The Diverse Learning Environments Survey (DLE) captures student perceptions regarding the institutional climate, campus practices as experienced with faculty, staff, and peers, and student learning outcomes. Diverse student populations are at the center of the survey, and the instrument is based on studies of diverse student bodies and the complexity of issues that range from student mobility to intergroup relations.
Registration for the 2022-2023 DLE is now closed. Participating institutions may now download their final reporting packages here.
Institutions use the DLE to:
Evaluate the campus climate
DLE was designed to include measures that specifically focus on aspects related to the climate for diversity, including experiences with discrimination, cross-racial interactions, validation and sense of belonging.
Collect information about institutional practices
The survey focuses on connecting diversity efforts with campus practices, including items related to a curriculum of inclusion, student support services and co-curricular diversity activities.
Assess student learning outcomes
DLE emphasizes student learning outcomes as a core component of diversity efforts and the survey includes measures such as the integration of learning, social action, and civic engagement.
Assess the pervasiveness of sexual assault
The survey includes sets of questions to measure the prevalence of unwanted sexual contact and sexual assault, including questions related to reporting of incidents and satisfaction with the institutional response.
Assess baseline strengths, identify areas for improvement, and track progress related to diversity efforts
DLE provides a snapshot of the campus climate, institutional practices, and student outcomes that can be used for campus diversity improvement efforts. Institutions can use the DLE as a tool for strategic planning and benchmarking.
Foster/initiate dialogue about diversity
Using data from the DLE, institutions can initiate dialogue about diversity related issues on their individual campuses.
Disaggregate student perceptions, experiences, and outcomes by different social identities (e.g., race, gender, sexual orientation)
The survey includes measures that can be disaggregated by different social identities, including race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability/disability status, socioeconomic status, and military veteran status. Campus reports now include intra-campus disaggregated comparisons by race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and first-generation status.
What Will a Participating Institution Receive?
Schools participating in the DLE survey receive an institutional profile report, which includes institutional results broken out by gender identity, comparisons with other similar institutions disaggregated by gender identity, significance testing, and effect sizes; a DLE Factors Report; an executive summary PowerPoint slide deck; and a data file of unit-record responses for the institution.
Administering the 2023 DLE Survey
The DLE is a web-based survey administered annually to students at both 2- and 4-year institutions who have had the opportunity to experience the campus climate. Campuses typically cast a wide net when administering the survey, but it is important to consider the extent to which individuals in the target sample have had an opportunity to experience the campus climate; therefore, if administering to first-year students, institutions may wish to wait until the spring term to conduct the survey. The DLE contains a “core” section of questions (with a standard or expanded set of sexual contact/sexual assault items) that all institutions administer and several optional modules:
- Classroom Climate
- Transition to the Major
- Intergroup Relations
- Spirituality
- Climate for Transfer at 2-Year Institutions
- Climate for Transfer at 4-Year Institutions
- COVID-19
The Web Survey can be administered either with your campus managing the email notification process, or for ease of use, you can elect to have HERI manage the email notifications to students. Our web portal allows campus representatives to select email notification and reminder dates, customize “welcome” and “thank you” pages, customize email notifications, and upload custom questions. Throughout the administration, campus representatives can monitor their response rates and adjust email reminder text as needed. The preliminary survey data and response rate reports update in real time, so campus representatives can download their preliminary data files at any point to analyze early responses.
Web Survey Features
- HERI-Managed Email Services – HERI can send customizable email notifications (including reminders) to your students
- Generic Survey Link – Upon request, HERI can provide campus representatives with a generic survey link to use as part of their survey distribution plan. Respondents who access the survey via the generic link are prompted to validate their eligibility to take the survey by inputting their Student ID or their email address on the survey landing page. The generic survey link option can be used in conjunction with HERI-managed emails or school-managed distribution of unique links.
- Customized “Welcome” and “Thank You” – Institutions can draft their own welcome and thank you messages to participants, describing the broader purpose of the survey for the campus and/or offer details about potential incentives
- Additional Questions – Participating campuses can append up to 20 closed-ended and up to five open-ended survey items that address campus-specific issues or concerns.
- Optional Modules – As described above, HERI provides a number of optional modules for campuses to append to the end of the core instrument at no additional cost.
The Survey Instrument and Modules
2023 DLE Instrument
- 2023 DLE Core Survey Instrument – All institutions participating in the DLE administer this “core” section of questions.
- 2023 DLE Survey Changes
- 2023 DLE Classroom Climate Module – This optional module asks respondents about their perception of the classroom environment and the various types of pedagogical practices employed by instructors
- 2023 DLE Transition to the Major Module – This optional module asks respondents about their experiences in selecting a major. It is appropriate for students who have not yet declared a major as well as those who have declared a major. Because many institutions report student attrition at this point in college, this information may be useful to help campuses investigate difficulty at this important transition stage
- 2023 DLE Intergroup Relations Module – This optional module asks respondents about their capacity to engage respectfully across group differences.
- 2023 DLE Spirituality Module asks respondents about the importance of spirituality in their lives, their spiritual development, and their level of engagement in spiritual activities
- 2023 DLE Climate for Transfer at 2-Year Institutions Module – This optional module asks respondents about practices at 2-year institutions regarding the transfer pathway and climate of support. It is designed for 2-year institutions and community colleges only.
