Münster Questionnaire for Seminar Evaluation – Revised (MFE-Sr)

Abstract

The Münster Questionnaire for the Evaluation of Seminars – Revised (MFE-Sr) is a fundamental component of the overarching “Münster Questionnaire for Evaluation” system used primarily within the Department of Psychology at the University of Münster. The MFE-Sr represents a significant revision and expansion of its predecessor (MFE-S), designed specifically for the efficient and economical teaching evaluation of university seminars. Its core purpose is to provide structured feedback on instructional quality, participant engagement, course materials, and student perceived workload (overburdening). The instrument consists of 28 items and is validated to measure a four-dimensional structure of teaching effectiveness.

Keywords

Teaching Evaluation, Lehrevaluation, Seminar Evaluation, Quality Assurance, Psychometrics, University of Münster, Student Feedback, Questionnaire Revision

Authors

Dr. Meinald Thielsch, Dr. Gerrit Hirschfeld, Grabbe (initial construction), Haaser (initial revision)

Purpose

The primary purpose of the MFE-Sr is to serve as a standardized, yet economical, instrument for the quality assurance of academic seminars at the university level. Teaching evaluation is recognized as a vital mechanism for improving pedagogical quality, providing lecturers with constructive feedback, identifying institutional strengths and weaknesses, and supporting discussions between faculty and students.

A key design goal during the revision from MFE-S to MFE-Sr was achieving high economy, meaning minimizing the burden on students, especially since evaluations typically occur late in the semester during intense exam preparation phases. The revised instrument aims to capture relevant aspects of teaching quality while remaining brief enough for efficient use in high-volume, web-based survey environments. It also incorporates items designed to measure potential bias variables, such as prior interest or physical classroom conditions.

Construct

The core construct measured is Teaching Evaluation (Lehrevaluation), specifically focusing on the quality of university seminars. The MFE-Sr operationalizes this construct across four primary, correlated dimensions, confirmed by factor analysis:

• Dozent & Didaktik (Lecturer & Didactics): Covers the instructor’s behavior, teaching methods, presentation skills, and responsiveness to student questions.
• Überforderung (Overburdening/Workload): Measures student perception of course difficulty, the pace of content delivery, and the associated time commitment required by the seminar.
• Teilnehmer (Participants): Assesses the engagement, preparation, and attentiveness of the participating students.
• Materialien (Materials): Evaluates the quality and usefulness of media (slides, films, sketches) and supplementary materials provided by the lecturer.

Validity

The scale demonstrates evidence of multiple forms of validity, supporting its use in academic evaluation settings. The conceptual basis for the scale, which focuses heavily on lecturer behavior and didactics—considered the most important conditioning factor for teaching success according to the multimodal condition model of teaching success—supports its strong Content Validity.

Convergent Validity was assessed by correlating the subscale sum scores with an overall rating of the respective seminar across 93 events. High correlations were found for the Dozent & Didaktik scale (.89), Teilnehmer scale (.81), and Materialien scale (.81). The Overburdening scale showed a moderate negative correlation (-.33), which is expected since higher overburdening correlates with lower overall satisfaction.

Discriminant Validity is supported by a multivariate comparison showing that different types of events were assessed significantly differently using the MFE-Sr subscales. Furthermore, non-significant rank correlations were found between students’ initial preference for the course (first, second, or third choice) and the sum scores for Overburdening, Participants, and Materials, indicating these dimensions are independent of initial student bias.

Reliability

The internal consistency of the MFE-Sr subscales, as measured by Cronbach’s Alpha, is deemed sufficient to good, especially considering the small number of items per subscale.

• Dozent & Didaktik (6 items): Cronbach’s Alpha = .89
• Überforderung (3 items): Cronbach’s Alpha = .77
• Teilnehmer (3 items): Cronbach’s Alpha = .82
• Materialien (3 items): Cronbach’s Alpha = .83

Factor Analysis

The development of the MFE-Sr involved an evolutionary process starting from an initial 17-item instrument with three dimensions (Grabbe, 2003). Following exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of earlier versions, the MFE-S was revised into the MFE-Sr to include additional items addressing bias variables and expanding the scope of evaluation.

