Australasian Survey of Student Engagement

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Australasian Survey of Student Engagement
AUSSE 2007 Summary Results

• Dr Hamish Coates
• coatesh_at_acer.edu.au

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Student engagement the idea

• Two premises
• Individuals learn through behavioral, cognitive
  and affective involvement with key educational
  practices
• People learn when staff and institutions provide
  supports likely to encourage involvement
• An student-centred perspective that reflects the
  wide range of academic and non-academic
  interactions that students have with university
• Measures of engagement provide an index of
  whether students are engaging with university
  study in ways likely to generate high-quality
  learning
• Based on decades of normative and empirical
  research
• Student engagement is not, or not just student
  experience, satisfaction, opinion,
  retention, evaluation, outcomes

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The AUSSE overview

• 25 Australasian universities in 2007 more in
  2008
• Collaboration between participating institutions
  and ACER, overseen by the AUSSE Advisory Group
• New
• Evidence-based perspectives on university
  education (moving beyond happiness/agreement)
• Cross-institutional and cross-national
  comparisons Australia, New Zealand, Canada, USA,
  (Japan, China, UK?)
• Research-based process and outcome-proxy
  indicators that offer evidence for guiding change
• Institutional research methodologies
  (probabilistic sampling, post-stratification
  weighting, validated and rotated instruments,
  standard materials)
• Conversations about engagement based on
  independent living data collected
  by, for and with universities

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Developmental foundations

• Interpretations of learning as constructive
  participation in university communities
• Astins involvement principle
• Paces quality of effort
• Tintos work on integration and departure
• Based on the identification of activities and
  conditions linked with effective learning
• Chickering Gamsons seven principles
• Identification of process factors by Pace,
  Pascarella Terenzini, Astin, Ewell, Ramsden,
  etc
• Reaction to alternative means of evaluating the
  quality of university education
• Institutional resources and reputations
• Measures of research productivity
• Measures of teaching quality and teacher
  qualifications
• Student input, progression and outcomes

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The AUSSE significance

• Provides data on students
• involvement with key learning processes
• perceptions of institutional supports
• proxy learning and development outcomes
• intrinsic involvement with study
• Provides real-time data for
• understanding student markets and segments
• managing resources and educational services
• quality assurance and enhancement
• cross-institutional/-national benchmarking

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Key AUSSE methods

• Carefully defined first- and later-year target
  populations
• A stratified, multistage, probabilistic complex
  sampling strategy and validation process designed
  to provide first- and later-(third-) year
  estimates
• Consultative and technically rigorous validation
  of the Student Engagement Questionnaire (SEQ)
• A post-stratification weighting strategy to help
  ensure that sample statistics represent the
  target population characteristics with known
  levels of accuracy
• Standard survey materials/packaged used to ensure
  consistency and efficiency (institutionally
  identified, where possible)
• New approaches to student-focused and
  evidence-based quality assurance

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Key AUSSE reports

• AUSSE Institution Report
• Australasian Student Engagement Report
• AUSSE Research Briefings
• AUSSE Administration Manual
• Data files, sample weights and analysis schemes
• Materials to seed enhancement activities
• Workshops and meetings
• Good Practice Database
• Online student engagement forum
• Methodological guides and explanatory documents
• New instruments and materials

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What the AUSSE measures

• Six engagement-focused scales
• Academic Challenge
• Active Learning
• Student and Staff Interactions
• Enriching Educational Experiences
• Supportive Learning Environment
• Work Integrated Learning
• Six outcomes-focused measures
• Higher-order Thinking
• General Learning Outcomes
• General Development Outcomes
• Average Overall Grade
• Retention Intention
• Overall Satisfaction

Around 100 items that measure key process and
supports, demographics and contexts
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Students hours per week on campus
10
Students online and on campus learning
11
Students online learning / campus
substitution
12
Students off-campus paid work
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Measured outcomes
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Australasian average scale scores
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Scores for international and domestic students
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Scores by on-campus paid work status
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Scores by hours per week in off-campus paid work
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Overall mean scale score change between years
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Change in participation in activities between
years
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Scores by early departure intention
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Links with overall average grade
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Online study and average overall grade
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Links with quality of academic advising
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Links with start over intentions
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High challenge and high support
Cultivating climate Faces on campus
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What institutions are doingsetting foundations

• Seminars with Heads and Deans
• Learner focus groups
• Put results on the web
• Considering (cross-)national symposium
• Reviewing the empirical higher education research
• Diversifying management information (we know the
  library is 4.3)
• Analysed raw data and constructed new scales
• Workshops and 1-to-1 meetings with universities
• Distributing reports around the university
• Nothing (fell between cracks)
• Speaking with Canadian and USA institutions
• Thinking about how to address student-staff
  interactions
• Archived as normative baseline data
• Had a meeting to consider the new paradigm
• Put in place 2008 plans (become more engaged)
• Set up benchmarking groups
• Appointed a student engagement manager
• Considered re learning space design
• Prepared executive summary reports