Contact us
The Ausse survey instruments
- What extent does the SEQ measure what it claims to measure? How can we be sure?
The SEQ has been designed to measure several areas of student engagement. The questionnaire and its items have been designed, developed and validated by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) through a process involving focus groups, cognitive interviews, pilot testing, psychometric analysis and review by educational and technical experts. Ongoing validation of the SEQ is also taking place and involves focus groups, consultations, cognitive interviews, pilot testing, expert reviews and psychometric analyses.
- What is the rationale for including items in their respective scales?
Items included in the SEQ are based on findings from decades of research on the activities and conditions linked with high-quality learning.
- How have the AUSSE surveys been validated?
All the surveys that form part of the AUSSE, including the Student Engagement Questionnaire (SEQ), Postgraduate Student Engagement Questionnaire (PSEQ) and the Staff Student Engagement Questionnaire (SSEQ) have formative links with the College Student Report, an instrument that has been used in the US and Canada for the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) for nearly a decade. The College Student Report was designed to consist principally of items known to be related to important college outcomes and was validated through a pilot study in the late nineties. ACER further added a range of new and redesigned items to the College Student Report and designed and validated it before deploying it as the SEQ. Validation of the SEQ included focus groups, cognitive interviews, pilot testing and expert review.
- Am I able to customise the questions in the AUSSE to better suit my student groups?
If you are interested in customising the items in the AUSSE surveys or in including additional items, please contact ACER.
- Can we use items from the AUSSE surveys in other surveys at our institution?
If you would like to use items from any of the AUSSE surveys in another survey that you will be conducting at your institution, please contact ACER.
- Can institution-specific questions be inserted into the survey instruments?
Yes, institution-specific items can be included in the online version of the Student Engagement Questionnaire (SEQ). Please note that institution-specific items cannot be included in the paper version of the SEQ due to space constraints and other complications. If you are interested in including institution-specific items in the SEQ, please contact ACER to discuss your requirements.
- How long does the survey take to complete?
All of the AUSSE surveys, the Student Engagement Questionnaire (SEQ), Postgraduate Student Engagement Questionnaire (PSEQ) and Staff Student Engagement Questionnaire (SSEQ), each take approximately 15 minutes to complete.
- What aspects of student engagement are measured in the SEQ?
The SEQ measures six different aspects of student engagement:
- Academic Challenge - the extent to which expectations and assessments challenge students to learn
- Active Learning - students' efforts to actively construct their knowledge
- Student and Staff Interactions - the level and nature of students' contact with teaching staff
- Enriching Educational Experiences - participation in broadening educational activities
- Supportive Learning Environment - feelings of legitimation within the university community
- Work Integrated Learning - integration of employment-focused work experiences into study
The SEQ also collects information that form seven student outcomes scales:
- Higher Order Thinking - students' participation in higher-order forms of thinking
- General Learning Outcomes - development of general competencies
- General Development Outcomes - development of general forms of individual and social development
- Average Overall Grade - average overall grade so far in course
- Departure Intention - non-graduating students' intentions on not returning to study in the following year
- Overall Satisfaction - students' overall satisfaction with their educational experience
- Career Readiness - preparation for participation in the professional workforce
The SEQ also collects a range of information on individual demographics and educational contexts from students.
- Can we use the AUSSE with all our undergraduate and postgraduate students?
At this stage, there are two different student surveys of student engagement, one designed for undergraduate students, and one for postgraduate coursework students.
The Student Engagement Questionnaire (SEQ) is designed to be administered to undergraduate on-shore students who have not previously been involved in or completed a higher education degree and who are in their first- or third-year of undergraduate study, and the Postgraduate Student Engagement Questionnaire (PSEQ) is an adaptation of the SEQ that is designed to be administered to postgraduate coursework students.
- What is the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE)?
The Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE) is a survey that has been run by Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research since 2004. The FSSE was designed to complement the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). The FSSE measures the perceptions of staff members about how often students engage in particular activities, the importance staff place on different areas of teaching, learning and student development, the nature and frequency of faculty-student interactions and how faculty members organise their time in, and out of the classroom. To date, around 100,000 academics from more than 485 universities have taken part in the FSSE.
- What is the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)?
The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) is a survey that was developed in the mid-1990s in the USA to collect data on undergraduate student engagement and student participation in programs and activities that institutions provide for students' learning and personal development. The NSSE is run throughout US and Canada each year with hundreds of colleges and universities. Over 1,400 US and Canadian higher education institutions have participated in the NSSE since it was first administered in 2000.
As the AUSSE has formative links with the NSSE, institutions that participate in the AUSSE can benchmark their results with US and Canadian institutions to gain an international perspective on student engagement.
- What is the Staff Student Engagement Questionnaire (SSEQ)?
The Staff Student Engagement Questionnaire (SSEQ) is the survey instrument for the Staff Student Engagement Survey (SSES) which is a survey that complements the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) and the Postgraduate Survey of Student Engagement (POSSE). The SSES is a survey of academic staff about their students and measures academics’ expectations for student engagement in educational practices that have been linked empirically with high quality learning and development.
The SSEQ focuses on academics’ perceptions of how often their students engage in different activities; the importance they place on various aspects of learning and development; the nature and frequency of staff-student interactions; and how they organise their time, both in and out of the classroom. The SSEQ also collects information on staff demographics and nature of their employment.
- What is the Student Engagement Questionnaire (SEQ)?
The Student Engagement Questionnaire (SEQ) is a survey designed to be administered to first- and third-year undergraduate students who are studying onshore and who have not participated in higher education previously. The survey is administered both in an online and paper format and it takes students approximately 15 minutes to complete the 41 questions on the SEQ.
The SEQ measures six different aspects of student engagement:
- Academic Challenge - the extent to which expectations and assessments challenge students to learn
- Active Learning - students' efforts to actively construct their knowledge
- Student and Staff Interactions - the level and nature of students' contact with teaching staff
- Enriching Educational Experiences - participation in broadening educational activities
- Supportive Learning Environment - feelings of legitimation within the university community
- Work Integrated Learning - integration of employment-focused work experiences into study
The SEQ also collects information that form seven student outcomes scales:
- Higher Order Thinking - students' participation in higher-order forms of thinking
- General Learning Outcomes - development of general competencies
- General Development Outcomes - development of general forms of individual and social development
- Average Overall Grade - average overall grade so far in course
- Departure Intention - non-graduating students' intentions on not returning to study in the following year
- Overall Satisfaction - students' overall satisfaction with their educational experience
- Career Readiness - preparation for participation in the professional workforce
The SEQ also collects a range of information on individual demographics and educational contexts from students.
- How does the questionnaire align with other instruments across the world?
A review of international practice and research was undertaken during development of the instruments. The SEQ has formative links with the National Survey of Student Engagement which has been conducted for close to a decade in USA. The SEQ was developed to align with and advance international practice.
- Has the SEQ been tested with students?
The SEQ has been validated through a pilot test in which students completed the instrument. Validation of the SEQ items also included cognitive interviews and focus groups with students.
