student feedback and leadership - Office for Learning and Teaching

Student Feedback & Leadership
How do these relate to student feedback?
As the focus of the Team’s project was on the learning and teaching facilities,
the overall objective of the themes is to improve students’ learning experiences
by providing more appropriate facilities and which could result in more positive
feedback.
9.4 Actions
To gain an understanding of the current best practice in the provision of education
facilities, a review of the literature was undertaken. Several means were
used to obtain data from students and staff about the learning facilities in the
School. The Head of School conducted some informal discussions with groups
of students to obtain their thoughts about learning and teaching issues and the
facilities in which they learn. Focus groups of students and staff were then
conducted to explore these matters further. A survey was also conducted
of the learning spaces currently used by the School.
How did the team structure itself, how has this changed during
the project?
The ALTC ART Team was drawn from the School’s Learning and Teaching
Committee (LTC). The team comprised a mix of experienced teaching staff and
some early career academics. The ART project provided a particular focus for
the School’s LTC. During the planning stages of the project in 2007 two
Facilitators shared the role, with one Facilitator being retained during
implementation. The Head of School originally lead the ART but this role was
successfully devolved to two staff who shared responsibility for the role
of ART leader thus further developing their leadership skills.
What did course teams do to improve student feedback and why?
Following the data gathering from students, staff and the literature,
consideration was given as to how changes could be made to the School’s
facilities to improve the student leaning experience and consequent feedback.
Coincidentally, over this time it appeared that the School was soon to be
permitted to expand from a small area of Level 8 Building 8 to take over the
whole floor. We were now in a position to plan some new learning spaces.
The work done for the ART project provided information about how the new
spaces should be designed.
What changes occurred in each course? – detail changes before and after
1154 - Assessment changed from exam and assignment to a case study
based assignment plus a reflective journal. Entire course material was based
on a case study, with theory to support the study. Students made a weekly
entry into their reflective journals and submitted the complete document at the
end of the semester, along with their report and a verbal presentation for the
case study. Reflective journals included individual student feedback for
classes and encouraged them to reflect on the material presented.
1107 – The intention of this course is to provide students with an introduction
to computer aided drawing (CAD). The course is taken by commencing
students across all undergraduate programs offered by the School. In previous
years, the facilities provided were of inferior quality and this appeared to impact
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