Summary Data - Undergraduate 'Course' Form (2005 - 2007)

Introduction

The Australian National University has a standardised process of gathering student feedback on courses and teaching as part of improving and monitoring its programs. The data on this page is from surveys using the course based forms combined across 2005 to 2007 and summarises 1,548 surveys. For links to the aggregated (summary) data for the other form types and older data, please return to the RIGS homepage.

Other surveys which the University uses to gather student feedback include a first year experience survey and similar surveys of postgraduate students. The data in these tables refer only to undergraduate courses other than honours courses. See the note at the end of this page for more detail on the data.

Links to Results for each College

College of Arts and Social Sciences
College of Asia and the Pacific
College of Business and Economics
College of Engineering and Computer Science
College of Law
College of Science
All of ANU

About the Student Evaluation of Courses Questionnaire

Students were asked to rate a set of aspects of their courses. There was a 'not applicable' option and the scale used for all but the workload item was:

(1) Very Poor (2) Unsatisfactory (3) Borderline (4) Satisfactory (5) Good (6) Very Good (7) Excellent.

The item on the size of the workload is reported in a separate table because it uses a different scale to the rest of the items. Means (averages) were calculated for each course and then these were combined into averages across Colleges, years (first or later year), and class size (small: <21 or large: 21+).

Question Wording on the Aspects of the Course

Item

1.  Workload - Overall, how heavy did you find the workload of this course? (1 = too light, 7 = too heavy)

2.  Organisation and structure - The course was structured appropriately and was well organised.

3.  Teaching and learning methods - Teaching and learning methods and activities (e.g. lectures, tutorials, field classes etc.) were appropriate and effective, given the goals of the course.

4.  Quality of reference and support materials - (Reading /print/web pages; software; etc)

5.  Availability of contact - If you did not seek contact then please enter "NA".
Teaching staff were contactable to assist with student problems and needs.

6.  Intellectual challenge - The course challenged students intellectually and facilitated understanding (through content and materials; activities and tasks; integration and relating of content; etc.).

7.  Assessment for grading - Assessment tasks, requirements and criteria seemed appropriate, given the goals of the course.

8.  Feedback to assist learning - Adequate and appropriate feedback was provided to assist learning and keep students informed of their progress.

9.  Overall impact on learning / development - All things considered, how would you rate the overall impact of this course on your learning and development (gain in knowledge, skills, motivation, development of personal attributes, etc).

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ANU Student Evalution of Courses/Units (Form C)

Aggregated over 2005, 2006, and 2007, showing Means of Course Means, Standard Deviations of the Course Means and Numbers of Surveys.

 

College of Arts and Social Sciences Scale: (1) Very Poor (2) Unsatisfactory (3) Borderline (4) Satisfactory (5) Good (6) Very Good (7) Excellent.
Level	Size		Organisation & Structure	Teaching Methods	Quality of Materials	Assessment	Feedback	Availability of Contact	Intellectual Challenge	Overall Impact
First Year	n<21	Mean	5.4	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.7	5.6	5.7
		N	111	111	111	111	111	111	111	111
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.8	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.7
	n=21+	Mean	5.5	5.4	5.4	5.5	5.3	5.7	5.6	5.5
		N	109	109	109	109	109	109	109	109
		Std. Deviation	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.4	0.6	0.4	0.4	0.5
	Total	Mean	5.4	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.4	5.7	5.6	5.6
		N	220	220	220	220	220	220	220	220
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.6
Later Year	n<21	Mean	5.4	5.5	5.5	5.6	5.5	6.0	5.8	5.6
		N	193	193	193	193	193	193	193	193
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.5	0.5	0.6
	n=21+	Mean	5.6	5.6	5.5	5.5	5.4	5.9	5.8	5.6
		N	172	172	172	172	172	172	172	172
		Std. Deviation	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.4	0.4	0.5
	Total	Mean	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.6	5.5	6.0	5.8	5.6
		N	365	365	365	365	365	365	365	365
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.6
Total	n<21	Mean	5.4	5.5	5.5	5.6	5.5	5.9	5.7	5.6
		N	304	304	304	304	304	304	304	304
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.7
	n=21+	Mean	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.3	5.9	5.7	5.6
		N	281	281	281	281	281	281	281	281
		Std. Deviation	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.4	0.4	0.5
	Total	Mean	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.4	5.9	5.7	5.6
		N	585	585	585	585	585	585	585	585
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.6

