CEQ and programs - The longer term

The CEQ and Deakin

As noted above, the course experience questionnaire (CEQ) is a proxy measure of teaching and learning quality that is well supported in the literature, and has important practical implications in Australian higher education through its likely ongoing contribution to performance-based institutional funding. Of the 49 items on the current CEQ used by the Graduate Careers Council of Australia (GCCA), since 2003, Deakin has included the 13 core items (in the Good Teaching, Generic Skills and Overall Satisfaction scales), plus another 20 of the optional items (in the Intellectual Motivation, Student Support, Graduate Qualities and Learning Resources scales. The complete set of CEQ items currently used by Deakin is:

(Good Teaching scale)
GT01 - The staff put a lot of time into commenting on my work.
GT03 - The teaching staff normally gave me helpful feedback on how I was doing
GT10 - The teaching staff of this course motivated me to do my best work.
GT15 - My lecturers are extremely good at explaining things.
GT16 - The teaching staff worked hard to make their subjects interesting.
GT27 - The staff made a real effort to understand difficulties I might be having.

(Generic Skills scale)
GS06 - The course helped me develop my ability to work as a team member
GS14 - The course sharpened my analytic skills
GS23 - The course developed my problem solving skills
GS32 - The course improved my skills in written communication
GS42 - As a result of my course, I feel confident about tackling unfamiliar problems
GS43 - The course helped me to develop the ability to plan my own work

(Overall Satisfaction index)
OSI49 - Overall, I was satisfied with the quality of this course

(Intellectual Motivation scale)
IMS02 - I found my studies intellectually stimulating.
IMS07 - I found the course motivating.
IMS13 - Overall, my university experience was worthwhile.
IMS35 - The course has stimulated my interest in the field of study.

(Student Support scale)
SSS21 - I was able to access information technology resources when I needed them.
SSS24 - Relevant learning resources were accessible when I needed them.
SSS25 - Health, welfare and counselling services met my requirements.
SSS34 - The library services were readily accessible.
SSS37 - I was satisfied with the course and careers advice provided.

(Graduate Qualities scale)
GQS11 - The course provided me with a broad overview of my field of knowledge.
GQS17 - The course developed my confidence to investigate new ideas.
GQS30 - University stimulated my enthusiasm for further learning.
GQS36 - I learned to apply principles from this course to new situations.
GQS40 - I consider what I learned valuable for my future.
GQS48 - My university experience encouraged me to value perspectives other than my own.

(Learning Resources scale)
LRS12 - The library resources were appropriate for my needs.
LRS33 - The study materials were clear and concise.
LRS38 - It was made clear what resources were available to help me learn.
LRS41 - Course materials were relevant and up to date.
LRS47 - Where it was used, the information technology in teaching and learning was effective.

For all CEQ items, respondents are asked to express their degree of agreement or disagreement on a five-point scale. Normally, only the scale endpoints are labelled, the labels being 'strongly disagree' and 'strongly agree'. For reporting, the five-point response scale measures are converted to -100, -50, 0, 50 and 100, from which a range of descriptive statistics can be computed based on the idea of a mid-scale response being equated to a score of zero. Two other results are often reported from CEQ data. The first is 'percentage agreement', where responses of 50 (agree) and 100 (strongly agree) are taken to represent student agreement with a CEQ item. The second is 'percentage broad agreement', where responses of 0 (undecided), 50 (agree) and 100 (strongly agree) are taken to represent student agreement with a CEQ item. As well as results for each of the individual items, mean results for each scale group are also often reported. In addition to the 'quantitative' response items noted above, students are invited to write open-ended comments on the best aspects (BA) of their university course experience and those most needing improvement (NI).

The CEQ asks students, shortly after graduation, to rate their entire course of study, allowing them to provide separate responses if they have studied two major streams. Because of the consolidated, course-wide nature of the CEQ (Wilson, Lissio & Ramsden, 1997), the data obtained from it are primarily useful to those examining teaching and learning at the program level and above. Each year, the GCCA produces a detailed report of the consolidated CEQ results nationally, and the Deakin Planning Unit provides a report on the institutional CEQ results and provides the institutional CEQ data in a form that can be queried interactively (currently in the form of an MS Excel pivot table); all of these items can be downloaded from the Planning Unit web site. The annual GCCA CEQ report contains valuable guidance in the interpretation of the national CEQ results for that year.

Activity

In a previous activity, you were asked what other aspects of the student learning environment, beyond the first 13 listed above, that you consider to have an important influence on student learning outcomes.  Are any of these additional aspects captured in the 20 optional CEQ items that Deakin uses?  After seeing the entire list of all 33 CEQ items used by Deakin, are there any other aspects of the student learning environment that you would now add to your list of important influences?

Forward to: Using CEQ results