September 25, 2018

Teaching strategies to maximise positive student responses to different items on Subject Experience Survey (SES) has been the focus of Teaching Tuesdays@CSU since Issue 19. This week’s final in the series examines how to draw all of these together to maximise student response rates to the SES in subjects we teach.

Some of the roadblocks to effective participation rates (Bennet & Sid Nair, 2010):

• Survey fatigue – students can be given too many surveys
  
• Reluctance based on lack of evidence that action has been or will be taken in response to student feedback
  
• Reasons students give for low response rates include: apathy, technical problems or inaccessibility, perceived lack of anonymity, lack of importance, inconvenience, lack of time.
  

So what can we do?

Implementing the CSU Value IMPACTFUL in your teaching.

As a community of impactful professionals we are each thinking about how to best direct our efforts to secure results for our students and our communities.

Strategies for Increasing Response Rates for Online End-of-Course Evaluations

By Diane Chapman & Jeffrey Joines (2017)

The big three:

1. Talk about the importance of SES in your classroom or in the online forums and modules

2. Work to create a climate that reflects mutual respect between instructor and students.

3. Tell students how you use SES feedback to modify your subject.

And others:

4. Send announcements through Interact2/Blackboard asking students to complete the SES.

5. Send personal emails asking students to complete the SES.

6. Include statements on the subject outline about SES and its importance in your class.

7. For face-to-face classes, encourage students to bring laptops/tablets/ smartphones to class (or go to a computer lab) and allow time for students to complete the SES.

8. Offer a mid-session evaluation for students to give feedback and then use that feedback to modify aspects of the subject.

9. Forward an email from your Head of School about the importance of SES to the subject and the institution.

10. Evoke student responsibility for helping to create better learning environments through their SES responses

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Source: Washington State University’s Elizabeth Carney (2015) has also prepared a useful three-page set of tips

Main points:

• Talk to students about how subject evaluations are used and by whom
  
• Reassure students that the online course evaluation system is designed to protect confidentiality.
  
• Provide examples of useful, specific comments from your past evaluations
  
• Offer a list of the qualities of effective feedback – includes two examples for a Constructive Feedback exercise.

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• Insert humorous slides into middle of PowerPoint presentations reminding students to complete SES
  
• The original email and the reminder emails are both necessary for increasing student awareness and response
  
• Students “are more likely to be honest when they believe that evaluations effectively measure the quality of the course, the results improve teaching and benefit students rather than the administration” (McClain, Gulbis & Hays, 2018).
  

• For face-to-face, before the term begins, select a day when students will complete their SES in class. Note this date on the subject outline/subject site and announce it during the first class.
  
• Discuss with students that not all feedback is constructive but there are times when there is something that comes out as useful. Share that experience.
  
• Prime students to boost student participation—ask students if they intend to complete the SES evaluation with a show of hands or an online response. Asking individuals about their intended behaviour can boost participation.
  
• Run through the SES evaluation questions with your students in class and explain how the questions relate to your class.
  
• Explain how you personally use student feedback. Explain the importance of student feedback in how you approach subject design, assignments, readings, etc. Tie the SES questions directly to some specific assignments or approaches in your class on which you want feedback.

• Get teaching staff “buy-in”.

QUOTE:One instructor who speaks to students in one class about the importance of evaluations improves the odds that those students will evaluate every course in their schedule.” (Jacek)

How to increase course evaluation response rates: 10 do’s and 3 don’ts

Another useful publication from the University of Houston Downtown includes extra information about each point on the list.

Discussions on how to improve response rates at the level of administration and policy are outside the scope of this bulletin as they usually cannot be changed at the individual teacher level. The use of incentives or imposition of penalties recommended in some studies to increase response rates are not options at CSU and so have not been included.

Other studies address the validity, reliability and usefulness of SES surveys and a high response rate can help to alleviate concerns in these areas (see Chapman & Joines, 2017 and Clayson, 2018 for an expanded discussion of these points, with the blog by Elizabeth Barre presenting alternate arguments).

References

Bennett, l., & Sid Nair, C. (2010). A recipe for effective participation rates for web‐based surveys, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(4): 357-365, doi: 10.1080/02602930802687752

Chapman, D., & Joines, J. A. (2017). Strategies for increasing response rates for online end-of-course evaluations. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 29(1): 47-60.

Clayson, D. E. (2018). Student evaluation of teaching and matters of reliability. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(4), 666-681, doi: 10.1080/02602938.2017.1393495

Jacek, L. (2015). Tactics to increase course evaluation response rates. College and University, 90(2): 12-19.

McClain, L., Gulbis, A., & Hays, D. (2018). Honesty on student evaluations of teaching: effectiveness, purpose, and timing matter! Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(3): 369-385, doi: 10.1080/02602938.2017.1350828

Nulty, D. D. (2008). The adequacy of response rates to online and paper surveys: what can be done? Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 33(3): 301-314, doi: 10.1080/02602930701293231

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We will be looking at environments for learning in upcoming issues of Teaching Tuesdays@CSU.

The first Learning Environments newsletter provides glimpses of exciting learning environments at CSU.

It is particularly focussed on teaching staff and highlights new or amended physical and digital learning environments (learning systems and learning technologies).

