The applicability of course experience questionnaire for a Malaysian university context
| Date | 01 February 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-08-2014-0041 |
| Pages | 41-55 |
| Published date | 01 February 2016 |
| Author | Lei Mee Thien,Mei Yean Ong |
| Subject Matter | Education,Curriculum, instruction & assessment,Educational evaluation/assessment |
The applicability of course
experience questionnaire for
a Malaysian university context
Lei Mee Thien and Mei Yean Ong
Research and Development Division,
SEAMEO Regional Centre for Education in Science and Mathematics,
Gelugor, Penang, Malaysia
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the applicability of Course Experience
Questionnaire (CEQ) in a Malaysian university context.
Design/methodology/approach – The CEQ was translated into Malay language using rigorous
cross-cultural adaptation procedures. The Malay version CEQ was administered to 190 undergraduate
students in one Malaysian public university. Statistical analyses were used to examine the reliability
and factor structures of the Malay version CEQ scales using IBM SPSS version 20.0.
Findings – Findings raised serious questions about the reliability and construct validity of the CEQ
for a Malaysian university sample. Findings revealed that only two out of ve scales of CEQ showed
satisfactory level of reliability. Six items failed to load on the intended scales.
Research limitations/implications – The sample size is small with 190 university students and
covered respondents from one local university, while the other 17 local universities were not included
due to geographical distance.
Practical implications – The ndings are particularly important for higher education policymakers
to optimise and allocate the resources to improve university quality teaching. More attention should be
paid toward how to furnish the university teaching staff to provide a high level of teaching quality that
contributes to students’ generic skills for their employment in future. Researchers could extend the
applicability of the Malay version CEQ in primary and secondary school context.
Originality/value – The vast majority of CEQ-related research has been undertaken in the Western
context, thus raising the question of the applicability of CEQ for a Malaysian university context. The fall
in the Times Higher Education and QS World University rankings as well as the limited research in
assessment-related higher education has also accelerated the needs to examine the applicability of
CEQ23 in Malaysian university context. This study has provided fundamental cross-validation
empirical evidence to propose improvement in future studies.
Keywords Factor analysis, Higher education, Assessment
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Quality of teaching is one of the primary objectives of higher education due to the
demand of greater public accountability (Byrne and Flood, 2003). Therefore, the
emergence of various instruments to evaluate quality of teaching in higher education
has become a major issue in higher education research. Interestingly, empirical evidence
shows that students remain as the most signicant source to evaluate quality of
teaching by providing valid and reliable ndings (Marsh, 1987;Richardson, 2005). Since
the 1980s, there was a growing interest in the development of performance indicators to
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
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Course
experience
questionnaire
41
Received 15 August 2014
Revised 11 December 2014
Accepted 3 July 2015
QualityAssurance in Education
Vol.24 No. 1, 2016
pp.41-55
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0968-4883
DOI 10.1108/QAE-08-2014-0041
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