Putting students in the picture: Student perceptions and expectations of evaluation at the University of New England

Cathryn McCormack
University of New England

Keywords: evaluation; student involvement

Student evaluations of lecturer performance and units or subjects have been widely used in Australian universities for many years to gather data for institutional purposes. However, a scan of policies and processes published in various Australian university websites reveals students are rarely mentioned outside of the data collection process. Likewise, the literature focuses more on validity and reliability of data than on involving students. Given this, the current study is being undertaken to investigate student perceptions of UNE's existing evaluation processes and their expectations of future involvement, such as, but not limited to, receiving feedback on changes made as a result of the evaluation survey. Data collection is currently in process. Semi-structured focus group discussions will be held with approximately 40 students. As communication between students and staff varies significantly by delivery mode, the groups are divided by four delivery modes: on campus, off campus regularly attending residential schools (RRS), off campus rarely attending residential schools (NRS), and on line. Interestingly, initial results show that off campus RRS students are unaware of our current processes including confidentiality issues. Further data analysis hopes to establish a basis for recommendations on policy, process and presentation of data so that students and the institution derive greater benefit from evaluation.