What about student comments? Issues related to moving student evaluations online

Christina Ballantyne, Murdoch University, Western Australia

In 2005 Murdoch University moved their student survey of units system completely online. Overall this has been a successful exercise with both staff and students responding well to the online system. One of the questions raised by the move to online surveys concerns the use of student comments and whether comments have changed now that they are online. Research shows that students generally give longer and more thoughtful comments online.

While a comparison of online and paper comments in unit surveys is not possible given that in the past paper forms were returned to the unit co-ordinator and comments not recorded, other surveys conducted both online and on paper (Murdoch's Whole of University Experience Survey, Course Experience Questionnaire) provide data showing quantitative differences in student comments in the two modes. The views of teaching staff on their perception of the differences in comments in the two modes with regard to unit surveys are presented.

Moving to online surveys also raises the question of how we deal with student comments now that they are electronically recorded. Who owns the information? What are the issues if comments are distributed more widely than was possible when on paper? What if we want to use them for research? This presentation will consider these questions and how the administrators of the surveys might help prevent the misuse of student comments.