 

 

College of Arts and Social Sciences: Workload Scale: (1) Too Light (7) Too Heavy
Level	Size	Mean	N	Std. Deviation
First Year	n<21	4.4	111	0.4
	n=21+	4.4	109	0.3
	Total	4.4	220	0.4
Later Year	n<21	4.5	193	0.4
	n=21+	4.4	172	0.3
	Total	4.5	365	0.4
Total	n<21	4.5	304	0.4
	n=21+	4.4	281	0.3
	Total	4.5	585	0.4

 

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College of Asia and the Pacific Scale: (1) Very Poor (2) Unsatisfactory (3) Borderline (4) Satisfactory (5) Good (6) Very Good (7) Excellent.
Level	Size		Organisation & Structure	Teaching Methods	Quality of Materials	Assessment	Feedback	Availability of Contact	Intellectual Challenge	Overall Impact
First Year	n<21	Mean	5.3	5.4	5.3	5.5	5.6	5.9	5.7	5.7
		N	29	29	29	29	29	29	29	29
		Std. Deviation	0.8	0.8	0.6	0.8	0.7	0.5	0.8	0.7
	n=21+	Mean	5.6	5.5	5.5	5.4	5.3	5.7	5.5	5.5
		N	19	19	19	17	19	19	19	19
		Std. Deviation	0.3	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.4
	Total	Mean	5.4	5.4	5.4	5.4	5.5	5.8	5.6	5.6
		N	48	48	48	46	48	48	48	48
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.7	0.5	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.6	0.6
Later Year	n<21	Mean	5.4	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.4	5.9	5.7	5.6
		N	75	73	74	75	75	75	75	75
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.5
	n=21+	Mean	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.4	5.8	5.8	5.6
		N	68	67	64	67	69	69	69	69
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.4	0.5
	Total	Mean	5.4	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.4	5.9	5.7	5.6
		N	143	140	138	142	144	144	144	144
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.5
Total	n<21	Mean	5.3	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.4	5.9	5.7	5.7
		N	104	102	103	104	104	104	104	104
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.5	0.6	0.6
	n=21+	Mean	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.4	5.7	5.7	5.5
		N	87	86	83	84	88	88	88	88
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.4	0.5
	Total	Mean	5.4	5.5	5.5	5.5	5.4	5.8	5.7	5.6
		N	191	188	186	188	192	192	192	192
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.5

 

Asia & the Pacific Workload Scale: (1) Too Light (7) Too Heavy
Level	Size	Mean	N	Std. Deviation
First Year	n<21	4.5	29	0.6
	n=21+	4.6	19	0.2
	Total	4.5	48	0.5
Later Year	n<21	4.6	75	0.5
	n=21+	4.7	69	0.4
	Total	4.7	144	0.5
Total	n<21	4.6	104	0.5
	n=21+	4.7	88	0.4
	Total	4.6	192	0.5

 

