The "national College Students' Learning In Chad (nsse)" Evaluation Project Research

In the beginning of this century, the higher education went into rapidlyprocesses of populairzation in China, The quality of higher education has become afocus of civil concerning. However, big problem encountered for all workers ineducation is in which way to assess the quality of higher education for promptingteaching improvement and guaranteeing the quality of higher education. Withconcerning on quality problems in depth each time, people realized that studentengagement should be emphasized in assessment of higher education.With studying "the National Survey of Students Engagement (NSSE)", thepurpose of present work is to focus on the conception, theory and measures forassessing the quality of higher education on developing ability of college students,therefore to compensatory the shortages for the assessment system current in using, toset up suitable assessment system to China.The present dissertation consists of seven parts. In the first part with review ofbibliography all over the world, significance of present work and questions from ourquality assessment in college education were descirbed.In the second part, historical background of NSSE emerges and core theoireswere outlined. In the end of last centenary, university ranking system and traditionalassessments concerned more for resource and reputation were questioned by more andmore scholars. This opened a exploirng for new assessing system focus more onstudent engagement and ability developing. So NSSE was setup on the demand ofnew environment. NSSE was based on "student engagement" theory with seventyyears developing and "good practice" theory with twenty years using.In the third part, through studying the whole processing of NSSE program,following items were introduced and explained: the processes of organization andadministration, the contents of survey instruments, the benchmarks of effectiveeducation practice, the result and anysis of NSSE, the guides of using NSSE, and thepossible using areas of NSSE.In the forth part, by case study rfom NSSE annual reports and database, presentwork categorized current usage of NSSE data mainly in effective educationalpractices, in student leanring and developing, and in external requirements foraccreditation and accountability to improve the quality of higher education.In the iffth patr, IUPUI (Indiana university-Purdue university Indianapolis) wastaken for an example to study NSSE data making an efficient cyclical model in theirteaching and improving process. They expanded on the cyclical model and illustratedhow student engagement data could be used in addressing external requirements foraccreditation and accountability and in internal needs for strategic planning andprogram assessment. IUPUI-found their areas of success and opportunities forimprovement through NSSE data in each year recently; they also comparedthemselves with peer institutions on NSSE data for the improvements.In the sixth part, similarity and difference in assessment system for the qualitycontrol of higher education between the two countires were emphasized. In the last part, author summarys measures of assessment and highlights forward questions for successive research areas.