Course Experience Questionnaire overview

The Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) is intended to probe key elements of the university learning process and, in doing so, obtain data on the quality of teaching and courses. The CEQ consists of attitudinal statements, each with a corresponding five-point scale, labelled ‘strongly disagree’ at one end and ‘strongly agree’ at the other. Respondents are encouraged to indicate their agreement or disagreement with each item.

With the exception of the Overall Satisfaction Indicator (OSI), which is a single-item scale, each statement in the CEQ has at least two other accompanying items (not necessarily appearing in consecutive order) and together these constitute a ‘scale’ that measures an underlying construct.

While there are ‘core’ scales that appear in the CEQ distributed to graduates from every institution, each institution is also able to choose from a range of additional scales to measure different pedagogical constructs. However, individual statements within a scale are never split up and administered separately.

Scales examined by the Course Experience Questionnaire

Title

Label

Focus

Status

Items

Good Teaching Scale

GTS

the nature of teaching experienced during a course

Core

6

Generic Skills Scale

GSS

the enhancement of selected generic skills

Core

6

Overall Satisfaction Item

OSI

overall satisfaction with course quality

Core

1

Clear Goals and Standards Scale

CGS

whether course structure was clear and meaningful

Optional

4

Appropriate Workload Scale

AWS

whether workload levels hindered deeper forms of learning

Optional

4

Appropriate Assessment Scale

AAS

whether assessment promoted deeper forms of learning

Optional

3

Intellectual Motivation Scale

IMS

the impact of the course in inspiring and enabling individuals intellectually

Optional

4

Student Support Scale

SSS

access to and satisfaction with key university facilities and services

Optional

5

Graduate Qualities Scale

GQS

whether the course generated higher-order outcomes and perspectives related to lifelong learning

Optional

6

Learning Resources Scale

LRS

the appropriateness and effectiveness of sources of information and course materials

Optional

5

Learning Community Scale

LCS

the social experience of learning at university

Optional

5

CEQ Instrument

The CEQ is administered as part of the AGS questionnaire, appearing alongside the GDS. It is directed at coursework rather than research-degree graduates.

Written comments about the course experience

Also accompanying the CEQ are two open-ended questions about what the graduate sees as the best aspects of their course and the aspects most in need of improvement. Responses to these questions are not currently analysed at a national level, but they generate significant constructive feedback at the institutional level. Many institutions are using these responses to improve the university experience for their students.

One popular method of analysing these data is CEQuery, a software package that is specifically designed to analyse the written comments generated by the questions. To read more about CEQuery, click here.