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College of Business and Economics Scale: (1) Very Poor (2) Unsatisfactory (3) Borderline (4) Satisfactory (5) Good (6) Very Good (7) Excellent.
Level	Size		Organisation & Structure	Teaching Methods	Quality of Materials	Assessment	Feedback	Availability of Contact	Intellectual Challenge	Overall Impact
First Year	n<21	Mean	5.2	5.0	5.0	5.2	5.1	5.6	5.2	5.3
		N	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10
		Std. Deviation	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5
	n=21+	Mean	5.1	5.0	5.0	5.0	4.8	5.2	5.1	5.0
		N	56	56	56	56	56	56	56	56
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.4	0.5
	Total	Mean	5.1	5.0	5.0	5.0	4.8	5.3	5.1	5.1
		N	66	66	66	66	66	66	66	66
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.4	0.5
Later Year	n<21	Mean	5.1	5.1	5.2	5.2	5.0	5.4	5.4	5.2
		N	59	59	59	59	59	59	59	59
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.6	0.6
	n=21+	Mean	5.2	5.0	5.0	5.0	4.9	5.3	5.4	5.1
		N	192	192	192	192	192	192	192	192
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.6
	Total	Mean	5.1	5.1	5.1	5.0	4.9	5.3	5.4	5.2
		N	251	251	251	251	251	251	251	251
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.6
Total	n<21	Mean	5.1	5.1	5.1	5.2	5.0	5.4	5.4	5.3
		N	69	69	69	69	69	69	69	69
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.6
	n=21+	Mean	5.2	5.0	5.0	5.0	4.9	5.3	5.3	5.1
		N	248	248	248	248	248	248	248	248
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.6
	Total	Mean	5.1	5.0	5.1	5.0	4.9	5.3	5.3	5.1
		N	317	317	317	317	317	317	317	317
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.6

 

 

College of Business and Economics: Workload Scale: (1) Too Light (7) Too Heavy
Level	Size	Mean	N	Std. Deviation
First Year	n<21	4.3	10	0.4
	n=21+	4.5	56	0.3
	Total	4.5	66	0.3
Later Year	n<21	4.7	59	0.5
	n=21+	4.8	192	0.4
	Total	4.8	251	0.4
Total	n<21	4.6	69	0.5
	n=21+	4.7	248	0.4
	Total	4.7	317	0.4

 

 

College of Engineering and Computer Science Scale: (1) Very Poor (2) Unsatisfactory (3) Borderline (4) Satisfactory (5) Good (6) Very Good (7) Excellent.
Level	Size		Organisation & Structure	Teaching Methods	Quality of Materials	Assessment	Feedback	Availability of Contact	Intellectual Challenge	Overall Impact
First Year	n<21
		N	Insufficient Surveys
	n=21+	Mean	5.1	4.9	4.9	5.1	4.8	5.1	5.0	4.9
		N	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.8	0.6	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.6
Later Year	n<21	Mean	5.2	5.1	5.3	5.1	5.0	5.8	5.6	5.3
		N	24	24	24	24	24	24	24	24
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.8	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.7
	n=21+	Mean	5.1	5.0	5.0	4.9	4.7	5.3	5.4	5.1
		N	50	50	50	50	50	50	50	50
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.6
	Total	Mean	5.1	5.1	5.1	5.0	4.8	5.4	5.4	5.2
		N	74	74	74	74	74	74	74	74
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.6
Total	n<21	Mean	5.2	5.1	5.2	5.1	5.1	5.7	5.6	5.3
		N	27	27	27	27	27	27	27	27
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.7
	n=21+	Mean	5.1	5.0	4.9	5.0	4.7	5.3	5.3	5.1
		N	60	60	60	60	60	60	60	60
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6
	Total	Mean	5.1	5.0	5.0	5.0	4.8	5.4	5.4	5.2
		N	87	87	87	87	87	87	87	87
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.6

 

 

College of Engineering and Computer Science: Workload Scale: (1) Too Light (7) Too Heavy
Level	Size	Mean	N	Std. Deviation
First Year	n<21	Insufficient Surveys
	n=21+	4.4	10	0.2
	Total	4.4	13	0.2
Later Year	n<21	5.0	24	0.8
	n=21+	4.8	50	0.5
	Total	4.9	74	0.6
Total	n<21	4.9	27	0.7
	n=21+	4.7	60	0.5
	Total	4.8	87	0.6

 

