CEQ and programs - The longer term

In general

Course experience questionnaire (CEQ) results, where statistically valid, can be used to benchmark course performance in the scale items, and the open-ended student comments may be used to provide additional information about the possible reasons for student ratings in the scale items. Virtually all authors writing on the CEQ highlight that CEQ results are essentially a starting point, and only one of many sources of information that should be called upon when assessing the quality of courses/programs.

While overall CEQ response rates may be good at the institutional level, achieving adequate response rates for any useful analysis remains an issue for many Australian courses. For both improving course CEQ response rates and possibly positively influencing CEQ ratings, there is likely to be value in discussing the CEQ with students nearing the completion of their studies.This will help them understand the importance and value of completing the CEQ, assist them to become conversant with the terminology used in the CEQ and help them to clarify their own thoughts about their overall study experience.

The CEQ provides one recent, but historical proxy measure of teaching quality at the course level. For more timely feedback from current students and/or more detailed investigation of quality at the unit level, the student evaluation of teaching and units (SETU) instrument, with the caveats noted previously, provides more focussed information.

Forward to: SETU