Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education – Participation Information

Our experiences in the pilot phase have led to revisions in the study design and timeline for the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education. We will update this page to reflect these modifications soon.

Details about institutional and student participation in the National Study of Liberal Arts Education (NSLAE) appear below. You can also view a copy of our presentation (pdf) from AAC&U’s 2005 Annual Meeting and browse our website for more information. Contact Cherry Danielson or Charles Blaich at nationalstudy@wabash.edu with any additional questions about the National Study. 

Participation Details

College experiences and practices we will study

• Teaching
  
• Faculty/student interactions
  
• Co-curricular involvement
  
• Student engagement
  
• Curricular structures
  
• Etc.
  

Outcomes the study will focus on

• Effective reasoning and problem solving
  
• Inclination to inquire and lifelong learning
  
• Integration of learning
  
• Intercultural effectiveness
  
• Leadership
  
• Moral character
  
• Well-being
  

Participating students’ involvement

• Student participation is voluntary
  
• We ask all student participants to continue their involvement with the study over their entire college career and beyond
  
• Participants will complete five rounds of testing (including two post-college), each approximately 90 minutes long
  
• A portion of these students will be invited to participate in four interviews, approximately 90 minutes each
  
  

Funding information

NSLAE is funded by the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts. This funding covers:

• A stipend for one faculty member or administrator from each institution who will work with the NSLAE team to coordinate research done on his or her campuses (the on-campus coordinator)
  
• Incentive payments to student participants for each portion of the study
  
• Cost of instruments
  
• Compensation for time spent retrieving student information from student data records on campus
  
• Travel costs for our research teams
  
  

Requirements of participating institutions

• Designate one coordinator (faculty member or administrator) to organize the arrangements for all data collections on campus
  [Note: This on-campus coordinator will receive a stipend for working with the NSLAE.]
  
• Provide a letter encouraging student participation, on institutional stationary or letterhead (including envelopes)
  
• Cover any room or facility charges for our data collection
  
• Provide a room or space for sit-down testing
  
• Provide space for student interviews
• Coordinate with the research team for on-site visits of the Institutional Context portion of the study
  • Provide access to students, faculty, administrators, and staff for focus groups and interviews
  • Provide space or rooms for the interviews and focus groups
  • Provide documents necessary for developing a case study
• Arrange for on-campus briefing sessions at which the research team will present and discuss the results of the study
  
• Cover lodging and meals for NSLAE research teams when they visit your campus
  • Survey Study- two team visits first-year and one visit senior year
  • Interview Study- one team visit per year
  • Institutional Context Study- one team visit per year
  
  

Benefits for participating institutions

• Campuses will learn more about the relationship between their campus practices, innovations, and structures that promote the achievement of the seven highlighted liberal arts outcomes
  
• Institutions will receive summary reports about the quantitative, qualitative, and institutional components of the study
  
• Each campus will receive quantitative data and summaries of qualitative interviews for its students
• Campuses can submit questions specific to their own institutions for possible inclusion in the NSLAE survey component
  
• The Center of Inquiry and the National Study team will work with participating institutions to ensure the study findings are useful to their campuses
  

Ensured confidentiality

• NSLAE research team will secure approval from institutional review boards at participating institutions prior to data collection
  
• Researchers in this study will not publicly release the names of participating institutions
  
• All individual and institutional data will be held in the strictest confidence and will be stored in a protected and secure database at ACT
  
• Data will not be released to anyone outside of the research team
  

Campus representation

A team of three people from each participating institution should plan to attend a meeting in August 2005 for a detailed explanation of the entire study. The Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts will host this meeting and will cover associated costs for travel, food, and lodging. Each team of campus representatives will then assist us in organizing the most efficient way to administer the NSLAE at their institution. Each group should consist of:

• The designated on-campus coordinator
  
• A representative who has the authority to make institutional decisions
  
• The director of new-student orientation
  
  

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