Variation in students' importance rankings of CEQ elements: an initial analysis

Ramsden's (1991) Course Experience Questionnaire has been used for the past six years to survey all graduates from Australian universities, soon after their graduation. The instrument based on student perceptions, measures aspects of the quality of teaching and learning, as well as the development of generic skills. This instrument is widely used within Australian universities. Many universities, for example the University of Melbourne, RMIT, and Victoria University use it as part of a quality assurance program. The Course Experience Questionnaire, in asking how true certain teaching elements are, assumes a normative perspective that all elements are of equal importance to all students. This may not be the case. This study was an exploratory one that empirically examined the interrelationship between the cultural orientation of higher education business students, their learning styles, and their perception of teaching quality. A total of 364 higher education business students (54 International students), from Victoria University were sampled. The instrument used for the teaching preferences section within this study was a new scale designed to measure an individual's importance rating of the statements contained in the Course Experience Questionnaire. These elements were modified to enable students to rank each element on importance. Though many students saw most elements, as 'extremely/very important' there was also variation between students. This variation was explained by Australian citizenship status, language of instruction and most importantly the degree to which they had a reflective learning style. The Reflector learning dimension was also the only learning style to directly link into the Good Teaching elements. As the variance was explained only along the Reflector learning dimension this added support to the contention that there is a normative bias in Ramsden's model. The implications of this finding to students' assessment of course quality, is discussed