Research on measuring and analyzing student engagement in classes across university

Abstract

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) was especially designed to measure student engagement as a means of evaluating the impact of education at the university level. However, no such simple tool is available for measuring student engagement at an individual class level. This paper describes a classroom survey of student engagement (CSSE) that was adopted from the original NSSE Survey. The CSSE survey conducted over five semesters examined levels of student engagement in 539 classes from the first year to graduate level. Of 17,660 students enrolled in those 539 courses, 13,441 students completed the survey. Results showed more engagement in higher-level classes and also in those classes with fewer students. The study also compared results with the NSSE. Other instructors can use the instrument and the reported results to measure and compare the engagement levels in their classes.