Student feedback gathered by the Subject Experience Survey (SuES) provides you with a deeper understanding of your students’ perception of their learning. Interpretation of survey results can allow you to take informed actions to enhance student engagement and subject learning design.
The Course Evaluations survey platform can be accessed from this link: https://p8.courseval.net/etw/ets/et.asp?nxappid=CS2&nxmid=start
Typically, you will use the Subject Experience Survey link located within staff links on the LMS dashboard, or from the evaluation link in the navigation menu of a subject site.
When you enter Course Evaluations, your current survey evaluation report will appear on the first screen. To access previous evaluation reports, use the reports link located at the top left of the menu bar.
If you can't access your survey, you may not have been assigned a subject coordinator role for the subject. Contact the SuES Information Officer at sessupport@csu.edu.au
If you are a Head of School or an Associate Dean (Academic), you also have access to a more in-depth view of current and historic Subject Experience Survey results through two different views:
These SuES data products are available from the OPA website.
Survey results are released later the same day on which subject results are released to students. An email notification containing a link to survey results will be sent to subject coordinators and Heads of School once survey results are released. Or you can use the provided links in Interact2.
Check survey release dates using the schedule of survey key administration dates.
After the survey closes, your subject survey report can be viewed by logging into the Course Evaluations system. Reports only become available after a survey closes to protect the integrity of the data collection process. If you believe you should be able to access your report(s) but cannot, contact the SuES Information Officer at sessupport@csu.edu.au
The survey results for your subject form a core resource when evaluating learning and teaching as part of subject reflection and planning. Student feedback gathered through the survey provides you with useful information about student perceptions of their learning experience in the subject.
The survey Evaluation Report provides student response data for each survey question. For the data to be adequately representative of the full student cohort, there must be an appropriately high survey response rate.
You can go through each survey question using this report. If there’s a greater percentage of students in agreement (i.e., To a very large extent; To a large extent), this is a signal that, in general, the student experience of that aspect of the subject was positive. On the other hand, because most subjects receive ratings that lean toward the upper end of the scale, scores of “To a small extent” or “To a very small extent” are a signal that students perceived particular challenges with the subject or teaching staff.
To develop a fuller understanding of student feedback in a current report, you may find it useful to compare responses across teaching periods. For example, where you may have introduced a new assessment approach to the subject, evidence of its success or otherwise might be sought in comparing changes in SuES results.
Student free-text comments can be valuable for the insights they provide into the subject learning experience. Unfortunately, there is no quick and easy way to discern any emerging themes or sentiments. Viewing students’ qualitative comments does provide you the chance to reflect on their engagement with the subject as a whole. Student comments are good to guide further investigation or be used alongside other data, but you should not take them on their own to form decisions.
An explanation of the Evaluation Report from the Course Evaluation survey platform is here: Using Course Evaluations: The survey Evaluation Report
Because students provide their feedback on a confidential basis, it's not normally possible to see who said what. Only under circumstances where a student has made abusive, threatening or discriminatory comments will an identification process be undertaken for the purposes of disciplinary action.
Inappropriate student comments are addressed through the Course and Subject Quality Assurance and Review Procedure and under the Student Misconduct Rule. Staff are encouraged to report inappropriate feedback they deem to be in breach of University policy to their Head of School.
The survey reminds students of their responsibility to respond professionally, and the Student Charter also confirms positive expectations about the way in which students and staff interact.