Student Course Engagement Questionnaire (SCEQ)

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Instrument Overview

Expert Notes AvailableView expert commentary on strengths and cautions for this instrument
Strengths

Short, easy-to-administer. Applicable across college subjects and instructional formats. Supports course improvement and teaching evaluation efforts.

Cautions

Responses may be influenced by instructor popularity or course difficulty.

The Student Course Engagement Questionnaire (SCEQ) is a student self-report questionnaire developed in 2005 by Handelsman and colleagues to measure how actively students engage in a specific course. Rather than focusing on general attitudes about school, the SCEQ captures what students actually do in their coursework. It includes four subscales: skills engagement (e.g., studying and keeping up with work), emotional engagement (interest and enjoyment), participation/interaction (contributing in class), and performance engagement (effort toward doing well). Items are rated on a 5-point scale ranging from “not at all characteristic of me” to “very characteristic of me.” The tool is most commonly used in postsecondary settings, though it has been adapted for high school contexts, and is typically administered as a short survey at the course level.

The SCEQ is primarily used for diagnostic and improvement purposes, helping instructors and institutions understand patterns of student engagement within a course and identify areas for instructional change. It is not designed as a screening or accountability tool, and it does not produce normed scores.

Organization

Topic
Pathways to and Through Postsecondary
Collection(s): College Readiness and Success
Collection Category(ies)
Academic Behaviors
Tags
College readiness,
Student engagement

Content

Grades
Post secondary
Languages
English

Administration Information

Length
23 items

Access and Use

Developer
Mitchell M. Handelsman, William L. Briggs, Nora Sullivan, & Annette Towler (2005)
Link
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1345764.pdf see Table 1
Open Access
Yes

Psychometrics (additional guidance)

Psychometric References

Handelsman, M. M., Briggs, W. L., Sullivan, N., & Towler, A. (2005). A Measure of College Student Course Engagement. The Journal of Educational Research, 98(3), 184–192. https://doi.org/10.3200/JOER.98.3.184-192

Masland, L., Bergman, S., & Ellis, J. (2022). Psychometric Properties of the Student Course Engagement Questionnaire (SCEQ): Measuring Engagement or Missing the Mark? International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 33(2), 119-134. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1345764.pdf