Message from Fiona Allan, vice president, Academic:
I want to first take a moment to say a sincere thank you to everyone for your continued positivity and innovation as we face yet again the challenges brought on by another lockdown following last Thursday’s announcement by the Province. For many of you delivering labs on site, it resulted in a need to rethink and rework your teaching and learning plans in order to meet course outcomes with very little time on your part to respond. I appreciate all that you’ve done to deliver our courses and programs through a most disruptive and uncertain year. Our students continue to express appreciation for the ability to continue their studies and for the unwavering support of their academic teams.
As you may have seen recently announced, Niagara College’s Employee Engagement Survey deadline has been extended to accommodate the need for academic areas to focus on adjusting courses. If you have not yet had the time to complete the survey, please do so as soon as possible; this is an opportunity to give feedback, ideas and suggestions for how we build a positive workplace for everyone at NC.
Finally, as we near the end of our winter term, I am writing to let you know that the winter term Course Feedback Survey will take place April 9 – 26, 2021.
At Niagara College we pride ourselves on providing an excellent student experience and we are committed to providing our students with informative, challenging and engaging courses and learning opportunities during their time at NC. This is why our end-of-term Course Feedback Surveys are vital to the ongoing success of Niagara College. Organized and administered by the Centre for Academic Excellence (CAE), these surveys are the most effective and direct way for us to gather honest and constructive feedback from students.
Launching on April 9, the winter term Course Feedback Survey will allow us to collect and review course feedback from our students on their experiences which will permit us to evaluate our current offerings and ensure we continue to provide up-to-date, innovative course material.
The surveys will be live from April 9 to 26; I ask that you share the importance of completing these surveys with your students and, if possible, allow for time in-class for completion. The more feedback we receive, the more opportunities we have to drive positive change.
Continuing from last term, we are promoting gift card giveaways as 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.
An email will be sent to students with instructions for accessing 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.
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 ‘MyBlackboard’ 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].
