Design of a university course quality by Teaching Experiments and Student Feedback (TESF)

Quality of the academic system must be constantly monitored, especially underconditions of growing competition and limited resources. Those who are interestedin quality, doing research and teaching on it, should ensure quality of the processesfor which they are responsible. Teaching is one of the primary services offered by auniversity. For it, all fundamental principles of Total Quality Management (TQM)must be valid. In this article the authors propose a methodology for designing thequality of a university course, considered as a basic service of a complexeducational system. The methodology is based on the concurrent use of teachingexperiments performed by a teacher, and the SERVQUAL model for the evaluationof student feedback. Such methodology can be adopted in any educational context.It is a useful tool for continuous course improvement. The article presents theapplication of the methodology in two consecutive editions of a statistics course atthe University of Palermo, Italy.