Each semester the Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) asks students for feedback about their courses of study and how they are taught. For Semester 2 this year, the SELT survey opens on the week of 21 October. This can send a chill or maybe a thrill down the spine of teaching staff – depending on how the survey sits in their experience. CLT in collaboration with ANU Planning and Service Performance (PSP) has produced a new set of resources designed to assist teaching staff to navigate and make the most of the SELT survey as a tool to better understand the student experience.
Quick SELT refresher
SELT is an important tool that helps the university with courses and academic development and in measuring student satisfaction. The survey is provided to students towards the end of each teaching session by the ANU Institutional Research team. It is designed to provide a level of insight into ANU teaching and learning offerings from a student perspective.
Is it compulsory?
The short answer is yes.
The mechanism SELT currently provides the opportunity for student feedback required under the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency’s (TEQSA) Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021.
SELT is mandatory for all teaching staff and although it is optional for students to participate, encouraging them to engage and provide constructive feedback about their learning experience is critical to the survey eliciting balanced and useful feedback.
Actively supporting SELT engagement
Student feedback can help enhance teaching quality and improve ANU courses to better support student learning experience. SELT results can also inform professional development and promotion processes. Actively encouraging student engagement can increase the number of respondents, providing a broader understanding of the student experience – both the challenges and the successes.
Five things you can do now to prepare
1. Plan to address SELT
Familiarise yourself with the SELT schedule and actively create opportunities in class to discuss its purpose and why it is important for students to participate. SELT has reference documents and the CLT website has a new SELT Resource Collection that can be used to help guide students in giving useful feedback. The CLT blog also has articles about improving student feedback surveys, mapping your student’s learning experience, even tips from a student on accessible and inclusive learning that you may find useful.
2. Provide examples of how past feedback was used to make improvements
When students understand that teachers value their constructive feedback and know that their concerns will not go unheard, the likelihood of their response increases both in quality and numbers. Research has shown that a major obstacle to students completing such surveys as SELT is their limited understanding of the evaluation process and how their feedback is utilised to enhance teaching performance and course content (Hoel & Dahl, 2019; Stein et al., 2021). Giving examples of useful feedback you have received in the past and how the course or your teaching benefited in response can encourage and help guide students in providing constructive feedback.
3. Manage expectations
Anonymous surveys have their perils and unfortunately negative and at times hurtful feedback does occur. Some comments can harm the health and wellbeing of teaching staff and may result in adjustments to appease students, potentially compromising the quality of teaching (Lakeman et al. 2022a; Lee et al. 2022). It helps if you manage both your own and students’ expectations by acknowledging that the student experience will be affected by a variety of factors, many of them outside the student’s control, and some also outside of the control of teaching staff – which may impact the feedback you receive.
4. Show students how to make meaningful and constructive feedback
Presume positive intentions and help students express constructive feedback with confidence. Provide them with the essential information they need and possibly even allocate time in class to discuss what kind of feedback is important and will be useful for you. Help them best express their learning experience by explaining what constitutes constructive feedback.
5. Check out the new SELT Resource Collection
The SELT resource collection offers information about the SELT survey, strategies for engaging students, and downloadable resources that can be used in class and in the LMS subject site. It includes practical and evidence-based advice and guidance on how to engage students with SELT as well as dedicated sections addressing issues that may be encountered through the survey.
Engaging with Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) surveys
A practical, evidence-based guide to help you make the most out of SELT surveys.
If you would like further support regarding the SELT survey, please contact CLT at clt@anu.edu.au or the Institutional Research Team at evaluations@anu.edu.au.
Nikki Ayende, Communications Specialist at the ANU Centre for Learning and Teaching
Dr Nguyen Bui, Education Designer at the ANU Centre for Learning and Teaching
References
Hoel, A., & Dahl, T. I. (2019). Why bother? Student motivation to participate in student evaluations of teaching. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(3), 361-378. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1511969
Lakeman, R., Coutts, R., Hutchinson, M., Lee, M., Massey, D., Nasrawi, D., & Fielden, J. (2022). Appearance, insults, allegations, blame and threats: an analysis of anonymous non-constructive student evaluation of teaching in Australia. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 47(8), 1245-1258. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2021.2012643
Lee, M., Coutts, R., Fielden, J., Hutchinson, M., Lakeman, R., Mathisen, B., & Phillips, N. (2022). Occupational stress in university academics in Australia and New Zealand. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 44(1), 57-71. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2021.1934246
Stein, S. J., Goodchild, A., Moskal, A., Terry, S., & McDonald, J. (2020). Student perceptions of student evaluations: enabling student voice and meaningful engagement. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 46(6), 837–851. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2020.1824266
