Acting on the Data
Information about the quality of aspects of teaching and courses needs careful interpretation to be useful in informing future action.
Feedback to students
Informing students of individual or groups responses is an important part of the quality assurance process. It demonstrates respect for students’ opinions and encourages them to continue to provide constructive comment on their experience as they progress through their UQ programs. Faculty and school reporting of responses to evaluation information is also a requirement of the Curriculum and Teaching Quality Appraisal and Academic Program Review processes under University Policy (HUPP 3.10.13).
Course coordinators are required to respond to student feedback by providing a response to feedback in the Electronic Course Profile (ECP). This feedback will be seen by students currently enrolled.
You may also wish to inform them of any changes you have made to your teaching or courses in response to previous evaluations, or of any areas about which you would be particularly interested in receiving feedback.
An example of such feedback could be as follows:
Dear students,
Thanks to feedback received from the previous cohort about their experiences of the course last semester. I really appreciate that so many of them took the time out to provide valuable feedback.
Overall, students were very positive. Issues with the organisation assessment tasks were identified by some as being problematic. Reviewing the time set for assignments in this semester with other core courses will hopefully address this.
As usual, a number commented in open response feedback that they didn’t like the 8:00 am lecture slot. Unfortunately, as timetabling is not controlled by Schools, this lecture time will be in place for this semester. This feedback has been given to the Head of School for future consideration.
Best wishes for this course and I look forward to receiving your feedback at the end of this semester.
Please contact us if you would like assistance interpreting and responding to your evaluation.
Improving the learning experience
A key strategy of the UQ Teaching and Learning Enhancement Plan (2008-2010) is to improve and streamline quality assurance and enhancement processes for teaching and learning. This can be achieved through effective reflection on the teaching and learning environment, performance and outcomes as a basis for ‘closing the loop’. Making sure that feedback sought from a variety of sources is used to maintain standards and to improve performance is essential to the pursuit of teaching and learning excellence.
Developing appropriate responses to evaluations can lead to modifications to course design, curriculum and assessment development and the trialling of innovative approaches to teaching and learning. The following links contain information and resources that will help you when developing appropriate responses to evaluations:
TEDI Teaching and Learning Support
University Staff Development Program
Immediate modification of teaching and/or the curriculum may not always be the most appropriate response to an evaluation. Standard surveys, for example, may identify a general area of strength or one in need of attention but additional investigation may then be needed for further clarification before an appropriate response can be determined. More sensitive tools, such as teaching and learning matrices, can diagnose specific teaching strengths as well as highlight pedagogic skills for development.
Using SET-C in performance review and academic portfolios
The promotion, tenure and performance review processes require that evidence be provided on teaching quality in the academic portfolio. ONE such source is the SET-C questions on teaching, specifically the question on overall satisfaction.