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Free online seminar - Development of National Guidelines in Australia for Improving Student Outcomes in Online Education
10 October 2018, 11am

During 2016 an Australian research project was conducted under the sponsorship of the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) at Curtin University, with the aim of improving student retention and academic success in online education.

The findings have informed a set of National Guidelines for Australian institutions for improving student outcomes in online learning.

Speaker: Dr Cathy Stone
The University of Newcastle and the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education

Connect Online via Zoom.

Further information: https://tinyurl.com/y7ksfw7u

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Follow Teaching Tuesdays on Twitter.
Our Twitter feed includes links to further hints, tips and resources in the broader field of teaching in higher education. https://twitter.com/TeachingTuesday



Link to: Folder with all previous issues of Teaching Tuesdays

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Contents
1....Teaching support resources at CSU
2....Contemporary Approaches to University Teaching MOOC
3....CSU Professional Learning Calendar
4....Bonus CSU resource - Lynda.com
5....Magna Commons Subscription
6....Links to previous bulletins
7....Subscribe

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You have access to a range of quality CSU resources to help you incorporate educational resources and techniques into your teaching. Check out the following:

• Teaching at CSU - the Division of Learning and Teaching website with links to resources for Teaching Staff, Online Learning, Assessment, Curriculum, Indigenous Curriculum, Workplace Learning, Technologies, Feedback and Analytics, and Learning Spaces.
  
• Resources for Learning and Teaching Academic and Professional Staff - searchable CSU database
  
• Learning Technologies - the starting point for a range of learning design options
• CSU Learning Exchange: Technologies in Context - a searchable database to promote online learning and teaching strategies
• The CSU wiki - a faculty-based source of learning and teaching information and strategies

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Regular seminars on teaching-related topics are listed on the

CSU Professional Learning Calendar - accessed directly here

or from Division of Learning and Teaching front page - accessed here

CSU Professional Learning Calendar:

Writing criteria and Standards. Adobe Connect session, 26 September at 1:00 pm, and 27 September at 1:00 pm

OLM Element Workshop: Teacher Presence Adobe Connect session. 27 September 2018

at 10:00 am

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Professional Development opportunity for all.

Contemporary Approaches to University Teaching is an

open access COURSE for the Australian Higher Education Sector.

This teaching induction course provides key introductory learning and teaching concepts and strategies for those who are in their first few years of university teaching. The self-paced course is comprised of 11expert-developed modules, and several specialty modules and resources.

For more information on how to enrol, please contact

Sheeja Samuel- email: ssamuel@csu.edu.au ph: +61 2 6051 9742, or

Kellie Smyth - email: ksmyth@csu.edu.au ph: +61 2 6272 6270

NOTE: Completion of this course will provide some credit and a pathway into the CSU Grad. Cert. in Learning & Teaching in Higher Education (GCLTHE). It can provide a basis for commencing preparation for Associate Fellowship (HEA).

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All CSU students and staff members have access to Lynda.com, an online subscription library that teaches the latest business, creative and software skills through high-quality instructional videos.

Quote from Alison Foale in our CSU Yammer group this week:

According to LinkedIn, 57 percent of leaders say soft skills are more important than hard skills. LinkedIn surveyed 2,000 business leaders and asked them the soft skills they'd most like to see their employees learn.

This is what they said:

1. Leadership
   
2. Communication
   
3. Collaboration
   
4. Time Management
   

Check out this link to the Yammer feed for some of the Lynda.com recommended courses

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All staff with a CSU email address have free access to our annual

CSU subscription to the Magna Commons series of online seminars

Presentation handouts, full transcripts and supplementary resources are available for download if you don't have time to listen to the seminar.

How to subscribe

Staff with a CSU email address can obtain the Magna Commons CSU subscription code from Ellen McIntyre elmcintyre@csu.edu.au

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Suggest topics that you would like for Teaching Tuesdays; or
Share your own teaching tips article.

Click on the Green Contact Ellen McIntyre button (below, or at the top of the bulletin) to offer your suggestions.

Folder with all previous issues.

Issue 1 Group Work; Issue 2 Engagement; Issue 3 Engagement;

Issue 4 Academic Integrity; Issue 5 Feedback; Issue 6 Feedback;

Issue 7 Active Engagement; Issue 8 Building on Prior Learning;

Issue 9 Student Diversity; Issue 10 Learning Outcomes;

Issue 11 Deep Learning; Issue 12 The Teaching-Research Nexus;

Issue 13 Improving Student Learning; Issue 14 Planning for Effective Student Learning;
Issue 15 Feedback for Teaching; Issue 16 Gamification;
Issue 17 Activities for Effective Learning; Issue 18 Dialogic Feedback;

Issue 19 Student Evaluation; Issue 20 Enhancing Learning;
Issue 21 Rationale for Assessment; Issue 22 Motivating Learning; Issue 23 Peer Learning;
Issue 24 Improving Online Learning and Teaching; Issue 25 Teacher Presence;

Issue 26 Teaching Current Content; Issue 27 Online Learning Model

FoBJBS Newsletter: BJBS-News

FoA&E Newsletter: NeXus

Email: elmcintyre@csu.edu.au
Website: https://www.csu.edu.au/division/learning-and-teaching/about-us/learning-academy
Phone: +61 2 6933 4726
Twitter: @TeachingTuesday

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