The increasing prominence of neoliberal agendas in international higher education has led to greater weight being ascribed to student satisfaction, and the national surveys through which students evaluate courses of study. In this article, we focus on the evaluation of feedback processes. Rather than the transmission of information from teacher to…

In higher education, there is a gap in our collective understanding of how outcomes data collected with standardized instruments and used to respond to accountability demands, is accurate and trustworthy for first-generation college students. Research in culturally responsive evaluation and measurement on equivalence across groups highlights that…

Students at many higher education institutions are expected to acquire effective written communication skills and strong critical thinking skills. Although these student learning outcomes are common, these skills are complex. Assessing students' attainment of these outcomes at an institutional level can be difficult as many approaches to measuring…

The aim of this study was to determine the mediating effect of learning engagement on the relationship between perceived teacher feedback and college students' academic performance, and the moderating effect of assessment characteristics on the relationship between perceived teacher feedback and learning engagement. A sample of 2,458 students in a…

This publication presents findings from a national study conducted by AAC&U researchers to investigate the impact of engagement in high-impact practices on traditionally underserved populations (defined here as first-generation, minority, transfer, and low-income students).The mixed-method analysis includes student-level data on engaged…

Within the field of higher education, the majority of quantitative research focuses on college students. Given the limitations of institutional databases, surveys of college students have become one of the largest and most frequently used data sources. In addition, surveys of college students play an increasingly important role in evaluating…

The authors investigated student and faculty perceptions of academic challenge at their institution, based on early administrations of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). This analysis revealed that the NSSE did not fully capture many meanings of academic challenge held by these faculty and students. This study led to a proposal for…