This case study analyzes engagement during situated learning students engaged in the Global Game Jam, a three-day game development event. The themes identified as indicators of engagement for thematic analysis during this research were from the National Center for Educational Statistics' (NCES) National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). The…

This paper investigated the reliability and validity of the National Survey of Student Engagement's Experiences with Information Literacy module, an assessment instrument developed in collaboration with a group of instructional librarians. After identifying three information literacy-related factors in the module, it assessed the relationship…

Several components of a campus culture affect learning, yet assessments regularly neglect some of them. Academic librarians should evaluate how they impact courses and student learning through their support of these neglected components. Assessment goals to address some of the components include measuring the level of support for courses with…

This article reports on an investigation into the validity of a widely used scale for measuring the extent to which higher education students employ active learning strategies. The scale is the active learning scale in the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement. This scale is based on the Active and Collaborative Learning scale of the National…

Theories of involvement and quality of effort posit that student engagement in academic activities is critical to success. College officials invest substantial resources in activities and facilities to encourage student involvement, yet some reports find that many students study few hours per week and commit little time to academic activities. A…

For many institutions devoted to their mission, especially those that state as their goal the promotion of character development, the need for measurement tools becomes a priority. These tools can by used not only to assess the stated outcomes, but also to guide institutional policies, practices, and improvements. The purpose of this study is to…

The researcher analyzed National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) data for over 7,000 first-year students at nearly 450 institutions to examine the impacts on spiritual development. International, Asian, and first generation students reported gains in spirituality. Participating in worshipful activities, engaging in service learning and…

Learning-community work done well requires a skillful balancing of two moves: one structural, the other pedagogical and cross-disciplinary. When a campus gets it right, enriched integrative learning is the result. When a campus doesn't, retention data improves, at least in the short run, but the substantive, multi-faceted, and deep learning that…

Despite the widespread use of social media by students and its increased use by instructors, very little empirical evidence is available concerning the impact of social media use on student learning and engagement. This paper describes our semester-long experimental study to determine if using Twitter--the microblogging and social networking…

Developing the ability to make, recognize, and evaluate connections among disparate concepts, fields, or contexts is what integrative learning is all about. Breadth and depth of learning remain hallmarks of a quality liberal education. Yet, today, there's a growing consensus that breadth and depth are not enough. Strengthening integrative learning…

The Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE) was launched in 2007 as a companion survey to the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). In its first two years, close to 140,000 entering first-year students at 197 institutions across the United States and Canada have participated in BCSSE. Now in its third year, BCSSE continues…

One of the more intriguing trends at the turn of the twenty-first century is the ascendant influence of religion in various aspects of American life. The renewed interest in religion and spirituality is not just a function of aging baby boomers acknowledging their mortality. The University of Pennsylvania reported that 86 percent of those between…