Results report layout

As indicated in the image below, the top section of each page of your report has a header that identifies you and your department, details of the class and subject to which the questionnaire was administered, and the number questionnaires completed.

Below this header, a panel of boxes presents the response analyses for individual questions in the order that they appear on the questionnaire (the image below is Q1.2 from the MonQueST Lecturing Questionnaire).

Each panel shows: 

• the MonQueST question to which the data refer
• the number of students who gave each of the seven possible responses
• (five `answers´ plus the two `cannot answer´ possibilities),
• the percentage who gave each possible response (calculated over the number answering the question)
• the total number of students who rersponded to the question,
• a graphical representation of those percentages,
• a median response, and
• a semi-interquartile range (SIR).

You should obtain a reasonable idea of the strengths and weaknesses that students identify in your teaching, simply by looking at the distribution of responses in the graph. With this understanding, the percentages, `cannot answer´ responses and the median and semi-interquartile range add more information about how students´ responses are distributed.

The median is an indication of the `central point´ in a distribution of responses. It is the scale value which divides the top 50% of the responses from the bottom 50% (the `cannot answer´ responses are excluded). The higher the median for any particular question, the more that students have responded towards the `All´ or `Almost all´ end of the scale.

The semi-interquartile range (SIR) is an indication of the spread of responses in a distribution. Most SIRs will be between about 0.4 and 0.8. The smaller the SIR for any one question the more that students have clustered around one or two responses. A small SIR value means that the students are in agreement on the question.

In summary, what is the ideal for which you should be looking?

• Most of the enrolled students completing the questionnaire, 
• Very few students leaving a question blank, or opting for a "cannot answer" response,
• The clear majority of responses sited at the one or two positions at the`All´ or `Almost all´ end,
• Small percentages of responses sited outside those one or two positions