1. What is the NASPA Consortium?
The NASPA Assessment & Knowledge Consortium was a historical partnership between NASPA, Campus Labs (now Anthology), and several leading student affairs associations and organizations. The Consortium studies were designed to provide colleges and universities with actionable campus-specific and benchmarking data to shape and enhance programming inside and outside the classroom. We have appreciated the opportunity to collaborate with our partners and provide this service for several years, but at this time, the Consortium program is no longer active.
2. What populations are the student affairs benchmarking studies designed for?
Most of the surveys are designed for a stratified random sample of undergraduate students. However there are some exceptions to this recommendation:
- Orientation and New Student Programs - should be sent to all new students (first year and transfer students)
- Residence Life - only students who live on-campus
- Campus Recreation - can be extended and sent to other users such as graduate students, faculty/staff, community members, alumni, etc.
3. When should we plan on administering a student affairs benchmarking survey?
The studies are designed to be administered between September 1st and May 31st of each academic year. This allows you the flexibility of planning the best time to administer the survey on your campus given your assessment calendar and needs.
There is one exception to this, the Orientation and New Student Programming benchmark. This is only administered in the Fall and we recommended that it is administered 6-8 weeks into the term.
4. Can I see the survey before I decide to participate?
Yes, we encourage you to preview the outlines to see if the benchmark survey meets your data/assessment needs. Click here for descriptions and preview links for each survey.
5. How do I sign up to participate in a student affairs benchmarking study? / Do I need to submit a Baseline project request?
The process for initiating a student affairs benchmarking study is slightly different than requesting a typical Baseline survey. Please click here to review the steps for submitting your request.
6. What are the costs associated with participating in the Consortium?
If you have a Baseline license through Campus Labs, the cost of participating is included in your license; there is no additional cost.
7. Can I delete questions?
In order to preserve the integrity of the benchmark, questions should not be deleted. Certain questions may not be applicable to your institution. However, if the question collects operational data, it must remain in the survey. We can work with you to determine the best options on a case-by-case basis. This may include adding an opt-out answer choice, hiding certain answer choices, or adding instructional text to clarify the nature of the question for participants. Contact your Baseline Support Specialist for further assistance regarding alternatives to removing questions.
8. What changes can I make to the benchmark surveys?
Approximately ten (10) institution-specific questions may be added to the survey. These may be incorporated where relevant throughout the survey, or added as an additional page to the end of the survey. Please note that all questions will be optional for all respondents. For specific circumstances, contact your Baseline Support Specialist for further assistance regarding permissible revisions.
9. Can I offer a prize incentive while also keeping the survey responses/data anonymous?
Yes, we can create a separate project to collect contact information for the prize drawing. This most commonly includes name, e-mail address, and/or phone number. If additional fields are needed to determine eligibility (e.g., student ID, residence), those can be incorporated as well. The drawing offer will be hyperlinked to the end of the survey and will redirect respondents to a separate database. The survey responses will not be associated with the drawing information.
10. For approximately how long should the survey be available to collect responses?
A study is typically active for three weeks. However, you are welcome to keep the survey active longer if you would like to collect more responses. Fall semester surveys must close by December, and spring semester surveys must close by May.
11. How many reminders should I send?
We recommend sending one initial mailing and at least two reminders, with the reminders spaced approximately one week apart.
12. What sample size is recommended for each of the surveys?
In most instances and when appropriate based on undergraduate enrollment size, we will recommend a minimum sample size for each student survey of 2500 students. Click here for more sampling considerations and information on how this is calculated.
Anthology is available to assist campuses with sampling issues. Click here to learn what information we will need in order to assist.
13. What kind of response rate can my campus expect?
The typical response rate for most online surveys is between 15 and 25%. Response rates can be increased in some instances by offering incentives, sending out pre-survey emails advising students when to expect the online survey, and sending several targeted reminders to non-respondents.
14. When will reports be available?
Local data for each institution will be available immediately. Data is collected in real time, and results can be viewed on the Project Dashboard. Click here for more information on reporting options for individual surveys.
The Orientation and New Student Programs national report will be available by the end of December. For all other studies, the national reports will be available in May.
All participating surveys must complete data collection and be closed in order for the national reports to be generated. For participating institutions, we will notify the primary contact of each study once the report has been published.
15. Where do I find the national report?
Once you’re signed into Baseline, click on the “Benchmarks” tab, then “Student Affairs Benchmarking” tab. Select the year (or session) for which you participated, then click on the name of the study (it will be hyperlinked). If the study name is not hyperlinked, this indicates that your institution may not have participated, or the reports may not be available yet.
16. What reporting options/capabilities are available?
Please click here to view the Consortium Benchmarking Report Capabilities video.
17. How many student affairs benchmarking studies should my campus do each year?
We recommend choosing between one to four studies each year. We highly encourage campuses to choose studies each year that will assist with their decision making and reporting efforts for that year. Please keep in mind that benchmarking produces a lot of data, a clear plan for analysis and the time needed to make the results useful is needed before you administer.