UMASS Amherst 2002 Benchmark Report New

Institutional Benchmark ReportNovember 2002University of Massachusetts Amherst2002 Institutional Benchmark ReportUniversity of Massachusetts AmherstIntroduction The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) annually assesses the extent to which undergraduatestudents are involved in educational practices empirically linked to high levels of learning and development. In aneffort to make it easier for people on and off campus to more easily talk about student engagement and theimportance to student learning, collegiate quality, and institutional improvement, NSSE created the NationalBenchmarks of Effective Educational Practice. They are: 1) level of academic challenge, 2) active andcollaborative learning, 3) student-faculty interactions, 4) enriching educational experiences, and 5) supportivecampus environment. The benchmarks represent clusters of items on the survey and are expressed in 100-point scales. Each year,NSSE calculates benchmark scores to monitor performance at the institutional, sector, and national level. Thisyear's analysis is based on more than 135,000 randomly selected students at 613 four-year colleges anduniversities that participated in 2000, 2001, and 2002. The students represent a broad cross-section of first-yearand senior students from every region of the country. The institutions are similar in most respects to the universeof four-year schools. More detailed information about the benchmarks can be found in the ...