5.4 Module Evaluation Questionnaires
Module evaluation questionnaires are issued to every student for every module they are registered on within the University. The production and analysis of these is a central service provided by CAPOD to all Schools.
The questionnaires give students the opportunity to comment anonymously on various aspects of their modules, e.g. content, structure, presentation, workload, provision of sources of information, etc. and allow the University to collect data on student satisfaction.
During 2009/10 the Module Evaluation Working Group (a sub-set of the Academic Monitoring Assurance Group plus one Director of Teaching from the Arts Faculty and one from the Science Faculty) was tasked to review the current system and develop this as necessary. The Group consulted with Business Improvements and assessed the University's existing questionnaire production, process and software. Purchase of a new software system and amendment to current practice and process was recommended.
EvaSys, a survey management system from Electric Paper Ltd, was purchased in November 2010 and used to produce that semester's module evaluations. Amendments were made to the format of the questionnaires – they all now include:
- 4 compulsory questions relating to the module
- 4 compulsory questions relating to individual lecturers
- 2 compulsory questions relating to individual tutors
- A maximum of 8 questions from a pool of (currently) 16
- 4 compulsory free text questions
Question pool for Evaluation of Modules (PDF, 45 KB)
Module data is gathered from the University’s Module Management System (MMS) and imported into EvaSys to create the questionnaires in pdf format. It should be noted that although the system can produce either paper or online questionnaires, the Working Group decided that paper only should be used during the implementation period.
Once completed, questionnaires are returned to CAPOD for scanning and analysis. Reports are automatically emailed to module coordinators and to lecturers who receive their individual feedback.
The new system is in the early stages of implementation. Development work will continue during academic year 2010/11 and beyond.