This document summarizes a workshop about developing a feedback survey for postgraduate taught students. The workshop aimed to get participant views on criteria for questions, topics the survey should cover, and how to structure the survey. Suggested themes included quality of teaching, learning and teaching, intellectual challenge, skills development, and student support. Participants provided input on important topics, irrelevant topics, and how to order and structure questions for different audiences and purposes like program enhancement, student choice, and accountability. The timeline for developing and piloting the survey was also discussed.

1. A feedback survey for taught
postgraduates
Workshop: Content and Structure
Jemima Cooper
Project Officer, HEFCE
Sarbani Banerjee
Head of Learning & Teaching, HEFCE
Future Inn, Bristol City Centre
21 September 2017

2. Workshop: Content and Structure
Workshop aims
Update on the work we’ve done so far
• Steering group
• External researchers
Getting your views on
• Criteria for including questions in the survey
• Topics the survey should cover
• Ideas about how to structure the survey
Opportunity to ask questions and give us your perspective

3. Workshop: Content and Structure
Challenges
• Diversity of PGT provision
• Different audiences
• Feasibility
Purposes/audiences
• Enhancement – institutions
• Accountability – policy makers
• Student choice – students
Focus on what the ideal survey might look like

4. Workshop: Content and Structure
Work so far
Postgraduate Information Steering Group
• Themes to be included
• Consideration of survey structure
• Suggested criteria for including questions
Institute for Employment Studies
• Literature review
• Expert roundtables
• Student focus groups

5. Questions?

6. Survey criteria
Survey questions should:
• Meet at least one of the three purposes
• Have potential to be influenced by providers
• Concerned with academic experience
• Be applicable across all PGT courses/providers
• Cover measurable and valid issues
• Deliver meaningful and useful data
• Produce results that are unambiguous in direction
• Address enduring issue
What do you think?
Workshop: Content and Structure

7. Workshop: Content and Structure
Themes and suggested grouping
Quality of teaching at appropriate level
Learning and teaching
Intellectual challenge and workload
Skills and opportunities
Agency/autonomy and development of skills
Links with research and practice
Facilitating learning
Engagement
Learning resources and learning community
Feedback on assessment and student support
(academic)
Social/community factors
Student voice
Student support (pastoral) and wellbeing
Transformation
Misc…
Motivation and course choice
Expectations (course delivery consistent with
information provided)
Course organisation

8. Workshop: Content and Structure
Content: for discussion
• Is there anything missing?
• Which topics do you think are most important?
• Are there any topics that are not relevant?
Purposes/audiences
• Enhancement – providers
• Programme leads, recruitment/marketing, student experience staff…
• Student choice – students
• Accountability – policy makers

9. Workshop: Content and Structure
Structure: for discussion
• Flow/ordering of questions
• Length of the survey
• Routing some respondents around certain questions
• Optional banks?

10. Survey criteria
Survey questions should:
• Meet at least one of the three purposes
• Have potential to be influenced by providers
• Concerned with academic experience
• Be applicable across all PGT courses/providers
• Cover measurable and valid issues
• Deliver meaningful and useful data
• Produce results that are unambiguous in direction
• Address enduring issue
What do you think?
Workshop: Content and Structure

11. Workshop: Content and Structure
Your input today and ongoing
• Anything important that we haven’t thought of?
• Any student groups/audiences with specific requirements for
survey content/structure?
• Any other considerations about content and structure?
Timeline
• Manchester event 29 September and webinar 11 October
• Steering and advisory groups – October
• Draft proposals for pilot – November
• Formal consultation – January

12. Questions?

13. How to find out more
email j.cooper@hefce.ac.uk
c.cameron@hefce.ac.uk
website www.hefce.ac.uk/lt/PGT/

14. Copyright
The copyright in this presentation is held either by
the Higher Education Funding Council for England
(HEFCE) or by the originating authors.
Please contact customerservices@hefce.ac.uk for
further information and re-use requests.