student feedback and leadership - Office for Learning and Teaching

Part B: Building Leadership Capacity - BUS: School of Economics, Finance & Marketing ART ReportThe overall failure rate decreased compared with the same time last year,but was slightly higher than two years ago. It is difficult to assess whether thechanges made have had any influence on this outcome or whether it is dueto the quality of the students.Stage 4: ReflectBased on the results experienced by each of the course Coordinators, planshave been put in place for further refinement of the initiatives trialled in 2008as well ideas to be trialled in the future. Each course will be discussedas follows:MKTG1025 – Marketing PrinciplesAs a consequence of the feedback from both semesters in 2008, there areplans for continued trialling of the audience response system using mobilephones, as well as further development of the podcasts.ECON1030 – Business StatisticsSince half of the GTS aggregate score is represented by questions relatingto feedback, and is typically rated poorly by Business Statistics students,the plan for next year is to further improve the forms of feedback madeavailable for students.One proposed idea is to replace the four online Perdisco assignments withthree compulsory in-class tests worth 5% each. Each test will consist of twoor three questions that are based on questions from the textbook. Tests willbe handed back to the students in the week following having been marked,providing sufficient and timely feedback. The general aim of this alternativeform of assessment is to improve the student feedback experience whichwill hopefully lead to an improvement in student grades and pass rates. Giventhat the tests will be based on questions in the textbook, it is hoped that thisinitiative will also further cultivate self directed learning habits. Hopefully theseimprovements will be reflected in future GTS scores.A number of other ideas are in the early stages of development, for example,running training sessions for staff and the expansion of the assistant tutor role.Funds for these initiatives have been provided for through the office of theDVC(Academic). Furthermore, strategies are being considered to identify“at risk” students by week 7 and scheduling a meeting with them regardingtheir studies with the view of addressing any problems.ECON1010 – Macroeconomics 1The changes undertaken in 2008 will continue forward for further assessment.Comparison of GTS scores across the 2008, Semester 2 classes providedinconclusive evidence to suggest that smaller lectures result in higher GTSscores since the large class held in Capitol Theatre obtained the highest GTSscore and the smaller lecture classes had higher overall satisfaction index (OSI)scores. Therefore, a plan for next year is to further assess whether large classsizes influence a students learning experience and hence lead to poorsatisfaction and low GTS scores. In an attempt to evaluate this, the samelecturer will teach both a large class in Capitol Theatre along with a classPage 109