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College of Law Scale: (1) Very Poor (2) Unsatisfactory (3) Borderline (4) Satisfactory (5) Good (6) Very Good (7) Excellent.
Level	Size		Organisation & Structure	Teaching Methods	Quality of Materials	Assessment	Feedback	Availability of Contact	Intellectual Challenge	Overall Impact
First Year	n<21	Mean	4.9	5.0	5.2	5.3	4.8	5.6	5.5	5.2
		N	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7
		Std. Deviation	0.9	0.8	0.7	0.4	0.8	0.6	0.6	0.8
	n=21+	Mean	5.0	5.0	5.2	5.0	4.7	5.3	5.4	5.1
		N	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.9	0.8	0.7	0.8
	Total	Mean	5.0	5.0	5.2	5.1	4.7	5.5	5.4	5.1
		N	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17
		Std. Deviation	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.9	0.7	0.7	0.8
Later Year	n<21	Mean	5.4	5.3	5.5	5.5	5.2	6.0	5.7	5.6
		N	21	21	21	21	21	21	21	21
		Std. Deviation	0.8	0.9	0.9	0.7	1.0	0.7	0.9	0.8
	n=21+	Mean	5.2	5.2	5.2	5.0	4.8	5.7	5.7	5.3
		N	55	55	55	55	55	55	55	55
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.7	0.5	0.6	0.9	0.5	0.4	0.7
	Total	Mean	5.3	5.2	5.3	5.2	4.9	5.8	5.7	5.4
		N	76	76	76	76	76	76	76	76
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.8	0.6	0.6	0.9	0.6	0.6	0.7
Total	n<21	Mean	5.2	5.2	5.4	5.5	5.1	5.9	5.6	5.5
		N	28	28	28	28	28	28	28	28
		Std. Deviation	0.8	0.9	0.8	0.6	0.9	0.7	0.8	0.8
	n=21+	Mean	5.2	5.1	5.2	5.0	4.8	5.7	5.6	5.3
		N	65	65	65	65	65	65	65	65
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.7	0.5	0.6	0.9	0.6	0.5	0.7
	Total	Mean	5.2	5.2	5.3	5.2	4.9	5.7	5.6	5.3
		N	93	93	93	93	93	93	93	93
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.8	0.6	0.6	0.9	0.6	0.6	0.7

 

 

College of Law Workload Scale: (1) Too Light (7) Too Heavy
Level	Size	Mean	N	Std. Deviation
First Year	n<21	4.6	7	0.7
	n=21+	4.9	10	0.4
	Total	4.8	17	0.6
Later Year	n<21	4.2	21	0.3
	n=21+	4.7	55	0.4
	Total	4.6	76	0.5
Total	n<21	4.3	28	0.5
	n=21+	4.8	65	0.4
	Total	4.6	93	0.5

 

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College of Science Scale: (1) Very Poor (2) Unsatisfactory (3) Borderline (4) Satisfactory (5) Good (6) Very Good (7) Excellent.
Level	Size		Organisation & Structure	Teaching Methods	Quality of Materials	Assessment	Feedback	Availability of Contact	Intellectual Challenge	Overall Impact
First Year	n<21
		N	Insufficient Surveys
	n=21+	Mean	5.2	5.1	5.2	5.2	4.9	5.5	5.4	5.2
		N	41	48	48	48	43	40	48	48
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.6
Later Year	n<21	Mean	5.2	5.4	5.3	5.4	5.1	5.9	5.7	5.5
		N	106	127	127	127	105	99	127	127
		Std. Deviation	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.8	0.6	0.5	0.6
	n=21+	Mean	5.4	5.3	5.3	5.2	4.9	5.7	5.7	5.4
		N	83	93	93	93	82	81	93	93
		Std. Deviation	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.5	0.4	0.5
	Total	Mean	5.3	5.4	5.3	5.3	5.0	5.8	5.7	5.5
		N	189	220	220	220	187	180	220	220
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.8	0.6	0.5	0.6
Total	n<21	Mean	5.2	5.4	5.3	5.4	5.1	5.9	5.7	5.5
		N	107	129	129	129	106	100	129	129
		Std. Deviation	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.6	0.6	0.7
	n=21+	Mean	5.3	5.3	5.3	5.2	4.9	5.6	5.6	5.4
		N	124	141	141	141	125	121	141	141
		Std. Deviation	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.4	0.5
	Total	Mean	5.3	5.3	5.3	5.3	5.0	5.7	5.6	5.4
		N	231	270	270	270	231	221	270	270
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.6

