About FSSE®
What is FSSE?
The Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE) was designed to complement the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), which is administered to undergraduate students. FSSE measures faculty expectations for student engagement in educational practices that are empirically linked with student learning and development. FSSE focuses on:
- How often faculty use effective teaching strategies;
- How much faculty encourage students to collaborate;
- The nature and frequency of faculty-student interactions;
- Opportunities for students to engage diverse perspectives;
- The importance faculty place on increasing institutional support for students;
- The importance faculty place on various areas of learning and development; and
- How faculty members organize their time, both in and out of the classroom.
Since 2003, more than 196,000 faculty members from more than 710 different colleges and universities have participated in the survey.
Why Participate in FSSE?
Information from faculty members who teach undergraduates at your institution helps contextualize findings from students. FSSE results, particularly in combination with those from NSSE, can be a catalyst for productive discussions related to teaching, learning, and the quality of your undergraduates’ educational experiences. Institutions use FSSE results in many ways, including accreditation and self-studies, assessment and improvement, curricular reform, faculty development, institutional research, faculty workshops and retreats, and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). To enhance clarity and applicability and to complement the revised version of NSSE, which launched in 2013, the FSSE instrument contains revised and updated items as well as new measures of teaching and learning.
Administration Details
FSSE is a web-based survey. It is administered nationally to faculty at baccalaureate degree-granting colleges and universities that are concurrently administering NSSE or have participated in NSSE in the previous year.
Each institution selects its sample from faculty who teach at least one undergraduate course in the current academic year. Institutions provide the names and email address of faculty to be surveyed. All other aspects of the survey administration are handled by FSSE. Faculty responses to the survey remain anonymous to their institution. Additional details regarding FSSE administration can be found in the Administering FSSE section of our Web site.
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