SFQ & Teaching Evaluation

The faculty-based SFQ instrument, guidelines and procedures was first developed in 1999/2000 by a Faculty Working Party comprising one member each from all departments/institute in FH and one member from the Educational Development Centre. The system has subsequently been reviewed and revised in 2001/02.

In May 2005, a Working Group was set up by the Learning and Teaching Committee (LTC) to conduct a comprehensive study of the guidelines and procedures with a view to recommending changes, where appropriate, to the system so that the collection of student feedback in PolyU will align with the outcome-based approach to teaching, learning and assessment adopted by the University. The Final Report of the Working Group, which includes recommendations for relevant changes to the system, was endorsed by LTC at its 30th meeting held on 4 October 2006.

In June 2009, the Learning and Teaching Committee decided to add one more question on subject workload in the SFQ Form. The purpose of the addition is to obtain more quantitative data about students’ engagement in the learning activities of a subject.

The following set of guidelines has been developed with reference to the broad institutional framework for collecting student feedback endorsed by LTC.

The Student Feedback Questionnaire (SFQ) for FH

Feedback from students on their learning experience of the subject as well as on the teaching of the staff member will be collected via the revised SFQ Form for FH. The revised SFQ Form has two sections:

Section I: About the subject

This first section focuses on students’ feedback on the subject and is sub-divided into two parts:

Section IA: This part consists of six university-wide standard items of the closed-response type, asking students to express their views on their learning experience of the subject.

Section IB: This part contains two open-ended questions which ask students to comment on their learning experience of the subject and suggest how it can be improved.

Section II: About the staff member

This second section aims to collect students’ feedback on the teaching of the staff member and is sub-divided into three parts:

Section IIA: This part has seven questions of the close-response type, in which five are core Faculty items and two are university-wide standard items. The five core items focus on the various aspects of the staff member's teaching, and the two standard items ask for students’ overall view about the teaching of the staff member.

Section IIB: This part contains one university-wide standard item on the extent to which the staff member has used English during teaching.

Section IIC: This part contains two open-ended questions which invite students to comment on the staff member’s teaching and suggest how it can be improved

Frequency and timing

All classes taught by a member of the FH teaching staff will be evaluated. The SFQ should be administered at an appropriate time, usually between the middle and the end of the semester. The staff member concerned should be responsible for suggesting to the departmental AO/EO the most appropriate date and time for the administration.

Please note that according to the policy set by LTC in July 2000, when service teaching is carried out (i.e., when the subject is taught by staff members from other departments), the teaching department should be responsible for carrying out the SFQ evaluation. Information collected about the subject, however, should be released to the hosting department(s) by the teaching department concerned.

Printing and assembling of forms

The FH SFQ optical-mark-read forms are available from the EDC. The departmental AO/EO is responsible for assembling sufficient copies of the form for distribution. The forms should be put in a sealed envelope with a duly completed FH SFQ Administration Form attached to it.

Distribution and collection of forms

The procedures for distributing and collecting the SFQ forms are essentially the same as before.

The departmental AO/EO is responsible for arranging a suitable person to distribute and collect the SFQ forms at the date, time and venue suggested by the staff member concerned.

The staff member concerned should be absent from the room during the process of distributing, completing, and collecting the SFQ forms.

Completed SFQ forms should be put in an envelope which should immediately be sealed, signed, and returned to the departmental AO/EO, who will then pass them to the EDC for data input and analysis.

To ensure the validity of the student responses, the person(s) responsible for distributing and collecting the forms should follow strictly the procedures specified below.

Procedures for distributing and collecting SFQ forms

1. Before distributing the SFQ forms, explain to students:

that the PolyU has a policy of systematically collecting student feedback on teaching;
that the feedback given will be useful to the staff member for improving his/her teaching, and the overall results will also be considered in the staff appraisal exercise;
that their feedback is anonymous, and will not affect their assessment grades; and
the numerical data will be processed by the EDC, while the open-ended comments will be read by the staff member only after the finalisation of the exam results.

2. Distribute the SFQ forms to the students individually by hand. Do not circulate the forms.

3. Copy the staff name, subject name and subject code from the SFQ Administration Form onto the whiteboard, and ask students to copy them clearly onto the SFQ form.

4. Encourage students to answer the open-ended questions in a critical and constructive way.

5. Give students sufficient time to complete the forms. Normally, they need 10 to 15 minutes to answer fully.

6. Collect the forms when everyone has finished.

7. Count the number of completed SFQ forms collected, enter the number onto the SFQ Administration Form on the envelope, and sign it. Then put all the completed SFQ forms into the envelope and seal it.

8. Return the sealed SFQ Envelope, together with the unused SFQ forms, to the departmental EO/AO immediately afterwards.

Analysis and reporting of the SFQ data

The EDC will be responsible for analysing and reporting of the SFQ data. Two different sets of results will be reported - one focusing on the teaching of the subject alone, and the other incorporating the results of both the teaching of the subject and the staff member.

Individual staff member teaching the subject will receive both the reports on his/her teaching and on the teaching of the subject. Summaries of the results will also be made available to the Dean of the faculty on request. A copy of the same report will be sent to the respective head of department. A copy of the report on the teaching of the subject will be sent to the department concerned for programme or subject evaluation purposes, and will be made available to the programme/subject team. After the exam results have been confirmed at the Exam Board Meeting, the completed SFQ forms will be returned to the staff member concerned so that he/she can peruse the students' responses to the open-ended questions

Interpretation and use

The following principles should be applied in the interpretation and use of the SFQ results:

1. Results of the SFQ feedback will be used for both developmental and judgemental purposes. If making SFQ work better for judgemental purposes may not facilitate its use for developmental purposes, priority will be given to the former.

2. All SFQ data collected for all subjects taught over a relevant period should be made available for the purposes stated in (1).

3. If there is any doubt on the validity of the SFQ results, additional means of teaching evaluation (such as classroom observation by peers or use of teaching portfolio) should be considered.

4. Staff members can always respond in writing to their evaluations.

5. Staff members will also be given the opportunity to explain why certain SFQ data should be given more weight than the others.

Confidentiality

All SFQ data and reports on individual staff members are confidential to that staff member, the respective head of department, and the Dean.

The EDC will not keep any hard copies of the SFQ results, and will not disclose the SFQ data of an individual staff member to anybody other than the staff member and the head of department concerned, or discuss it with anybody else.

Enquiry about policies and procedural guidelines

All matters in relation to the policies and procedures of the administration of the FH SFQ should be addressed to the respective Chairperson of the Departmental Learning & Teaching Committee, or directly to the Dean of FH when faculty-level decisions are warranted.

Help from the EDC

The EDC assists the Faculty/School in processing and reporting the SFQ results. Help is available from EDC for individual faculty/school members in interpreting the SFQ results, and planning teaching improvements based on the results. Please refer to the following list for enquiries:

For	Contact
Obtaining FH SFQ forms and returning forms for data analysis	Miss Jenny Yung, EO (x6292) E-mail: etjyung
Queries about data analysis and advice on interpretation of SFQ result	Dr. K.P. Kwan, SEDO (x6320) E-mail: etkpkwan
Advice on alternative forms of evaluation , and planning teaching improvements on the basis of feedback	Dr. K.P. Kwan, SEDO (x6320) E-mail: etkpkwan

Online help

Online information and help are also available on the EDC Website for other forms of teaching evaluations and the interpretation of SFQ results: http://edc.polyu.edu.hk/sfq-collect.htm

Norms

An interactive tool for interpreting your SFQ score

Sample forms
The Student Feedback Questionnaire for FH		English version	Chinese version