Students learn more when they are intensely involved in their education and asked to think about what they are learning in different settings. Collaborating with others in solving problems or mastering difficult material prepares students for the messy, unscripted problems they will encounter daily during and after college.

 

Peace College students report that their learning experiences are based on working with faculty members and peers on problem-solving and knowledge creation. More Peace College faculty members are moving away from using only lecture-based instruction and working with students to facilitate their learning -- a change that students are reporting to be highly successful.

 

 

Active and Collaborative Learning: Comparisons

 

The National Survey of Student Engagement reports mean scores (average scores for all students participating in the survey) for each institution and also compares each institution to various other groupings. Peace College is compared to other women's colleges, other institutions within Peace's classification as defined by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (labeled "Peers"), and all other institutions participating in the survey (labeled "NSSE 2008"). The mean scores can be compared to each other for a relative rating.

 

Active and Collaborative Learning: Survey Items

To determine first-year and senior students' experiences with active and collaborative learning, NSSE asked them questions to learn more about their involvement in the following areas:

 

• Asked questions in class or contributed to class discussions
• Made a class presentation
• Worked with other students on projects during class
• Worked with classmates outside of class to prepare class assignments
• Tutored or taught other students
• Participated in a community-based project as part of a regular course
• Discussed ideas from your readings or classes with others outside of class (students, family members, co-workers, etc.)

 

A guide to the charts
The 2008 NSSE surveyed 478,079 students at 769 four-year colleges and universities around the country.

 

The NSSE project does not rank institutions. Each school has only their students' scores on the five "benchmarks of effective educational practice" and some comparative information for similar types of colleges (in Peace's case, other women's colleges and liberal arts colleges) as well as national averages established by results from all the institutions that participated in the survey, identified in the charts as "NSSE 2008."

 

The charts display the mean, which is the weighted arithmetic average of students' responses, in each of the five benchmark categories: (1) Level of academic challenge, (2) Active and collaborative learning, (3) Student-faculty interaction, (4) Enriching educational experiences, and (5) Supportive campus environment.

 

The charts are best used by scanning across the bars to see how Peace students' evaluations compare to the scores from students at schools in the comparison groups.

 

The NSSE project does not rank institutions. Each school has only their students' scores on the five "benchmarks of effective educational practice" and some comparative information for similar types of colleges (in Peace's case, other women's colleges and liberal arts colleges) as well as national averages established by results from all the institutions that participated in the survey, identified in the charts as "NSSE 2008."

 

The charts display the mean, which is the weighted arithmetic average of students' responses, in each of the five benchmark categories: (1) Level of academic challenge, (2) Active and collaborative learning, (3) Student-faculty interaction, (4) Enriching educational experiences, and (5) Supportive campus environment.

 

The charts are best used by scanning across the bars to see how Peace students' evaluations compare to the scores from students at schools in the comparison groups.