University of Tasmania, Australia

Welcome to the Faculty of Health Science Student Feedback Trial.

The purpose of this trial is to pilot a feedback method for students that has a short response turnaround time. Ultimately the aim is to have several feedback channels available, allowing students to give their views to the Faculty and the Schools in a timely and easily accessed way. Your feedback will be used to generate visual reports and inform quality improvement initiatives in teaching and learning at the Faculty of Health Science.

So how does this work? The Faculty has set up an email driven feedback mechanism for the trial and the dedicated email address is:

fhs.qelt@utas.edu.au

If you want to send feedback please use a subject line for the email that gives an indication whether you are an Undergraduate or Postgraduate student, the School you are enrolled in, the campus that you study from and the words “pilot feedback”.

For example:

From:                                John Smith Sent:                                  Monday, 12 August 2013 4:52 PM To:                                     FHS QELT Subject:                             UG Nursing Launceston pilot feedback Hello QELT I really had trouble parking last week here in Newnham. When I finally got a parking spot I was late to my tutorial and then it was not placed up on MyLO until two days later which was frustrating. Can we please have the tutes up on the web at the time of, or shortly after, the tute? Thanks

In feedback about your course of study and your life as a student please consider:

• What works well in your course of study.

• What could be improved in your course of study.

• What you think future delivery of study programs might consider in light of your experience this semester.

Only a couple of sentences are necessary to help the Faculty gain a richer picture of student life as you study for your award.

Every two weeks after the pilot starts a Faculty member of QELT will place the contributions into a word cloud that will indicate the topics that students have commented on the most in that fortnight. At the end of each semester there will be a word cloud created of all feedback received via email.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Who reads the email?

A: The staff of the Quality Evaluation Learning and Teaching section of the Faculty of Health Science will review the emails. No personal details or verbatim comments will be reproduced by QELT and any contribution to feedback will be de-identified before the production of word cloud representations.

Q: Can I say anything I want to?

A: Within reason, yes you can. However, any defamatory statements or offensive language will be removed from consideration when reporting feedback, so that feedback and the word cloud generated from it remain consistent with conventions of respectful communication over the web.

Q: What will happen to the emails once they have been read?

A: They will be saved in a password protected server until a yearly report is due. Once this report has been compiled any messages not required for checking purposes will then be deleted.

Q: How will I know if my feedback has been acted upon?

A: You will be able to see the keywords you used in the word cloud for that fortnight and this will be proof your words have counted towards the bigger picture. At the end of semester a word cloud representing the whole semester will be created and checked against other feedback sources, including eVALUate survey data.

Q: Will I be able to contact the QELT section with any concerns that I might not want to put in an email?

A: Periodically through the semester QELT will ask students for confidential feedback in other forms. You may alternatively wish to put your views into a hard copy memo or letter. If so, put your level of study, the School you are studying at, your home campus name and your views in hard copy and address it to QELT, BAG 99, Faculty of Health Science and ask your School Administration staff to place it in the internal mail. This costs nothing and the internal mail reaches QELT daily.

Q: Will the emails collected be put to any other use?

A: The emails collected may be the subject of a wider research application by the Faculty. However, all emails and word cloud content will have been de-identified prior to any research taking place. Additionally, students who have participated in the pilot will be given the opportunity to have the feedback removed from any research project.

Q: Will my lecturers know I have provided feedback?

A: No. This form of feedback will give a broad picture of comments and will only be broken down to the extent of whether the student was an undergraduate or postgraduate and with which School they studied.