Measuring Students' Engagement on College Campuses: Is the NSSE an Appropriate Measure of Adult Students' Engagement?

As institutions seek to promote student engagement, the National Survey of Student Engagement has become a measure commonly used to document how institutions are meeting educational goals, but there is some question as to its applicability for certain undergraduate populations. 2010 survey results were analyzed for 125 adult and 69 traditional-age seniors attending a small, private, four-year institution in the U.S. South to evaluate differences between the two groups among 42 items composing five benchmark areas. Results provided support for the hypothesis that adults would score lower than traditional-age students on survey items that are more applicable to traditional students because of their focus on out-of-classroom experiences. Findings of this study have implications for the use of National Survey of Student Engagement benchmarks in assessing adult student engagement. (Contains 4 tables.)