- 2023 DLE Climate for Transfer Students at 4-Year Institutions Module – This optional module asks respondents about their transitional experiences understanding the campus climate at 4-year institutions. It is designed to be administered at 4-year institutions, and it contains questions relevant to all respondents as well questions specifically for those who transferred to the institution.
- 2023 DLE COVID-19 – This optional module asks respondents about their experiences with instruction, sources of stress, views, and their opinion on the institutional response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Using HERI Surveys to Assess Campus Climate – The HERI surveys capture both personal experiences and perceptions of campus climate from the perspective of students, faculty, and staff for a more complete understanding of the climate for diversity on campus.
Forms and Documentation
2023 DLE Survey
- Administration Guidelines – Necessary information for schools concerning the administration of the DLE
- Administration Timeline – Use the timeline to track the general tasks required during a survey cycle
- Survey Information Sheet – Copy of the informed consent given to survey respondents
- Student Identifiers – Find out how student identifiers can help you merge data for longitudinal analyses
- Additional Questions – Important information for campuses adding their own questions to the instrument
- School Managed Distribution – Instructions for sending your email invitations directly from your institution
- Mailing List – Sample file for uploading student names/email addresses
- Pre-notification Email Templates– Editable text for your pre-notification emails
- Invitation and Reminder Templates– Sample text for inviting your students to participate
- Welcome and Thank You text – Editable text for your welcome and thank you survey pages
- Anti-Spam Guidelines – How to prevent survey invitations and reminders from CIRP being filtered out as bulk or junk mail
- Group Codes – Comparing specific subgroups of your student sample
- Confidentiality and Privacy – Protocol for ensuring the confidentiality and privacy of our data and suggestions about how to assure your students that their information is safe
- Encouraging Participation – Suggestions for increasing response rates
- Promo-Pack Instructions – Instructions on how to use the DLE Promo-Pack
- Data and Reporting – Descriptions of the institutional data and reporting institutions will receive from CIRP
- UCLA IRB Approval – Copy of the current UCLA IRB approval for the DLE
Survey Fees
Survey Fees
The combined survey administration and registration fee is calculated based on total full-time equivalent (FTE) undergraduate enrollment (for student surveys) or full-time faculty (faculty/staff survey) with information obtained from the IPEDS database on September 1, 2017. You can find the survey fees for your institution by searching on our pricing page.
Optional Costs
-Customized Welcome and Thank You Pages: no additional fee
-Additional questions for web administration – 20 closed-ended and/or 5 open-ended: $350
-Group Codes: no additional fee
-HERI-managed email distribution to students: $375
-School-managed email distribution: no additional fee
Billing Policy
HERI uses a two-step process for billing. First, within two weeks of receiving an order to administer one of our surveys from an authorized campus representative, we will send an invoice to that representative or the designated billing contact requesting payment for a $1,000 registration deposit. This registration deposit will be credited toward the total administration cost. Should needs on campus change, please read below to review our cancellation policy.
Second, approximately six weeks before the national administration closes for the DLE Survey, we will send a second invoice for the remaining balance associated with each respective survey administration, including any optional services requested during the administration period (i.e., HERI-managed emails, additional questions on web-based surveys).
The costs for administering HERI’s surveys cover customer service support from HERI’s staff throughout the administration process, the full suite of campus reports (i.e., Institutional Profile Report, Construct Report, Theme Report, Executive Summary PowerPoint), preparation of the final dataset, and targeted consultation to help clarify or explain the results featured in each set of reports.
We will continue to invoice separately for any orders for data services or customized reports placed by authorized campus representatives, and we typically send those invoices within two weeks of fulfilling each order. Additionally, for campuses that have more specific needs related to developing more tailored surveys, generating a more comprehensive, in-depth analysis of their survey data, or creating a more comprehensive assessment of campus climate, HERI staff members are available for more extensive consulting partnerships. Please contact us at heri@ucla.edu for more information.
*Expedited payment is helpful because UCLA charges additional fees after invoices become 90 days
past due. If there are delinquency fees on your account, your payment will be applied to these charges first. The unpaid balance on the account will remain past due and will continue to accrue additional delinquency fees. Balances which remain unpaid for several months risk going to collections.
Cancellation Policy
Placing an order indicates your institution’s agreement to participate in the survey. HERI will refund $800 of the $1,000 deposit if a campus informs HERI in writing of its decision to cancel the administration for the DLE Survey by the cancellation cutoff date. HERI will refund $200 of the $1,000 deposit for orders cancelled after the respective cutoff date. If your institution has received paper surveys, survey links, or distributed links via HERI’s email system prior to attempting to cancel the order, please refer to the Withdrawal Policy.
Withdrawal Policy
For Web Administrations
If the URL(s) have already been sent to the institution or distributed via HERI’s email distribution service to the sample of intended survey participants, the campus will forfeit the full $1,000 registration deposit. In addition, if HERI has provided any customized services at your request (e.g., incorporated on-line additional questions, etc.), you will also be responsible for the full cost of these services.
Registration for the 2022-2023 DLE survey is closed.