Spheres of Influence: Ventures and Visions in Educational Development*

3-6 July, 2002
The University of Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia

Abstract

Linking student evaluation to academic development

Owen Hicks, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Elizabeth Santhanam, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Kenn Martin, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Allan Goody, The University of Western Australia, Australia

Australian universities often provide student feedback on teaching to academics with little suggestion as to how the individual's teaching could be improved. Funded through the national government Committee for University Teaching and Staff Development, this project aimed to provide an effective way to link feedback on various aspects of teaching to existing resources designed to improve performance in relation to those aspects. An automated system for the identification of appropriate strategies to address specific difficulties in teaching identified through student feedback was implemented. One part of the evaluation strategy for this project involved assessing user response in the final semester of 2001.

The seminar will be organized around a series of propositions and questions. These will include the following:

You want to make it easier for individual academic staff to improve their teaching using feedback from student evaluations. Why is it difficult at the moment? What might you (if you have some responsibility for student evaluation and instructional development services) do?

Should you target 'weakness' in teaching, as revealed through student evaluation questionnaires? How might you identify which 'items' to target?

Assuming we've identified items to target, what information/advice/developmental strategies should we give to individual academics to help them improve their teaching in these areas?

How could we do this? How could we manage the volume of individual academics with individual needs as revealed through student evaluations and how could we link these to specific strategies ?

OK, so we've got a system in place for doing this. Is it working? Is it doing what we hoped? Is it being used? Do they like it? Do they get something out of it? Is it improving teaching?

The seminar seeks participant views on the above questions while also outlining what was done at the University of Western Australia in relation to this venture.

Key words:
Student evaluation; Development strategies

Objectives, outcomes and activities:
In this seminar a 'venture' to link student feedback to specific developmental actions for individual academic staff will be reported to participants. It is intended that participants will become familiar with the project, noting the opportunities and limitations it offers and giving some consideration to its possible application in other higher education institutions. Participants will be asked to interact with each other and with the presenters to address a series of key questions to reveal what this venture is about. The questions will be addressed generally and then applied specifically to the UWA experience. The seminar will conclude with participants asked to consider the implications of applying a similar approach within their own institution.

Owen Hicks has been in his current position at UWA for the past ten years, a member of the ICED Council since 1997 and a past president of HERDSA. His interests include structures and processes for the delivery of academic staff development, departmental strategies for improving teaching and learning, and student evaluation of teaching. He has broad consultation experience, nationally and internationally, in locations as widespread as Japan, Norway, Spain, Sri Lanka and Germany.

Elizabeth Santhanam co-ordinates the Evaluation of Teaching Unit in The University of Western Australia. The presenters of this symposium are either directors or assistant directors of staff/faculty/educational development centres.

Kenn Martin is a Project Officer at the Centre for Staff Development at the University of Western Australia. He provides information technology development and support within CSD including ongoing refinement of the Centre's World Wide Web pages and other information technology based staff development initiatives. His research interests include computer-mediated communication as an enabler of reflective practice.

Allan Goody is a lecturer in the Centre for Staff Development at the University of Western Australia, with a primary focus on teaching and learning development programs for all teaching staff including postgraduate tutors. He has taught courses in adult and higher education and worked in educational development in the USA and Australia. His professional interests include teaching and learning, student learning teams, program development, diversity in teaching and learning and service learning.

Contact: Owen Hicks, email: ohicks@csd.uwa.edu.au