NSSE 2008

St. Olaf College

Benchmarks of Effective Educational Practice

To focus discussions about the importance of student engagement and guide institutional improvement efforts, NSSE created five Benchmarks of Effective Educational Practice. The benchmarks are based on 42 questions from the NSSE survey that capture many aspects of the student experience.

The following table gives the results from St. Olaf College in comparison to the 143 participating Baccalaureate - Arts & Sciences (Bac- A&S) institutions*.

 
First Year Students
Seniors
 
St. Olaf
All Bac-A&S
St. Olaf
All Bac-A&S
Level of Academic Challenge
62.3
57.3
63.0
60.4
Active and Collaborative Learning
45.6
45.3
51.9
52.2
Student-Faculty Interaction
35.9
37.9
48.7
48.7
Enriching Educational Experiences
32.0
30.3
56.0
48.9
Supportive Campus Environment
70.1
65.0
66.1
61.6

 

Of particular note, this tells us that the average St. Olaf first-year student and senior is more engaged in the areas of Level of Academic Challenge and Supportive Campus Environment than students at other Baccalaureate institutions. St. Olaf students are at least on par, if not higher on the average, in the other benchmark areas as well.

For a description of the five benchmarks and the survey items that make up the scores, please see this webpage, an external link to the NSSE website.

 

*Basic 2005 Carnegie Classification of insitutions. These differences should be interpreted with caution because they may be attributable to chance.