The General Foundation Program (GFP) was designed to comply with the requirements of the Oman Academic Standards document published by the Omani Authority for Academic Accreditation (OAAA) for learning outcomes for English, Mathematics, computing, and general study skills. The current study focused on two areas: (1) English Language and (2) (Basic) Mathematics. Manuscript Aim 1 examined the psychometric properties of two newly developed measures, the Student Satisfaction with English Scale (SSES) and the Student Satisfaction with Mathematics Scale (SSMS), for undergraduate students (i.e., the GFP in Oman). Manuscript Aim 2 examined demographic and academic predictors of students’ satisfaction with English and Mathematics GFP outcomes. The predictors in the study included demographics, high school academic information, current university academic information, and GFP academic information. Manuscript Aim 1 participant data (N = 447) for the SSES and the SSMS (N = 372) were collected from GFP students at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in Oman using an online survey-hosting website. After removing invalid responses, a total of 342 participants remained for the SSES and there were 338 participants for the SSMS. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were used to address the two research questions and to provide evidence of internal consistency reliability for each factor. Manuscript Aim 2 participant data (N = 342) for English and Math (N = 338) were collected from GFP students at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in Oman using an online survey-hosting website and academic data were provided from SQU. After removing invalid responses, a total of 250 participants remained for English and there were 292 participants for Math. Hierarchical Multiple Linear Regressions were used to analyze the data for each GFP area. For Manuscript Aim 1, the initial 35 items for the SSES were reduced to 18, which formed three factors (i.e., Writing, Listening, and Speaking). For the SSMS, the initial 24 items were reduced to 16, which formed two factors (i.e., Applied and Pure Mathematics). The results of the CFA for both the SSES and the SSMS provided evidence of the theoretical model (i.e., the relationship between observed variables and latent constructs) specified from the EFAs. There was a high degree of internal consistency reliability (i.e., Coefficient [Cronbach’s] Alpha) for the SSES and SSMS subscale scores. For Manuscript Aim 2, the results suggested that a significant proportion of the total variation in both the English and Mathematics factor DVs were predicted by the collection of IVs. Manuscript Aim 1 used different psychometric analyses to evaluate the newly developed SSES and SSMS measures. The results provided evidence of a factor structure and high internal consistency reliability for both measures. For Manuscript Aim 2, the results demonstrated some significant hypothesized relationships, and therefore provided Criterion-Related Validity evidence for the English measures and the Math measures. Specifically, this study found that the GFP Academic Information (i.e., the Starting level in the GFP) had a positive and significant predictive relationship with two of the three English satisfaction factor scores (i.e., Writing and Speaking). Similarly, the GFP Academic Information (i.e., Math Starting Level Grade) had a positive and significant relationship with both mathematics satisfaction factors—Applied and Pure.

The General Foundation Program (GFP) was designed to comply with the requirements of the Oman Academic Standards document published by the Omani Authority for Academic Accreditation (OAAA) for learning outcomes for English, Mathematics, computing, and general study skills. The current study focused ...