Why SENSE?
The Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE), a product and service of the Center for Community College Student Engagement, helps community colleges discover why some entering students persist and succeed and others do not.
Administered during the 4th and 5th weeks of the fall academic term, SENSE asks students to reflect on their earliest experiences (academic and services-related) with the college. SENSE serves as a complementary piece to the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE), with a more narrowed focus on early student experiences.
Quick Links
Would you like to learn more about SENSE? Here are some links to get you started:
- Overview
- Survey Instrument
- Annotated Bibliography
- National Findings
- Member Colleges
- Pricing and Participation
- Annual Registration
- Tools
- Survey Administration
For more information about the Center and its projects, select one of the tabs in the upper-left corner of the website.
The Center Responds to the Washington Monthly Community College Article and Rankings
Please read the Center's statement regarding the recent article and rankings in Washington Monthly: HTML Word
Register Now for Fall 2014 Entering Student Survey
Interested in learning more about students’ earliest experiences in college and what may be impacting retention patterns? The Center invites community and technical colleges to participate in a national administration of its entering student survey. Registration for the 2014 Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE) is currently underway.
The Center Releases Expanded Tools
Center staff have recently updated and expanded tools for member colleges. The Tools page contains multiple resources for colleges to use while preparing for a SENSE administration, communicating about survey results, and working with those results to improve student engagement.
Among the tools on the Preparing for Administration page is a talking point document to share with faculty and staff and a sample participant news release to communicate information about an upcoming administration with the college community at large.
The Working with Results page contains tools for colleges to use as they begin to explore their SENSE data, including a data narrative exercise. This tool can be used in a group setting to develop a data-driven story that takes shape as data are shared and discussed.
The Sharing Results page houses several key communication templates, including a Drop-In Overview Report template and a Drop-In Overview Presentation template, both customizable for colleges to use when sharing SENSE results.
The Accreditation Guides suggest ways for institutions to incorporate SENSE into regional accreditation and include suggested timelines for administering SENSE as part of the accreditation process and a map that links SENSE data to regional standards.
The Focus Group Toolkit contains materials for organizing focus groups as well as sample focus group discussion guides for entering students, returning students, faculty, and student services staff.