David, do you communicate these important points in group meetings? How often? Do you spend a lot of time with individuals reviewing this information?
Loren Kroh
Instructors would seem to have a point if their evaluation is reduced by things that are beyond their control. Is there a way to communicate these extraneous issues? If the institution is serious about using surveys as an instrument for improvement, it must respond to all the issues that are identified. Hopefully, department heads will communicate the students' concerns to those who can fix them.
Loren Kroh
Loren,
All students are required to take the survey. It's a mandatory regulation by our accrediting commision.
The students assign a number that correlates to "Strongly Agree" down to "Strongly Disagree." Once all the surveys are completed, I compile the information by each location and forward it on to the General Managers at each location. The higher the number, the worse the score. The survey information they receive breaks down the average score for each question. The GMs are trained on how to assess negative results by addressing the student concerns before it becomes too late.
We have surveys in the middle of each class and again at the end.Also, every Friday we are required to go over with each student, one on one, their grade. This also helps us know if anyone is unhappy.
During our frequent faculty in-service days, the different departments responsible for a student's 'well being' all send respresentative to us for a breifing and a Q&A. We are never far removed from the process of ensure that we understand who is who and who can help who. Studnets have mentors from the career services department that are tasked with following up themselves or ensure that we as faculty follow up. Student satisfaction is a major concern of our campus President.
As an institution we insure that student are satisfied and that there expectations are met. The student are given mid-term and end of term evaluations that are reviewed by the instructor and their supervisors.
My institution requires the instructors to have a mid-course evaluation where the instructor sit down with each student and discuss not only his/her progress, but to ask if there are any section of the course that he/she wanted the instructor to focus or review.
At the end of the course, students are asked to evaluate the instructor and since this involved a clinical site, students are also asked to evaluate the facility where the practicum was held.
Presenting honest and realistic expectations to the incoming students are very important. Most of the students in our institution are working individuals. Part of their success in the program is accepting the committment they signed up for and the support they get from the school staff and their instructors.
First, we work hard to train all of our staff on how and what to communicate with students. For example, admissions personnel need to accurately sell the program, so they need to be up to speed on course offerings and curriculum changes, both of which change frequently as we continue to adapt to existing and new trends in the industry for which we are training the students. Secondly, faculty need to be trained on ways to approach all students, expecially those that exhibit signs of struggle. There is no one formula for this, so just as we need to create a learning environment in which all students have the possibility of success, we need to create a culture in which students will be comfortable sharing necessary information that will help us aid them on the road to success.
We also do student surveys at my institution. I find them to be very insightful (our students are not shy about giving their opinion). The problem is that the surveys also factor in elements that the instructors feel are out of their control. For example a student may be unhappy not with the class or instructor but with the fact that the supply office is always out of paper or the computers in the classroom are always broke. All of this information is included in the instructors survey and factored into his/her overall score. This is perceived as being unfair by the instructors.
REVEKKA, how do you provide the contact information to your students? Do you have a way to verify that the students really receive and know how to use this information?
Loren Kroh
At the end of each course, students receive an online student satisfaction survey. They are asked to answer questions with regard to the instructors and the actually courses themselves.
I personally have not seen the statistics on the percentage of students answering the open-ended questions, however, I can see that almost every student replies to those questions.
For example, in one of our online courses, to the question "What can be done to improve this course?" a few students wrote that they wish that time allocated for quizzes could be extended. So we did: for the following group, we increased the quiz time from 15 minutes to 20 minutes, which made a difference.
We also added practice questions to the online course lectures, before students went on to take their quizzes.
Other students commented that they needed more explanations on some topics. So, we did add more explanations for consequent groups.
We hold classroom evaluations at the conclusion of every course. We have also established an open-door policy and provide students with information on who they can contact regarding specific needs.
Additionally, we make sure to contact our students on a regular basis and follow-up with them should they have any issues that need to be addressed.
What percentage of students provide a response to the open ended questions? Could you share some examples of improvements that have been made as a result of the surveys?
Nicholas, what is the response rate for this initial survey? Are all the questions open ended, requiring students to write a response versus simply ascribing a number? In my experience, it is difficult to get good data from simple "select on a 1 - 5 scale". It must be very difficult to get students who don't like to write to give you useful responses.
Loren Kroh
In our vocational school, we have students fill out end-course evaluations, where they have to answer a few multiple choice questions (rating the course and the instructor), as well as open-ended questions, where students get to elaborate on how they feel the course can be improved.
We also have student satisfaction survey, where they get asked questions about the entire program.
The results of these surveys get shared with the instructors and staff at monthly faculty meetings and staff meetings.
We also have student body government, which meet regularly to address issues our students experience. They get to discuss these issues with the Student Services Adviser and Program Coordinator.
I read from earlier postings about having a Student Success Advisor. I think, it's a great idea! As an instructor, I have run into situations, where a student feels very alone in trying to handle their personal life issues, but has noone to turn to. I think, it would be very helpful for our school to have someone she could talk to just to feel heard and understood. Sometimes, that's all our students need - to be heard.
day 1 of each term is setting up expectations for the course - what we expect from the students as well as what they should expect from the course/instructor.
the last week of the term students have the opportunity to review the course anonymously online.
We have and End of Course survey every three weeks to get a feel on student feelings and issues. We also have a support team on campus to help as needed.
we have surveys halfway though the class to see if we are meeting their expectations, and at the end of a class too. We also have focus groups for the students, and they are helpful because the students can let us know what they want, and it it's doable, great, we do it, if not we explain.
