Engagement for enhancement: Full qualitative testing report of a UK survey pilot

Recent work has stressed the important links between educational gain and the pedagogical practices undertaken within institutions (Gibbs 2010, 2012). This led to a pilot Higher Education Academy (HEA) project exploring the viability of using items derived from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) in the UK. NSSE aims to evaluate student engagement with activities likely to enhance their learning outcomes (Kuh 2001) and was established in 2000 with around 329,000 students having completed it in 2012.

Items from NSSE have been cognitively tested (Kuh 2001; Ouimet et al 2001), but not extensively in a UK context. The pilot HEA project made modifications to the NSSE items to reflect the different context, leading to 14 Student Engagement items. Testing was required to evaluate the robustness and validity of these Student Engagement items.

This report provides an evaluation of student understanding and validity of a selection of Student Engagement items derived from NSSE, across a range of institutional, subject and student characteristics. The aim of the report is to inform development of the items and institutional understanding of results of the national pilot.