Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of the Online Student Engagement Questionnaire: A Transcultural Adaptation and Psychometric Study

Background: Given the significance of learner engagement in distance education, particularly in online learning settings, scholars are continuously seeking appropriate tools to assess it with greater precision. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Online Student Engagement Questionnaire (OSEQ) within the Iranian context.Methods: This transcultural adaptation and psychometric study was carried out on 330 students who were engaged in online studies using a convenience sampling across five Iranian universities (Farhangian University, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran University, Mehr Alborz University, and Iran University of Science and Technology) from October 2022 to December 2023. The OSEQ, comprising 16 self-report items across four engagement dimensions (cognitive, behavioral, social, and affective engagements), was employed. The questionnaire underwent initial translation using a standard forward-backward technique. The psychometric characteristics including face, content, and construct validities, along with reliability, were appraised using both Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega coefficients.Results: The linguistic and conceptual equivalence of the translated questionnaire exceeded 1.5, while the content validity values (CVR= 0.81; CVI= 0.85) were determined based on the viewpoints of nine experts. No items out of 16 were excluded, considering the face and content validity coefficients. Through the execution of an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), four factors were extracted, accounting for 56.74% of the overall variance. The structure of the factors, supported by suitable fit indices (Χ2/df=2.33, RMSEA=0.064, GFI=0.92, NFI=0.90, CFI=0.93, RMR=0.044, SRMR=0.046) derived from four first-order factors, was validated. The questionnaire demonstrated satisfactory reliability, as indicated by McDonald’s omega coefficient ranging from 0.70 to 0.79 and Cronbach alpha coefficient ranging from 0.70 to 0.79.Conclusion: The findings demonstrated that the OSEQ has strong psychometric properties, making it an appropriate instrument for assessing online student engagement within the Iranian setting.