student feedback and leadership - Office for Learning and Teaching

Student Feedback & Leadership9.5 OutcomesWhat outcomes did the project achieve? Expected and unexpected?Upgrading of School learning spaces has been generally well acceptedby students. Despite some ongoing difficulties with the supporting technologyfor the “SmartBoards” students have reacted positively to their installation anduse. Lecturers had a similar positive reaction when the technology issues wereresolved. Lecturers are developing new and different ways of using the facilityto enhance student learning. For example, in a tutorial a powerpointpresentation is accompanied by relevant sections from certain AustralianStandards (accessed from the RMIT Library). There is a lot of potential todevelop new ways of delivery associated with the technology and thesewill be facilitated by the School LTC. The students were very interested in theoperation of the 'SmartBoards'. It is a little early to determine any changesto student learning from the new provisions. The new seating and tablets havealso received positive responses from students. Students who experiencedthe previous seating were informally asked their opinion of the new and allresponded positively. An unexpected outcome from the new furniture wascomments from a number of students that it would be useful to providefacilities for student laptop computers in subsequent upgrades. Thecombination of the two upgrade provisions has been reflected in increasesof CES scores for Question 14 relating to Facilities for several courses thatoperate in the upgraded rooms.What was the impact on student feedback?Expected 1154 – Student feedback from the reflective journals reinforcedthe scores and comments obtained from the CES survey. Student attendancewas vastly improved compared to previous years (78 out of 85 respondedto the CES).Unexpected 1154 – The standard of the presentations was far higher thanexpected for most groups. The CES contained many more comments thanare usually provided, and they were all extremely positive, well stated and lessreactionary than usual. The score for overall satisfaction was 78 – surprisinglyhigh for an experimental application of a course, considering the high numberof responses from a diverse group of students. Quite a few studentsestablished professional links (and a source of employment) with the visitingindustry speakers.Expected 1107 – Students were able to develop CAD skills to a far higherlevel than for previous years. Responses to the Expectations Survey (for allSemester One courses) indicated that students felt that it was important forthem to attend lectures and activities, and they put a high priority on workingwith each other. The large majority of students thought the Semester was“Fair” to “Good”, and also agreed that university learning is entirely differentfrom secondary school. Other student feedback comments were full of praisefor the standard of teaching provided to them by the CAD teachers. Moststudents agreed that the traditional drawing skills were necessary to learnas well as CAD skills, and that they supplement each other.Page 124