Using a mid-course CEQ

Pender Pedler, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia

The Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) is becoming increasingly important in processes and systems assuring the quality of learning and teaching (L&T) outcomes. In addition to its use in monitoring, reviewing and evaluating course outcomes, CEQ data are now used in institutional and national funding models. At the institutional level, some universities use CEQ data as a proxy for quality in a performance-based budget pool to provide a financial reward to those schools identified for the quality of their L&T outcomes. At the national level, the DEST Learning and Teaching Performance Fund (LTPF) uses CEQ data as an indicator of the excellence of L&T outcomes when identifying and rewarding those institutions with higher levels of demonstrated excellence. University staff are now under increasing pressure to improve the CEQ outcomes of their courses. The principal means of achieving this is for staff to systematically diagnose and rectify all issues concerning student perceptions of their course experiences, in time for changes to be made before course completion. Neither CEQ data nor internal unit and teaching evaluation data is adequate for this purpose. In 2004 ECU developed and trialled a mid-course CEQ. Following the trial, the University endorsed the mid-course CEQ as an approved form of quality assurance for L&T across a course. In 2005, 22 mid-course CEQs were conducted by five schools in three faculties, generating 35 mid-course CEQ reports. The mid-course CEQ is now an important university tool for diagnosing and rectifying problems with course delivery.

Refereed Paper