The College Success Factors Index: An Instructor’s How-To Guide
Developed by Gary J. Williams, Ed.D. Long Beach City College,
Long Beach, CA
This guide is designed to be a simple how-to guide on how to get started using the College Success Factors Index (also known as the CSFI). In this guide, you will receive step-by-step instructions on:
· How to register your own instructor account on the CSFI website.
· How to set up your class on the CSFI website.
· What your students need to know and do in order to complete the CSFI on the Internet.
· How to access the CSFI results for your class, and what your next steps should be.
· Developing intervention strategies for your class using the CSFI, including a few brief examples.
· What to do if you or your students lose their access codes or passwords.
· How to contact College Success Division if you have questions or need assistance.
I. Getting Started: Setting up your classroom on the CSFI Website:
Getting started using the College Success Factors Index is easy. Simply visit http://www.csfi-wadsworth.com and follow the link to the CSFI website.
Your first task is to set up your own personal instructor account. To do so, follow these steps:
1. Click “Set up your classroom” link as indicated in the illustration above.
2. You will then be asked for a “School Password” as shown below. You can request a school password by clicking the link below or by e-mailing .
3. Next, you will be asked to provide the following registration information:
Be sure to write down your login name and password, as you will use this to access the CSFI website from this point on.
4. Should you forget your login or password, you can request them by e-mail at .
II. Instructor Central
Now that you have registered as an instructor, all the resources you need are located in one place on the CSFI website. Instructor Central is where you will go to set up your classes, to take the CSFI, access student results, and to find information about each of the 8 Factors, as well as strategies to address student needs.
To access Instructor Central, you must first log in by using the login name and password you just created. Navigate your browser to the CSFI website and click “Log into Instructor Central” as shown at the top of the next page.
Next, provide your User Name and Password:
You are then taken to the “Instructor Central” page, which is shown below:
From this page, you can view student and class scores and results, set up new classes and manage existing classes, and read all about strategies you can use to help your students get the most from their experience using the CSFI.
In the following section, we will cover how you can set up your class to take the CSFI.
III. Setting up a new class to take the CSFI
From the Instructor Central page, you can easily set up your class (or as many classes as you wish) to take the CSFI.
1. Click on “Set up a new class” link, which is located under the Managing Classes heading, as indicated below:
2. You will then be taken to the “Set up a new class” registration screen:
3. Provide a brief description of the class you are registering, and the number of students in that class under the enrollment screen. If you wish to register several classes, register each of them separately, using a separate description for each class.
4. The Class Password is very important. You will be providing this password to your students in each class section you set up and the students will need it when they register to take the CSFI. Make sure it is not a personal password that you do not wish to disclose to others. Also, you will need a different password for each class you set up; it is very important that your class password is a unique combination of letters and numbers. Provide this password to them in writing, such as on a note card or in the syllabus.
The class password is also important because it is what uniquely identifies your student in the CSFI website database as part of the class you set up. If students were to use a different class password—or mistakenly enter a similar password—than the one you establish for your class, their results would not appear when you attempt to access student scores from the Instructor Central page. It is vital that you ensure that students use only the class password that you give them.
5. Once you’ve clicked on “Register Class,” you are ready to have your students take the CSFI.
IV. Administering the CSFI to your students
Because the CSFI is a web-based assessment, students can access the instrument in a number of settings - in a computer lab, at home, or wherever they can access the Internet. As an instructor, you have the flexibility of choosing to assign the CSFI as an out-of-class activity, or have students take the instrument all at once in a computer lab setting. Whether students take it individually or together as a class, the steps to completing the CSFI are the same.
1. Students will navigate their browser to the CSFI website: http://www.csfi-wadsworth.com and click on “Student Registration” as shown below:
2. Students are required to enter two passwords to access the CSFI on the web:
The “Access Password” is provided on a card provided by Cengage Wadsworth, either bundled in the student textbook, sold separately by Cengage Wadsworth, or provided by a Cengage Wadsworth representative. (For information on ordering Access Passwords, see your Cengage Wadsworth Campus representative, or e-mail )
The Class Password is the one that you established for the class in the previous step and have provided for them. Students are instructed to contact you should they lose their Class Password.
3. Once students enter the two required passwords, they are taken to a registration screen to input their name and other identifying information prior to taking the CSFI:
Students are asked to choose a login name and password, which will serve as their access to the CSFI website from this point forward. In other words, the access and class passwords are no longer required once the student has completed the student registration form. Emphasize to students that they must write down their login name and password.
4. Once students have successfully registered, they are given access to the CSFI assessment.
5. To begin the assessment, they click on the link to “Take the CSFI assessment,” and after reading the test instructions, they can begin the assessment. If students cannot reach this link directly or need to return, they can also access the assessment by clicking “Login” under “For Students” on the CSFI homepage.
6. The assessment consists of 80 items, where students are asked to indicate their response by clicking on the bubble that most closely matches their view of each statement as it pertains to their attitudes and practices as a student.
7. Once students have answered item 80, they will click on the button titled “Score Test” and their results will be displayed on screen as shown below:
At the same moment, the students’ results are stored in the CSFI website database under the class associated with the class password that you provided. Simultaneously, an e-mail is generated to your e-mail account (the one you provided when you registered as an instructor), indicating the name of the student who just completed the CSFI assessment. You are now able to view the students’ scores by logging into Instructor Central using your own login and password.
Toll-Free Academic Resource Center for CSFI
Please call (800) 423-0563 if you have any questions or concerns regarding the College Success Factors Index.