Evaluation of an instrument to measure undergraduate nursing student engagement in an introductory Human anatomy and physiology course

Abstract

Engagement with a course may improve academic performance, however, appropriate instruments are needed to measure engagement. Using an exploratory factor analysis approach, the 23-item Student Course Engagement Questionnaire (SCEQ) was used to quantify undergraduate nursing (n=102), midwifery (n=64), and paramedicine (n=40) student engagement, in a compulsory anatomy and physiology course. Subscales identified were described as “skill engagement (8 items)”, “emotional engagement (6 items)”, “participation/interaction engagement (6 items)”, and “performance engagement (3 items)”. These accounted for 54.3% of total variance, and all had Cronbach alpha coefficients >0.76. The only difference between the students was a lower skills engagement in the paramedicine students, compared to both nursing and midwifery students. We suggest the SCEQ is an appropriate instrument to quantify course engagement in this population and on this type of course. A valid tool to measure course engagement in these students is pertinent, as it could be used to identify the impact of novel pedagogies on student engagement.