A message from Fiona Allan, vice president, Academic:
Student success is at the heart of everything we do at Niagara College. When it comes to ensuring the continuous improvement of the student experience at our College, it is vital to ensure that the voices of our students are heard.
This is why our end-of-term Course Feedback Surveys are critical. Organized by the Centre for Academic Excellence (CAE), they are the most direct way that students can provide constructive feedback for all of their NC courses. By measuring student perception of their learning context, the surveys assist in identifying areas of strength and opportunities for improvement.
Student input gathered from our Course Feedback Surveys will be an invaluable tool to inform our practice in teaching and learning as our College continues to navigate through challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the shift to remote delivery this year for many of our courses, we have updated the survey to better align with the full range of course delivery at the college, including virtual learning elements.
As we launch our Fall term Course Feedback Surveys on December 4, I ask your support in promoting the survey to students and explaining the importance of their feedback. Please encourage your students to complete their course surveys and, if possible, allow for time in class to complete them.
Given the gravity of change in our learning environments this year, increasing student response rates is critical to give us broad feedback on the student experience. The more feedback we receive, the more opportunities we have to drive positive change. To ensure the validity of our survey results and that they most accurately represent the student body, it is crucial that a significant number of students complete their surveys.
We have also introduced new gift card incentives for students to participate. For each course survey they complete, students can enter to win a $25 gift card of their choice (selected from a list of vendors). Students can rest assured that Course Feedback Surveys remain confidential and separate from their contest entries.
We encourage you to share this video with your students, which explains why it is important to complete Course Feedback Surveys: youtu.be/dwataAN9GGw.
An email will be sent to students with instructions to access their surveys via Blackboard, and to let them know that they may be completed from any computer or device. They will also be informed of the many prizes to be won.
To further promote participation, the deadline to complete Course Feedback Surveys has now been extended until three days after courses end – December 21.
Faculty members can view the list of their courses being surveyed and how many students have completed the survey in real time through Blackboard. To view the results, log in a week after the course ends (log in to Blackboard and click on the ‘MyBlackbord’ tab. View the ‘MyCoursEval’ section with your courses hyperlinked).
Tips on how to increase response rates as well as additional resources and FAQs may be accessed at www.niagaracollege.ca/coursefeedback. For more information, contact the CAE at [email protected].
