Analysis of Evaluation Data Collected on Likert Type Items: Humanities-Courses

Abstract

To improve high quality and/or retain achieved high quality of an academic program, time to time evaluation for quality of each covered course is often an integrated aspect considered in reputed institutions, however, there has been little effort regarding humanities courses. This research article deals with analysis of evaluation data collected regarding humanities course from a College of Commerce & Economics, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, on Likert type items. Appropriateness of one parametric measure and three non-parametric measures are discussed and used in this regard which could provide useful clues for educational policy planners. Keeping in view of the analytical results using these four measures, regardless of the threshold regarding satisfaction among students, overall performance of almost every subject has been un-satisfactory. There is a need to make a focused approach to take every course at the level of high performance. The inconsistency noticed under every threshold further revealed that under such poorly performing subjects globally, one needs to analyze merely at the global level item. Once the global level analysis reveals high performance of a course, then only item specific analysis may need to be focused to find out the items requiring further improvements.