SFQ & Teaching Evaluation

This document explains briefly the system for collecting student feedback on teaching in the School of Hotel & Tourism Management (SHTM). Students will be requested to give their opinions on the teaching of the staff member and subject, by means of the Student Feedback Questionnaire Form (SFQ), which applies to all taught programmes at the undergraduate, postgraduate and sub-degree levels.

The school-based SFQ instrument, guidelines and procedures was first developed in 2004/05. 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.

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 SHTM

The main purpose of the SFQ for SHTM is to collect feedback from students so that modifications to and improvements on teaching can be made based on the results of the SFQ. The SHTM SFQ form comprises two sections:

About the subject (Section I)

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

Section IA: This part consists of five 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 one open-ended question which asks students to comment on their learning experience of the subject and suggest how it can be improved.

About the staff member (Section II)

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 one open-ended question which invites students to comment on the staff member’s teaching and suggest how it can be improved.

Use and limitations

The design of the questionnaire is to mainly cater for the evaluation of subject/teaching that is classroom-based.

Applicability

All staff members who have teaching responsibility should collect student feedback, using the SFQ form, in the SFQ week - normally to be set within the last 2 weeks of the semester. Each staff member should administer SFQ to all subjects taught by a staff in each semester, if possible. When more than one staff member is involved in teaching a significant portion of a subject, the teaching of the staff member and the relevant part of the subject will be surveyed towards the end of his/her teaching. In the case where different staff members are teaching mass lectures and tutorials of the same subject, the section "About the subject" will only be surveyed in the SFQ exercise for the staff member teaching the mass lectures.

Part-time lecturers (visiting lecturers), teaching assistants or research assistants who are taking up teaching duties can be included in the SFQ exercises if the School so decides.

For service teaching, the teaching department will be responsible for carrying out the SFQ evaluation. In other words, subjects which are taught by other departments to SHTM students will not be covered by the SFQ exercise of SHTM. On the other hand, subjects which are taught by SHTM staff to students of other departments will be included.

All subjects/classes offered by SHTM should be evaluated.

Printing and assembling of forms

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

Distribution and collection of forms

1. Administrative staff members from the School's General Office will bring the SFQ forms (in a sealed envelope) to the class of the teaching staff member to be evaluated for distribution, at the date, time and venue suggested by the staff member concerned.

2. The administrative staff member(s) will distribute the forms to the students. When the evaluation is finished, the administrative staff member(s) collect(s) the completed SFQ forms from the students.

3. The teaching staff member concerned should be excused from class for about 15 minutes while the students are completing the SFQ forms.

4. The administrative staff member(s) should put all the completed SFQ forms in the envelope, seal and sign it, and bring it back in person to the School's General Office immediately afterwards. Unused SFQ forms should not be put in the envelope. They should be returned separately.

5. The School EO, also the SFQ officer, is responsible for collecting the envelopes each day for safekeeping in a locked environment.

6. Before sending the SFQ envelopes to the EDC for data input and analysis, the departmental EO is responsible for making arrangements to check that:

(a) the number of completed forms collected matches the entry on the SFQ Administration Form on the envelope, and

(b) the envelope does not contain any unused SFQ forms.

To ensure the validity of the student responses, the administrative staff member(s) responsible for distributing and collecting the forms are given clear instructions to follow strictly the procedures specified below:

Procedures for distributing and collecting SFQ forms

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

2. Distribute the SFQ forms to the students individually by hand. Do not circulate the forms.
3. Remind students to answer all sections of the SFQ form as appropriate.
4. Give students sufficient time to complete the forms. Normally, students need about 15 minutes to complete the form.
5. Collect the forms when everyone has finished.
6. Count the number of completed SFQ forms collected, and enter the number onto the SFQ Administration Form on the SFQ envelope. Then put all the completed SFQ forms into the envelope. Finally, seal and sign the envelope as appropriate.
7. Any unused SFQ forms should be returned separately, and should not be put in the envelope.
8. Return the sealed SFQ envelope, together with the unused SFQ forms to the School's General Office immediately afterwards for safekeeping in a locked environment before sending them as a batch to EDC for collation and analysis.

Analysis and reporting of the SFQ data

The EDC will be responsible for analysing and reporting the SFQ data. Two reports will be produced: the SFQ full report and the SFQ subject report. The full report will include the summary statistics of the rating items in all sections. The subject report will include only the summary statistics of the items in the section "About the Subject".

Individual staff member teaching the subject and the Director of School will receive the SFQ full report. The SFQ subject report will be sent to the School for further distribution to the Programme Leader and the School Learning & Teaching Committee Chairperson for programme evaluation purposes. Open-ended comments made by students are not summarised in either of the reports. After the examination results have been finalised, all 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.

If the School has provided service teaching to students of other departments, it should also send the results of the SFQ on the subject to the departments which were serviced.

Interpretation and use

Various school norms based on different class sizes, study modes, subject levels and programme stages will be computed by the EDC, and made available on the Web.

Results of the SFQ can be used as follows:

1. The individual staff member will use the results for reflection to make improvements in various aspects of his/her teaching.

2. The appraiser will discuss the SFQ and its results with staff member for both judgmental and developmental purposes.

3. The Programme Leader will review and discuss the SFQ subject results with a view to improve the syllabus of the subject and the curriculum of the programme.

4. Chairperson of the School Learning & Teaching Committee can review the SFQ subject report with a view to suggest ways to improve the teaching of the subject.

The student feedback results should be treated just as one source of information for appraisal and judgmental purposes. SFQ gives only the perception of students and deeper investigation is necessary for a better analysis/use. Student feedback results should be interpreted in context and in conjunction with comments provided by the staff member concerned. Reference should also be drawn from other valuable information, including peer reviews for the evaluation of the teaching performance of a staff member. For critical personnel decision, a more comprehensive review will be required.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is emphasised in the SFQ exercise. All SFQ data and reports on individual staff members are treated by the EDC as confidential to that staff member, except that a copy of the SFQ results will be sent to the Director of School.

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 Director of School concerned, or discuss it with anybody else. The only exception is that the President or his designate has the right to see the SFQ results on demand.

When a staff member is applying for promotion, contract renewal, and other personnel exercises, he/she is required to submit full information about his/her SFQ results in the last 3 years for the perusal of the Selection Panels.

Enquiry about policies and procedural guidelines

The SFQ system in PolyU is faculty/school-based. All matters in relation to the policies and procedures of the administration of the SHTM 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 also available from EDC for individual staff 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 SHTM 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 SHTM

English version

Chinese version