Category Archives: National Student Survey

Day 2 at the LLAS Centre

August 2, 2011Islamic Studies, LLAS, National Student SurveyIslamic Studiesjohn

New LLAs logo

We are now at the end of Day 2 of LLAS: the Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies. Our new website is up nicely integrated with Twitter and Facebook. Our new logo builds on our longstanding identity as LLAS (pronounced L-L-A-S) and we have kept our purple colours.

We have 19 events up on our website now kicking off with our annual workshop for Heads of Department on 14 September. Much of our professional development is going on as it has for the past eleven-and-a-half years as we seek to maintain and develop that which we have built up.

On a personal level there are significant changes. I am now only working only four days per week, but am seeking ways to make up my shortage of hours(!). Additionally, as from next week I will start as the Acting Academic Coordinator for the Higher Education Academy Islamic Studies Network, a role which I expect to be undertaking until March 2012.

I’m currently catching up on some unfinished business from last week (I was ill for a couple of days), notably a summary report on the National Student Survey projects we funded and the 2011 survey of non-specialist language learners.

I will be a taking some time off work later this month with plans to finish painting the hallway, landing and stairs (in Dulux co okie dough) and continuing to organise my messy outbuilding (bigger than a shed, smaller than a garage).

Thoughts following LLAS workshop on National Student Survey

June 29, 2011National Student Surveyjohn

The LLAS workshop on the National Student Survey (NSS) got some great feedback. We had participants from central admin departments as well as people in disciplines other than languages, linguistics and area studies. The NSS generates a substantial amount of data, yet it can difficult for academic staff (or university senior management for that matter) to know how to respond.

Some key thoughts, tips and observations from the workshop:

The NSS is only part of the wider picture about how students feel about their experience. We need to look at other data, including module surveys and internal surveys. There was a concern though that some students are becoming ‘surveyed out’.
The NSS was not designed as a Teaching Quality enhancement tool. It can be used to trigger discussions about QE, but it is not a tool in itself.
Joint honours programmes pose a big problem for the NSS, academic staff and students. The student experience of two or more departments/ subjects can be very different.
Your institution may ask additional optional questions on the NSS. Ask the department which deals with the NSS to find out if your institutions did ask additional questions and what the findings were. Students are also given the opportunity to make positive and negative open comments on their experience which are not made public.
When departments are ranked against each other in accordance with their NSS scores by subject the differences between them look quite large, but they are not statistically significant.
The subject of study is highly significant factor in contributing to the NSS scores and comparisons between departments within one institution do not make much sense.

The presentations from Angela Gallagher-Brett (LLAS) and Alex Buckley (Higher Education Academy) were much appreciated (a copy of Alex's PowerPoint will be on the event website in the next day or two. Many of the above points came from Alex.

We have just funded ten projects on the NSS about how staff and students understand the NSS questions. Four of these shared some of their findings at the workshop. I am going through them with a view to producing a report which will be published on our website.

National Student survey: opening dialogue between students and lecturers

May 6, 2011National Student SurveyNational Student Survey, student satisfactionjohn

I am currently organising a workshop for languages, linguistics and area studies lecturers on making the most of National Student Survey (NSS). The workshop will include reports by three colleagues who have been funded by LLAS to carry out research into how students and staff understand the NSS questions. What does the statement, “overall, I am satisfied with the quality of my course” really mean? The NSS has not been without its critics, but its use in league tables and websites providing information to potential students makes it impossible to ignore.

I don’t think there is much to be gained from chasing the ratings. A couple of percentage points here and there can make a big difference to a department’s position in a league table, and the potential for wasted time, money and effort in making superficial changes in the vague hope of squeezing out an extra 3% satisfaction is a real possibility. In my view the real opportunity the NSS provides is to open dialogue between students and their teachers.

The workshop will be held in London on 22 June 2011. You can register online at the LLAS website.