Message from Fiona Allan, vice president, Academic:
With the provincial government’s decision to end the annual Key Performance Indicator (KPI) surveys, and the move to remote learning necessitated by the pandemic, we have been working to develop new tools that will allow us to gather data and important feedback from students to inform our continuous improvement efforts and program reviews.
I am pleased to announce the upcoming launch of the Program Experience Survey on November 9. This new tool will be administered by email invitation to all students except those in the first term of their program.
The Program Experience Survey will help us ensure our programs continue to evolve along with the needs and expectations of students. It has been developed by an internal working group* and vetted through the College’s Academic Affairs and Strategic Enrolment Committee (AASEC).
The KPI survey was mandated by the government and administered annually by Ontario Colleges for the past 20 years. The discontinuation of the KPI survey and the new performance metrics in the SMA 3 have presented an opportunity to develop new surveys for programs and services that are short, flexible, and meet more immediate internal data and information needs.
The Program Experience Survey (PES) measures student perceptions in three areas of program quality – essential employability skills, vocational learning outcomes, and course electives.
It also collects feedback on applied and work integrated learning experiences, and students’ reasons for choosing Niagara College.
This survey will be an opportunity for us to learn how our students are feeling about their program experience – where programs are doing well and where they can improve.
Timelines will allow for feedback to be actioned in-year for continuous improvement purposes and program review.
The timeline for the process is:
- Oct 19-Nov 6, 2020: Social media/e-board/email campaign to raise awareness of the survey
- Nov 9-20, 2020: Survey students in term 02+ in fall 2020
- Mar 8-19, 2021: Survey Term 02 students who were in Term 01 in fall 2020
The responses from the survey will be confidential through all parts of this process. A minimum of five respondents will be required to generate a program report.
I would like to thank the Student Feedback Working Group for their time and effort to develop the survey instrument, AASEC for their review of the questions and process, and Katerina Gonzalez, Director, Planning and Institutional Research for her leadership on implementing this important initiative. Planning and Institutional Research will be providing survey research oversight and administration.
Preliminary results will be available in December 2020; combined and finalized results will follow in April 2021. If you have any questions regarding the survey, please contact Katerina Gonzalez, Director, Planning and Institutional Research.
*Student Feedback Working Group members:
- Craig Youdale, Dean
- Justin Williams, Dean
- Beth Bracken, Associate Dean
- Jeff Post, Associate Director, CAE
- Candace Rempel, Academic Quality Consultant, CAE
- Terri Stevens, Academic Quality Consultant, CAE
- Katerina Gonzalez, Director, Planning & Institutional Research
- Sue Reiser, Senior Research Associate, Planning & Institutional Research
