Unfolding motivational construct in giving feedback for quality assurance in higher education using exploratory factor analysis.

Stakeholders' perceptions of higher education institutions (HEIs) are an important input for quality assurance, curriculum review, and other continuous development activities. HEIs adopt different approaches to get stakeholders to give feedback, such as surveys and meetings. This study explores how three groups of stakeholders in HEIs, namely students, staff members, and employers, respond to the different feedback methods used by HEIs in the Sultanate of Oman in quality assurance exercises. Using exploratory factor analysis, the results of the study revealed that there are four motivational factors in providing feedback to HEIs. A high level of internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha of 0.849) and a significant alpha (α = 0.000) of Bartlett's Test of Sphericity confirm the adequacy of the instrument. Also, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure (KMO) of sampling adequacy is 0.880. The model has a good fit, as it has 41.0% of non-redundant residuals with absolute values greater than 0.05. Four factors have been identified: the usefulness of feedback, the readiness to give feedback, the importance of feedback, and the appropriateness of feedback. The first factor accounts for 34.6% of the variance, the second for 10.5%, the third for 7.8%, and the fourth for 7.2%. The findings of the study provide insights into the appropriate methods that can be used when soliciting stakeholders for information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]