What
is SEEQ?
The Students’ Evaluation of Education Quality
(SEEQ) was developed by Dr. Herbert Marsh,
University of Western Sydney. Marsh is an
internationally recognized expert in the area of
psychometrics.
Now in the public domain, SEEQ has been
extensively tested and used in more than 50,000
courses with over one million students at both
the graduate and undergraduate levels. For
example, it has been used at the University of
Manitoba for a number of years, and Saint
Mary’s University has just adopted it campuswide
after extensive research.
Professor Self-Rating
The first step in using the SEEQ form is to
consider your own teaching, using a self-rating
survey. This survey, to be done before you look
at the student responses, allows you to place the
student comments in the context of your own
goals for that class and your own analysis.
Core Features of SEEQ
Using a five-point scale (strongly agree-agreeneutral-
disagree-strongly disagree), the SEEQ
examines eight characteristics of effective
teaching:
1. Learning
2. Individual Rapport
3. Enthusiasm
4. Examinations
5. Organization
6. Breadth
7. Group Interaction
8. Assignments
Each of these categories contains three or four
questions.
For example, the Learning category looks like
this, with students responding on a five-point
scale:
LEARNING
1. I found this course intellectually challenging
and stimulating.
2. I learned something that I consider valuable.
3. My interest in the subject increased as a
consequence of this course.
4. I learned and understood the subject materials
of this course.
There are also two overall questions that ask
students to rate the course compared to others
taken at Mount Allison and the instructor
compared to others at the university.
Students are asked to provide data about their
expected grade, whether the course is elective,
etc., and to comment on the workload/difficulty
of the course.
Two open-ended or narrative-response questions
end the questionnaire:
1. Which characteristics of this instructor
or course have been most valuable to
your learning experience?
2. Which characteristics of this instructor
or course are most important for him/her
to improve (particularly aspects not
covered in this form)?
Additional Features
The SEEQ form has a rich question bank from
which faculty can choose questions that reflect
their own teaching context: labs, studio, handson
learning. Of course, you can always compose your own questions, too. An
entire
department that has revamped its curriculum, for
example, can tailor questions to give it the
student feedback it requires for a number of
courses over a number of years.
Strengths of the SEEQ Form
Through this combination of self-reflection and
reading students’ comments, professors enter a
cycle of continuous improvement. SEEQ
provides valid information on strengths, and it
also helps them focus on opportunities for
improvement so that they can set priorities and
discover means to become more effective
teachers.
Student Comments Need Context
The SEEQ instrument, like any questionnaire, is
only one source of information on our teaching.
Student comments are meaningful when they are
compared with previous years’ responses; when
they are put in the context of the individual
teacher’s objectives for the course; and when
they are housed within a comprehensive
document, such as a teaching portfolio, that
provides an array of evidence of teaching
accomplishment from a variety of sources: self,
students, peers and colleagues. |
