AUSSE pilot for ITP sector

Dr Peter Coolbear, Ako Aotearoa, and Dr Hamish Coates, Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), report on their collaborative work with New Zealand’s Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics (ITP) sector to build their version of the powerful Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE) tool.

Last December, Ako Aotearoa and ACER met with representatives of the ITP sector to discuss the project. This is the first time the sector will take part in a national study to determine student engagement, and it is exciting to see that 11 ITPs have committed to being involved in piloting AUSSE within their organisations in 2010.

The Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (AUSSE), designed and managed by ACER , was developed to stimulate evidence-focused conversations about students’ engagement in university study. Developed from the North American National Survey of Student Engagement, the AUSSE builds on methodology validated over four decades.

Hamish Coates, ACER principal research fellow and director of AUSSE, explains the student engagement survey reveals important insights into students’ studies that provide institutions with key information to help them better support, engage and retain students.

“Collecting feedback from students themselves is beneficial in that it provides key insights into what tertiary students are actually doing. AUSSE provides insights that can help institutions better support student learning and development, monitor academic standards and outcomes and ensure students are getting the most out of their tertiary experience,” Dr Coates says.

Dr Peter Coolbear believes systematic collection of evidence using proven, internationally validated tools is well overdue in New Zealand and this is a critical next step in the development of a systematic approach to the improvement of tertiary teaching and learning. “Such data will be hugely valuable in institutional self-assessment processes and in assisting institutions in their decision making about how best to support their students,” he says.