICD) Module asks students to reflect on their experiences at WFU with inclusive teaching practices, intercultural learning, participation in diversity-related programming, and their perceptions of WFU’s institutional values regarding diversity. The First-Year Experiences (FYE) Module focuses on academic perseverance, help-seeking behaviors, and institutional commitment.
Inclusiveness and Engagement with Cultural Diversity
First-Year Experiences
Inclusiveness and Engagement with Cultural Diversity
Senior Transitions