Introduction

The Student Feedback Questionnaire (SFQ) for SD

Frequency and timing

Printing and assembling of forms

Distribution and collection of forms

Analysis and reporting of the SFQ data

Interpretation and use

Confidentiality

Enquiry about policies and procedural guidelines

Help from the EDC

Online help

An interactive tool for interpreting your SFQ score

Sample forms

Introduction

This document explains briefly the system for collecting student feedback on teaching in the School of Design (SD).

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 SD

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 SFQ Form for SD. The 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 School 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 SD 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 school 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 SD SFQ optical-mark-read forms are available from the EDC. The school 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 SD SFQ Administration Form attached to it.

Back to top

Distribution and collection of forms

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

The school 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 school 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.

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 Board Chairman on request. A copy of the same report will be sent to the head of school. A copy of the report on the teaching of the subject will be sent to the school 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 head of school, and the Board Chairman.

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 SD SFQ should be addressed to the Chairperson of the School Learning & Teaching Committee.

Help from the EDC

The EDC assists the 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:

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

An interactive tool for interpreting your SFQ score

Sample forms
The Student Feedback Questionnaire for SD