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GUIDELINES
There are only a few special
considerations related to the administration
of the CLASSE that distinguish it from the
many other surveys or questionnaires that
might be administered on campus. When
the survey is administered during the
semester is one such consideration. How
the survey is administered could also
differentially impact results. The nature
and construction of the optional
course-specific items also warrant extra
attention. The following suggestions and
recommendations are offered to help foster
some consistency in this year’s pilot
administration of the CLASSE:
When Should CLASSE Be Administered?
Obviously, when the enrolled
students in a designated class are asked how
often they asked questions in that class,
how often they participated in class
discussions, or how often they used email to
communicate with the instructor, etc., their
answers are going to depend on when, during
the semester, they are asked these
questions. What has worked best for us has
been to administer the
CLASSEStudent
during the 12th or
13th week of the semester. By
then, the students appear to have had the
opportunity to engage in the educational
practices and activities sampled by the
instrument. By then, sufficient time has
lapsed for each student to engage in the
various educational practices with varying
degrees of frequency. This timeline is also
consistent with the philosophy exercised by
NSSE staff, since it too collects student
engagement date late in the academic year
when variation in the frequency of
occurrence will be maximum. In this
classroom application of the measurement of
student engagement, this philosophy
translates into late in the semester
Follow-up focus groups with
participating faculty lead us to suggest
that faculty members should be asked to
complete the
CLASSEFaculty
during the 1st week of the
semester. Not only is this the time when
faculty have most likely communicated their
expectations (i.e., reviewed their course
syllabus) to students enrolled in the
designated class but also given the most
thought to what course goals and objectives
he/she wants to stress with enrollees. It
is noteworthy that some faculty reported to
us after the initial pilot application of
CLASSE that how important certain
educational practices and activities were in
the course changed as the semester wore on.
One might characterize this
timeline as most appropriate for a summative
approach to using CLASSE. Dr. Judy Ouimet,
Assessment Coordinator at the University of
Navada – Reno) explored a more formative
approach in her pilot investigation of
CLASSE during the 2005-06 academic year.
She not only administered the CLASSE
earlier in the term, but developed an
automated scoring and reporting feature that
enabled a very rapid turnaround in the
analysis & communication of results.
Findings could then be used immediately to
spark improvement initiatives in the
designated class (formative assessment). If
the class of students were not engaging some
of the educational practices the instructor
thought were particularly important for
success in the course, constructive steps
could be taken to increase the frequency of
those activities. Dr. Ouimet is willing to
share her CLASSE scoring and reporting
application, and can be reached at
Ouimet@UNR.edu or 1-775-784 4837.
How Should the CLASSE be administered?
Both hard copies and
electronic versions have been used in
previous pilot administrations of the CLASSE.
The traditional advantages and shortcomings
of these two delivery methods have been
evident in these administrations. For
example, when hard copies of the
CLASSEStudent
were administered during class time, the
response rates were very high. When
hardcopies were distributed in class as a
take-home assignment, response rates were
reduced. When hard copies were mailed to
enrollees, response rates were the lowest.
High response rates were also enjoyed when
the instructor personally sent emails to
enrollees asking them to log on to the
electronic version of
CLASSEStudent
to complete the survey. If this email
invitation was preceded by a brief
expression of encouragement by the
instructor during class time, the response
rates were enhanced. One or two email
reminders also elevated response rates.
Faculty participants tended
to prefer to complete the
CLASSEFaculty
electronically. The first week of the
semester tended to be very busy for them and
it was more convenient to complete and
return the survey electronically. It is
also easier to track completion of the
CLASSEFaculty
by the faculty participants.
How to Construct Optional
Course-specific Items
The faculty participant in
the pilot administration of CLASSE can add
up to 8 additional items to the CLASSE in
order to personalize the instrument to
his/her particular course offering. These
additional items should address practices or
activities believed to be importantly
related to student success in the class.
For example, one faculty participant might
routinely post practice tests or sample
quizzes on his/her class website and want to
ask students how frequently they work on
these practice tests. Another faculty might
encourage students to purchase the study
guide that accompanies the textbook and want
to ask students how frequently they use the
study guide as a tool to facilitate their
learning. Another faculty member might want
to ask students how frequently they have
someone proof a written assignment before
turning it in. Whatever course specific
items are added, they should address an
activity or a practice the faculty
instructor believes importantly contributes
to the student’s success in the course.
One of the goals of this
pilot administration of CLASSE is to collect
examples of course specific items that have
been used by participants. Exceptionally
good examples will be posted on this website
so that future users may take advantage of
them as they reflect on practices that
impact success in their course.
If you happen to want to
include another item from the NSSE (or FSSE)
as one of your eight optional
course-specific items, or if you would like
to make a modification in one of the NSSE
(or FSSE) items and use it as one of your
eight course-specific items, you will be
approved to do so, as long as you clearly
indicate that action on Step #7 of the
Pilot Study Participation process and
you draw attention to that adaptation or
modification in the permission statement
appearing at the bottom of each CLASSE
instrument. For example, suppose you decide
you want to include the 2006 NSSE Item 11b
as one of your 8 course-specific items (this
is the NSSE item that asks the student to
what extent experiences in the course may
have contributed to his acquiring job or
work-related knowledge and skills). Suppose
further that this will be the first of the 8
course specific items, so that it is
actually Item #39 on your CLASSEStudent
and your CLASSEFaculty.
You would indicate the use of this item on
Step #7 of the
Pilot Study Participation. You would
also modify the permission statement at the
bottom of the CLASSEStudent
and CLASSEFaculty
so that it read…Items
#1 - #28 and Item #39 adapted with
permission from the National Survey of
Student Engagement, Copyright 2001-08 The
Trustees of Indiana University.
It is also very important
that the response options that are devised
for the course specific items be restricted
to 4 frequency options ranging from not
occurring (e.g., Never, None) to occurring
very frequently (e.g., Very often, More than
5 times) with two intermediate levels of
frequency in-between these two anchor values
(e.g., once, twice, 1 or 2 times, 3 or 4
times). This response option format will
allow these course specific items to be
included in the Quadrant Analysis approach
to presenting CLASSE results described
elsewhere on this website. (see Quadrant
Analysis Approach).
*Items #1 - #28
adapted with permission from the National
Survey of student Engagement, Copyright
2001-08 The Trustees of Indiana University. |
