Measuring the Effectiveness of Sustainability-Related Course …
537
on ineffective pedagogy highlights the need to measure and gauge the impact of a
course on students. For that reason, the impact of WSU 101 on students must be
first comprehended in such manner that better strategies can be design to embolden
USM’s involvement in sustainability in the future.
2 Methodology
A course assessment survey is pivotal to determine the effectiveness of the elective
sustainability course, WSU 101 (Sustainability: Issues, Challenges and Prospects) on
student awareness relating to sustainability and adoption of sustainable livelihoods
in practice. The survey was carried out in two separate time frames; at the beginning
(September 2015) and at the end (December 2015) of the course. The survey was
administered to 409 undergraduates attending the course (WSU 101). The first survey
was self-administered online via Google Docs and the respondents were asked to
complete the questionnaire in one day. Although this method is relatively cheap and
generates fairly fast results, it is essentially restricted to a population with internet
access. Meanwhile, handouts were administered during the second survey (at the
end of the course) for immediate evaluative responses. The ability to probe answers
is limited when this method is employed. Nonetheless, respondent’s anonymity is
uncompromised.
The first survey questionnaire is made up of three main sections. The first section
concerns the demographic background of the respondents (gender, age and ethnicity). The second section evaluates the general comprehension of respondents about
the course, sustainability and sustainable development using multi-choice questions
with check boxes and a 10-point Likert scale. The third section is a five-item test
that measures respondents’ knowledge, attitude and behaviours towards sustainability. Meanwhile, the second survey questionnaire is composed of four sections; the
questions or contents featured in Sects. 1, 2 and 3 are reproduced from the earlier
survey. The fourth section constitutes questions with a 10-point Likert scale to solicit
useful views and suggestions from the respondents to help educators to acquire new
strategies to improve the course. The garnered data were analysed using descriptive
statistics and statistical functions with the aid of SPSS version 22.
3 Results and Discussion
(A) Demographic of respondents
A total of 409 students participated as respondents during the first survey. Table 1
illustrated the demographic of the respondents. The distribution of respondents by
gender was 19.3% male and 80.7% female. The data implied that majority of the
respondents (98.8%) involved were aged between 20 and 25 years whereas 1.0 and
537
on ineffective pedagogy highlights the need to measure and gauge the impact of a
course on students. For that reason, the impact of WSU 101 on students must be
first comprehended in such manner that better strategies can be design to embolden
USM’s involvement in sustainability in the future.
2 Methodology
A course assessment survey is pivotal to determine the effectiveness of the elective
sustainability course, WSU 101 (Sustainability: Issues, Challenges and Prospects) on
student awareness relating to sustainability and adoption of sustainable livelihoods
in practice. The survey was carried out in two separate time frames; at the beginning
(September 2015) and at the end (December 2015) of the course. The survey was
administered to 409 undergraduates attending the course (WSU 101). The first survey
was self-administered online via Google Docs and the respondents were asked to
complete the questionnaire in one day. Although this method is relatively cheap and
generates fairly fast results, it is essentially restricted to a population with internet
access. Meanwhile, handouts were administered during the second survey (at the
end of the course) for immediate evaluative responses. The ability to probe answers
is limited when this method is employed. Nonetheless, respondent’s anonymity is
uncompromised.
The first survey questionnaire is made up of three main sections. The first section
concerns the demographic background of the respondents (gender, age and ethnicity). The second section evaluates the general comprehension of respondents about
the course, sustainability and sustainable development using multi-choice questions
with check boxes and a 10-point Likert scale. The third section is a five-item test
that measures respondents’ knowledge, attitude and behaviours towards sustainability. Meanwhile, the second survey questionnaire is composed of four sections; the
questions or contents featured in Sects. 1, 2 and 3 are reproduced from the earlier
survey. The fourth section constitutes questions with a 10-point Likert scale to solicit
useful views and suggestions from the respondents to help educators to acquire new
strategies to improve the course. The garnered data were analysed using descriptive
statistics and statistical functions with the aid of SPSS version 22.
3 Results and Discussion
(A) Demographic of respondents
A total of 409 students participated as respondents during the first survey. Table 1
illustrated the demographic of the respondents. The distribution of respondents by
gender was 19.3% male and 80.7% female. The data implied that majority of the
respondents (98.8%) involved were aged between 20 and 25 years whereas 1.0 and