 

 

College of Science Workload Scale: (1) Too Light (7) Too Heavy
Level	Size	Mean	N	Std. Deviation
First Year	n<21	Insufficent surveys
	n=21+	4.8	41	0.4
	Total	4.8	42	0.4
Later Year	n<21	4.7	106	0.6
	n=21+	4.6	83	0.4
	Total	4.7	189	0.5
Total	n<21	4.7	107	0.6
	n=21+	4.7	124	0.4
	Total	4.7	231	0.5

 

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All of ANU Scale: (1) Very Poor (2) Unsatisfactory (3) Borderline (4) Satisfactory (5) Good (6) Very Good (7) Excellent.
Level	Size		Organisation & Structure	Teaching Methods	Quality of Materials	Assessment	Feedback	Availability of Contact	Intellectual Challenge	Overall Impact
First Year	n<21	Mean	5.3	5.4	5.4	5.5	5.4	5.7	5.6	5.6
		N	161	162	162	162	161	161	162	162
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.8	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.7
	n=21+	Mean	5.3	5.2	5.2	5.3	5.1	5.5	5.4	5.3
		N	247	254	254	252	249	246	254	254
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.6
	Total	Mean	5.3	5.3	5.3	5.4	5.2	5.6	5.5	5.4
		N	408	416	416	414	410	407	416	416
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.7
Later Year	n<21	Mean	5.3	5.4	5.4	5.4	5.3	5.9	5.7	5.5
		N	478	497	498	499	477	471	499	499
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.8	0.6	0.6	0.6
	n=21+	Mean	5.3	5.3	5.3	5.2	5.1	5.6	5.6	5.4
		N	622	631	628	631	622	621	633	633
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.6
	Total	Mean	5.3	5.3	5.3	5.3	5.2	5.7	5.6	5.4
		N	1100	1128	1126	1130	1099	1092	1132	1132
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.6
Total	n<21	Mean	5.3	5.4	5.4	5.4	5.3	5.8	5.7	5.5
		N	639	659	660	661	638	632	661	661
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.7
	n=21+	Mean	5.3	5.3	5.3	5.2	5.1	5.6	5.5	5.4
		N	869	885	882	883	871	867	887	887
		Std. Deviation	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.6
	Total	Mean	5.3	5.3	5.3	5.3	5.2	5.7	5.6	5.4
		N	1508	1544	1542	1544	1509	1499	1548	1548
		Std. Deviation	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.6

 

 

All of ANU Workload Scale: (1) Too Light (7) Too Heavy
Level	Size	Mean	N	Std. Deviation
First Year	n<21	4.5	161	0.5
	n=21+	4.6	247	0.4
	Total	4.5	408	0.4
Later Year	n<21	4.6	478	0.5
	n=21+	4.7	623	0.4
	Total	4.6	1101	0.5
Total	n<21	4.6	639	0.5
	n=21+	4.6	870	0.4
	Total	4.6	1509	0.5

 

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More detail on the data: Surveys with less than 5 respondents were excluded from this analysis. In addition, to increase the reliability of the figures, 5 or more surveys were necessary in any single category for the figures to be presented. Note that the means are aggregated by courses rather than by students. An implication of this is that courses with small enrolments and those with large enrolments contribute equally to the calculations. In addition, the data was screened using a variety of processes to increase its reliability and validity, for example, duplicate surveys were eliminated.

This data has been updated on 11 July 2008.