Prepare for the Start of Course Survey in part three of the MyKoha series.
All courses on all NZQA approved programmes are surveyed. The Start of Course Survey will provide much needed insight into how your students have settled into your course. The survey will be deployed in Week 2 and here are a few things that you might want to do to encourage survey responses from your students.
What do we ask?
- My lecturer makes me feel safe and welcomed in the course
- The course assessment (assignment) requirements have been communicated clearly
- My lecturer explains key ideas and difficult material clearly
- My lecturer is responsive when I need support
- A single free text field: ‘Do you have any other feedback?’
Why is Start of Course Survey important?
Your students are going to be asked what they think about their course so far, so make sure that you’ve taken the time to give the students a great experience with you so far. We want students to enjoy their study and to stay with us, so here’s what you can do:
- Make your students feel safe and welcome.
- Whether these are first year level two students or third year bachelor students, it is your responsibility to make your students feel welcome. If you need to, do some warm up or icebreaker activities to set everyone at ease.
- Communicate assessment requirements clearly.
- Talk through when assessments will be with the students at the beginning of the course. A lot of students find assessments worrying, let them know there won’t be any surprises. Provide the assessment tasks, rubrics, marking criteria to the students. Make sure your assessments have been pre-moderated.
- Explain key ideas and difficult material clearly.
- If there are any key ideas that might be confusing, take the time to explain these to the students. This might mean putting extra material on Canvas or reorganising your schedule for a cohort if it takes longer for them to grasp a topic.
- Be responsive.
- Your students are going to need reassurance from you. Provide your contact information to the students and always respond to queries within a reasonable time. Inform students of when to contact you, your preferred method of communication and an allocated time to meet you face-to-face. Let them know that you can respond to queries but you also have other commitments besides work.
How do I get my students to complete the survey?
In Week 2 of their programme, this survey is distributed through Canvas directly to students. It will be open for two weeks.
Reserve time in class for students to complete the survey. They will be able to complete this survey and the First Impressions Survey at the same time. These surveys only take a few minutes to complete.
Hints and Tips
- Publish your Canvas course, make sure you are a Teacher on the course, and make sure you have accepted the invitation to the course.
- Talk about it! Encourage your students that you need their feedback to improve your course.
- Schedule time in class for students to complete the Start of Course Survey (and FIS survey)
- Advise students that the survey is anonymous and their quality feedback will help us understand their needs and make improvements.
- Follow-up with students who are yet to complete the survey to do so before the window closes. You will receive email reminders about this.
- Contact Evaluations@manukau.ac.nz if you have any questions.
For more in the MyKoha series
1 My Koha: MIT’s Survey System
2 MyKoha: First Impression Surveys
3 MyKoha: Start of Course Survey
4 MyKoha: End of Course Survey
5 MyKoha: Lecturer Evaluations
6 MyKoha: How to conduct a survey