Student evaluation of courses: determining the reliability and validity of three survey instruments

The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability and validity of three instruments designed for student evaluation of courses: the Course, Library, and Computer (CLC); the Clinical (CLIN); and the Nursing Skills Lab (NSL) evaluation tools. Using data from 294 anonymous associate degree nursing students, internal consistency and reliability were demonstrated by the high alpha coefficients ranging from .85 to .94. An exploratory principal component analysis, with the varimax rotation, provided an estimate of construct validity.