Institutional Research Student Survey Schedule

Survey Instruments

Institutional Research regularly conducts student surveys. Our survey schedule relies on a three-year rotation of survey instruments. The key points of the plan are as follows:

1. All surveys will have a student identifier (included automatically for web surveys, and requested for paper surveys). This will allow us to follow students across their Case career and to link survey responses with other student records.
2. We alternate the HERI and NSSE survey "families" to give us different perspectives on similar issues. The same survey family will be used for a given cohort. An orientation survey will be followed up with its companion senior survey in four years.
   
3. Some topics require research methods beyond surveys, so we plan to conduct periodic in-depth studies of key issues. We would be guided by faculty and senior leadership in deciding what the topics might be.

The schedule for the next few years is as follows (For a list of surveys we conducted in the past, click here):

NSSE Family:

BCSSE (Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement)
Format: Paper Who: Entering first-year students When: Orientation Measures: Pre-college academic and co-curricular experiences; expectations for engagement during college. Links to NSSE.

NSSE (National Survey of Student Engagement)
Format: Web Who: First-year students and graduating seniors When: February or March Measures: Level of participation in effective educational practices; self-reported gains from undergraduate education; overall satisfaction. Links to BCSSE.

HERI Family:

CIRP (Cooperative Institutional Research Program Freshman Survey)  
Format: Paper Who: Entering first-year students When: Orientation Measures: Characteristics, attitudes, values, aspirations; expectations for undergraduate experience; reasons for college choice. Links to YFCY and CSS.

YFCY (Your First College Year)
Format: Web Who: First-year students When: End of first year Measures: Academic and personal development over first year; satisfaction, attitudes, participation. Links to CIRP and CSS.

CSS (College Senior Survey)
Format: Web Who: Graduating seniors When: End of senior year Measures: Self-assessment of learning and development; values, attitudes, goals; post-college plans and aspirations. Links to CIRP and YFCY.

Other:

AAU (AAU Senior Survey)
Format: Web Who: Graduating seniors When: End of senior year Measures: Self-assessment of learning and development; post-college plans. Can share unit-record data with AAU peers.

EBI (Educational Benchmarking, Inc)
Format: Web Who: All students When: November Measures: Satisfaction with residence halls and services; interactions among students.

Special Study Topic
During the special study topic years, Institutional Research will conduct in depth research on a single topic of interest to the Case community. For instance, one year could be devoted to better understanding campus social life, exploring the impact of campus diversity, or examining how students and faculty interact. During these years we anticipate piloting new survey instruments, utilizing instruments designed to assess on the topic at hand, and/or conducting qualitative research.

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