Managing evaluation

University Policies on Evaluation

The University policy on Improving Learning and Teaching through Collaboration, Benchmarking and Alliances provides a strategy for quality enhancement in learning and teaching.

The University policy on the Management and Evaluation of Coursework Teaching contains information on evaluating units of study.

The Institute for Teaching and Learning (ITL) processes the Unit of Study (USE) questionnaires and provides reports to coordinators.

The coordinator’s role in evaluation

For an overview of evaluation strategies and information on ordering surveys, see Evaluating your teaching.

In your leadership role as a coordinator, you are able to use evaluation responses to:

• reflect on information and take action to improve the unit of study (UoS)
• actively plan improvements and discuss these with teaching colleagues and the Program Director/Chair of Discipline
• incorporate improvements into the curriculum
• communicate to students the actions or changes that result from their evaluation
• share evaluation outcomes when another coordinator takes over the UoS.

Reflection and action

• Look at the ITL guidelines on gathering and acting on feedback. The ITL Teaching Insight: Using Student Feedback can be found on the Teaching Insights web page. It also provides suggestions and examples of how you can reflect on the evaluation responses received through surveys.
• Organise a semester review with tutors, demonstrators, technicians, and so on, to share evaluation data in order to initiate teaching improvements. Provide feedback to the team on their teaching practice and ask for feedback on your work as leader of the teaching team. People may be more honest if this can be anonymous.
• Collate responses from the team along with student feedback, insights gained through peer review processes, and data from USE and other survey reports, as well as your own impressions and observations.
• Consider all these in relation to the UoS objectives and learning outcomes and summarize actions to improve the unit of study.
• Make an action plan to incorporate changes and updates where necessary.

Incorporating evaluation into the curriculum

It is important that the insights gained from evaluation surveys are incorporated back into the curriculum. See Incorporating evaluation.

Closing the feedback loop

Let students know that you value their feedback on your teaching and the unit of study, by informing them of plans and actions that have resulted from your evaluation.

• Inform student of actions or changes that have resulted from their evaluations and, if changes could not be made, explain why.
• Specify ways in which evaluations have been incorporated into the program in your UoS outline or web site.
• The ITL website also has information on how to communicate with students, as well as examples of responses from different faculties.
• The SOPHI (Faculty of Arts) system for communicating feedback to students is an exemplar of good practice.
• Helpful resources in the Business School include processes for closing the loop during and after semester, and tips on using USE feedback.

Resources to support you with evaluation

Staff at the ITL are available to collaborate with colleagues to develop strategies and resources to manage and respond to evaluation.

The ITL Teaching Insight: Using Student Feedback mentioned above, also provides suggestions on how to use the USE for teaching improvements, teaching awards and promotion, and teaching management/program improvement.