The construct validity of student engagement in selected Indian business schools: a confirmatory factor analysis approach

Abstract

The study seeks to develop a model to measure and evaluate Students’ Engagement in Indian Management Institutes for which the India Management Students’ Engagement Scale (IMSES) was evolved from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) of the Indiana State University, USA. The study was based on the premise that a measurement scale that had its origins in a standardized model like the NSSE could help predict important educational outcomes for Indian students. The construct validity approach was adopted for the study conducted in three management institutes in Surat, located in Gujarat in India. The responses from 156 MBA students were included in the study. The results suggest that the four broad themes namely Academic Challenge, Relationships with faculties, Peer Interactions and Campus Environment do converge to explain the concept of Student Engagement in the urban Indian setting. Originally, a questionnaire with 30 items was fielded to the students. Upon exploratory analysis, ten items with issues related to low factor loadings, content validity and error variances were removed. The final IMSES emerged as a lean 14 item scale after modifications which makes it is extremely easy to administer. The CFA supported a four-dimensional model based on the NSSE Version 2.0, with all the dimensions showing high internal consistency based on Chronbach’s alpha coefficients. The model fit was adequate and acceptable based on well-documented thresholds. Although the four factors suggested by NSSE are meaningful in urban Indian educational settings, the need for a more India-centric approach to designing the survey has been discussed.