The revised MFE-Sr structure was confirmed using data collected during the Winter Semester 2009/10 (N=657). A Confirmatory Factor Analysis model with four correlated factors demonstrated acceptable fit indices (Chi-Square = 301.0, df = 84; TLI = .95, CFI = .96, RMSEA = .06). This confirmed the anticipated four-dimensional structure: Lecturer & Didactics, Overburdening, Participants, and Materials. The analysis used linear factor analysis and the conventional Maximum Likelihood estimator via AMOS software.

Factor loadings were generally good to very good, though Item 16 (Time commitment for the seminar) showed a slightly lower loading on the Overburdening factor, possibly due to external influences. Inter-scale correlations ranged from -.22 to .76, confirming that while the factors are related (e.g., Dozent & Didaktik correlated highly with Materialien, .76), they measure distinct aspects of the seminar experience.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire / Academic Evaluation Instrument

Format: Primarily web-based (online platform using PHP and MySQL) since Winter Semester 2003/4. Mixed-mode (paper-pencil) surveys are occasionally used for specific courses.

Language Available: German (deutsch)

Population Group: University students

Age Group: Adults (Sample range 18 to 48 years old)

Population Details: Students primarily from the Department of Psychology at the University of Münster, including Bachelor, Diploma, and minor subject students (e.g., Educational Sciences). The validation sample (WS 09/10) consisted of 657 students.

Test Methodology: The core items (8-22) use a 7-point Likert scale format, ranging from 1 = “stimme gar nicht zu” (strongly disagree) to 7 = “stimme vollkommen zu” (strongly agree), plus an option for “nicht sinnvoll beantwortbar” (not reasonably answerable). The total instrument contains 28 items, including demographic and behavioral questions (e.g., attendance, preparation time, course choice). Scoring involves summing or averaging the responses within the four subscales, noting that lower to moderate scores are desired on the Overburdening scale. If a course has multiple instructors, the Dozent & Didaktik scale is administered separately for each instructor.

Keywords

Didactics, Student Workload, Overburdening, Factor Structure, Internal Consistency, Likert scale, Quality Management

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source content.

Affiliation Email addresses: [email protected]; [email protected]

Correspondence Address:
Dr. Dipl.-Psych. Meinald Thielsch, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Psychologisches Institut 1, Fliednerstr. 21, 48149 Münster, Germany.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The scale was developed and validated for internal use within the Department of Psychology at the University of Münster. The primary validation data utilized for the MFE-Sr revision stemmed from the Winter Semester 2009/10. Specific information regarding external permissions or licensing fees for third-party use is not provided in the source documentation. Data privacy is maintained by requiring explicit student consent at the end of the online survey for their evaluation data to be used.

Reference’s

Bechler & Thielsch, 2012.

Gediga et al., 2000 (KIEL).

Gollwitzer & Schlotz, 2003 (TRIL).

Göritz, Soucek & Bacher, 2005.

Grabbe, 2003.

Greenwald, 1997.

Haaser, 2006.

Haaser, Thielsch & Moeck, 2007.

Hirschfeld & Thielsch, 2009 (MFE-S).

Marsh, 1984.

Mutz, 2003.

Rindermann, 1996.

Rindermann, 2003.

Rindermann, 2009 (HILVE).

Schmidt & Loßnitzer, 2010.

Souvignier und Gold, 2002.

Staufenbiel, 2000 (FEVOR).

Thielsch & Weltzin, 2012.

Thielsch et al., 2010.

Items of the Münster questionnaire for the evaluation of seminars – revised (MFE-Sr)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Items zu Dozent & Didaktik

Items zu Überforderung

Items zu Teilnehmer

Items zu Materialien

Zusätzlich vorgegebene, hier aber nicht weiter behandelte Items