An overview of psychometric properties of the AUSSE Student Engagement Questionnaire (SEQ)

The quality of education is a product of what students do, and how teachers, support professionals and institutions support good educational practice. This means that measuring students’ participation in good educational practices and measuring how institutions support such participation goes to the heart of educational quality. An important link in this line of reasoning is that the instruments used for measurement provide valid, reliable and efficient measurement. This is essential, for otherwise insights into how students engage in education will be biased or diffuse and wrong decisions may be made that have serious implications for policy and practice. To that end, this briefing provides an overview of the psychometric properties of the Student Engagement Questionnaire (SEQ). The SEQ is administered as part of the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) (ACER, 2011), and in a range of other applied and scholarly research studies. Since 2006, the SEQ has been deployed to over 600,000 students at all but one Australasian universities and in a growing number of other higher education providers. Over 200,000 people have completed the inventory

Group of national experts on the AHELO feasibility study : consortium progress report, Paris, 25-16 October 2010

This Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) Consortium Progress Report provides an update of work undertaken between July and September 2010

FRONTIER QUALITY DIFFERENTIALS IN HYBRID HIGHER EDUCATION

“Research capacity has large influence on a nation's competitiveness and its economic strength. Institutions can make a significant difference in the research productivity of their faculty Indeed, research shows that institutional affiliation is an important predictor of productivity over time. What this suggests is that effective scholars thrive in a certain kind of academic "ecology." The purpose of this paper is to describe several key features of this environment and to pay special attention to what will be required to cultivate the next generation of researchers.”

A journey to measure student community engagement benefits: evidence from Australia / Ellen Chung and Hamish Coates

Community engagement is a phenomenon that has received increasing attention among institutions of higher learning in recent years, and students engaging with communities are generally seen as beneficial. Given this, surprisingly little is known about this form of engagement in Australian higher education, let alone methods to measure its benefits on students. This study discussed the development of the Student Community Engagement Benefits Questionnaire (SCEBS), a questionnaire that measures the perceptions of community engagement benefits among undergraduate students in Australia. The final questionnaire has 32 items allocated to four benefit scales: (1) Career skills, (2) Diversity skills, (3) Interpersonal skills, (4) Civic skills. Most benefit items had a factor loading of at least 0.40 with its own scale. The results of the factor analysis revealed that the four scales accounted for 53% of the total variance. The alpha reliability coefficient for the four scales ranged from 0.79 to 0.91. Based on these findings, the Student Community Engagement Benefits Scale (SCEBS) is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used in the field of education. Undergraduate students also reported statistically significant changes in the four dimensions after participating in community engagement activities

Student community engagement : insight from Australia / Ellen Chung and Hamish Coates

Student community engagement is a form of experiential education where students engage in activities that address community needs. This form of learning emphasizes collaboration between students, faculty, and the community partner. By using Student Community Engagement Benefits Questionnaire, data was collected from 151 students in four Australian universities. This study has identified the various community engagement activities they participated either in Australia or overseas; whether voluntary or compulsory. Analysis of variance and paired sample t-test showed that there was a statistically significant gain in Career, Diversity, Interpersonal and Civic skills among the respondents after the community engagement activities. By incorporating three demographic and contextual characteristics, analysis of covariance showed that the changes after community engagement in these four skills were not significant between the two types of projects (compulsory and voluntary projects). When data was analysed by age group of respondents, there was a significant difference after community engagement only in Civic skills. Analysis by community engagement durations also showed that there was a significant difference in Career skills, Interpersonal Skills and Civic skills. This paper sheds light on what students learn from community engagement in the context of Australian higher educatio

FRONTIER QUALITY DIFFERENTIALS IN HYBRID HIGHER EDUCATION

“Research capacity has large influence on a nation's competitiveness and its economic strength. Institutions can make a significant difference in the research productivity of their faculty Indeed, research shows that institutional affiliation is an important predictor of productivity over time. What this suggests is that effective scholars thrive in a certain kind of academic "ecology." The purpose of this paper is to describe several key features of this environment and to pay special attention to what will be required to cultivate the next generation of researchers.”

Using AUSSE data for enhancement

The Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) provides data for each institution on student engagement that is both generalisable and sensitive to institutional context. The data can help universities monitor and enhance the quality of education.<br /

International students’ engagement with effective educational practices : a cross-national comparison

International students in USA universities have higher levels of engagement with their institution when compared to international students enrolled in Australasian universities. ❚ The largest difference between USA and Australian international students was related to student and staff interactions. ❚ The growth in engagement with their institution between first and later year students among the international cohort is more prominent among those enrolled in USA than those in Australia or New Zealand. ❚ Among Australasian higher education students the international student group on average have higher levels of engagement than domestic students. ❚ When compared cross-nationally, the engagement score difference between international students in Australasia and international in the USA is larger than the gap between domestic students from these countries. In a global context, there is room for improvement in the engagement of international students in Australia and New Zealand

Innovative Approaches for Enhancing the 21st Century Student Experience

This paper discusses insights from a project aimed to bring about sustainable strategic change through improving institutional capacity to enhance the 21st century student experience. It sought to build new concepts for understanding Australia’s higher education students, identify new data sources and approaches for measuring the student experience, and engage institutions in enhancement work and new conversations about students. After discussing pertinent contexts and rationales, the paper discusses national research conducted to understand the current state of play. It then proposes the model derived to reconceptualise qualities of a successful experience. It closes by articulating two enhancement strategies developed to seed new practices