Strengthen the Quality of Student Life and
Learning on Your Campus
Successful campuses continuously strive to improve the quality of the student experience. In order to do that, you need to know where to focus your efforts.
The RNL Satisfaction-Priorities Surveys (SPS) help you pinpoint those challenges and priorities. They allow you to look at your institution inside and outside of the classroom, so you can analyze a wide spectrum of issues that affect the student experience. You’ll see a clear picture of what you need to do now to improve student life, learning, and success.
Institutions regularly assess student satisfaction to:
- Strengthen student success initiatives
- Guide strategic action planning
- Meet accreditation requirements
- Identify areas of strength for institutional marketing
- Chart progress toward campus goals
Introduction to Satisfaction Surveying
Interested in learning how you can implement satisfaction assessment on your campus? Ask for a free consultation with our team.
More than 3,000 campuses have used the RNL SPS
98%
of clients are satisfied with the RNL instruments
64%
report higher retention while using the RNL surveys
62%
saw satisfaction levels increase year over year
Why use RNL Satisfaction-Priorities Surveys?
- They measure both the level of satisfaction and the level of importance, giving you results that show what matters to students.
- The surveys capture perceptions of the student experience inside and outside the classroom.
- Track institutional trends year over year to show improvements in student satisfaction.
- Most surveys can be completed in just 15 minutes.
- You receive benchmarks within three weeks that compare your scores to peer institutions, pinpointing where your students are significantly more or less satisfied.
Powerful results for data-informed decision making
The results from the RNL satisfaction surveys provide your campus with a wealth of data points which will inform student success efforts, accreditation, strategic planning and provide your own internal market research for recruitment efforts. The SPS surveys captures a variety of experiences across all class levels, both inside and outside of the classroom, including:
- Instructional effectiveness
- Academic advising
- Registration effectiveness
- Campus climate
- Safety and security
- Recruitment and financial aid
- Campus life
Complimentary Consultation
Talk to our experts to learn how satisfaction-priorities surveys can support your student success efforts!
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Find the right RNL Satisfaction-Priorities Surveys for your institution
The SSI is appropriate for students at four-year and two-year institutions, public or private. You can select either the Form A 70+ item version (most widely used) or the shorter 40+ item Form B version.
The ASPS is appropriate for surveying adult students 25 years of age and older at:
- Undergraduate programs at four-year institutions
- Graduate programs
- Evening or weekend programs
The PSOL is designed specifically for online students in either graduate or undergraduate programs at four-year and two-year institutions.
The IPS captures the perceptions of the student experience through the eyes of faculty, staff and administrators. The IPS survey version selected should align with the SSI version used.
Using the two surveys simultaneously reveals areas of agreement and disagreement between students and campus personnel, so you can:
- Confirm further the accuracy of your students’ perceptions
- Identify areas for new initiatives that will be well-received campus wide
By knowing which issues everyone agrees are important, you’ll be prepared to implement programs that are well-received, and you’ll learn when advance work is necessary to bring particular campus audiences on board with the rest.
To assess campus employee satisfaction learn about the College Employee Satisfaction Survey.
“We use the Student Satisfaction Inventory data in all of our departments, academic and non-academic, to determine if we are meeting expected outcomes. We intentionally make changes based on the data to improve the student experience.”
“When we focus on the identified strengths and challenges from our RNL Satisfaction-Priorities Survey results, we get more bang for our buck because we know these are areas that truly matter to our students.”
“The SSI is easy to use and the RNL staff provide good directions and make the administration process simple to implement. They also provide excellent customer service throughout the process. The results are clear and provide actionable next steps. We took advantage of the free, one-hour report review and we really appreciated the additional observations that were shared to help us take the use of our results to the next level.”
“The RNL online administration system is the easiest, most user-friendly one we use for surveying students. Plus the customer-service experience was amazing and the best we have ever had with a vendor!”
Administering the Survey and Receiving Your Results
As part of your deliverable, you will receive your data benchmarked against our national data set (and regional data set where applicable) for like-institutions, based on the survey version you administer.
To see the national trends in student satisfaction, see our most recent National Benchmark Report.
Your timeline is our timeline! We do not have a registration deadline and your results will be delivered within 3 weeks of your survey closing.
Use of the surveys is appropriate at any time during the academic year. However, we suggest you avoid surveying during mid-terms/finals and the first 3-4 weeks of a new term. As you consider your survey cycle, we recommend administering the RNL surveys every-other-year at similar timeframes, giving you confidence in your longitudinal data.
Why survey in the fall? Enrollment numbers are typically higher in the fall, giving you the opportunity to capture more responses while decisions to stay or leave are still being formed. The biggest advantage is it allows you time to put your data into action in the same academic year.
Why survey in the spring? Students have more experiences on which to base their responses and you can use the late spring and summer for follow-up planning.
Students need approximately 15-20 minutes to complete the online surveys.
Our recommendation is to invite your entire student population.
The surveys are implemented online (desktop and mobile compatible) with:
- a standard URL which requires each student to enter a passcode that is unique to them (the standard URL can also be turned into a QR code)
- personal URL links distributed via email from RNL’s admin system
- personal URL links distributed via a mail merge locally (this is you sending emails to each student which is actually easier than you think)
As part of the survey customization (which will appear seamlessly in the online survey) you can add the following:
- Ten campus specific items (20 for the ASPS) which are positive statements that your students rate for importance and satisfaction.
- Two additional campus specific demographic questions, in a multiple choice format.
- An unlimited list of your majors/programs for your students to self-select their area of study from a drop down menu.
The Report Deliverables are presented in RNL’s client portal using PowerBi.
- Included with every report:
- You will receive an executive summary, your identified strengths and challenges and the results for all individual items, as well as the items clustered by categories, the item percentage results, the summary scores and the demographic responses.
- Benchmarking Data:
- National comparison group
- Regional comparison group (where applicable)
- Past administration for trend analysis year over year (for multi-year administrations)
- Unlimited data slicing:
- The ability to disaggregate your results by ALL demographic variables in various formats to compare responses internally and externally
- The raw data file for additional analysis
- Recommendation scores and open-ended comments:
- Excel worksheets that include your Overall Recommendation Scores and the students’ responses to the Open-Ended Comments section.
In addition, upon request, we will provide a complimentary one-hour virtual consulting session with the individuals you designate to review your results in the portal and to brainstorm with you on possible next steps with your data.
If you have additional questions, feel free to review our FAQ page or Contact Shannon Cook today!
If you are a current client looking for access to your SPS reports, login to your RNL Portal account at: myportal.rnl.com
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More research and insights on student satisfaction
2023 National Student Satisfaction and Priorities Results
Why Does Student Satisfaction Matter?
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