Academic Leaders

FAQs

Course Feedback Dates

Your Feedback Classroom Administration

Supporting Your Feedback Response Rates

Understanding Questionnaire Results

Accessing Past Results

Resources

Contact

Academic Leaders FAQs

Recommendation Concerning the Interpretation of the Results from the Revised Student Questionnaire on Courses and Teaching

Based on differences in the items and rating scales between the original Student Questionnaire on Courses and Teaching (Fall 1996 - Summer 2017) and the revised Student Questionnaire on Courses and Teaching (Fall 2017 onward), it is recommended that the results from these two time periods be treated as separate data sources and not aggregated or compared (e.g., in analyses, tables, graphs) for decisions involving these scores (e.g., Annual Performance Evaluation, Promotion and Tenure, Teaching Awards). For more information, please click here.

Interpreting Fall 2016/Winter 2017 SQCT Scores

In Fall 2016, Western's Student Questionnaires on Courses and Teaching (SQCT) moved from paper administration to online administration. A comparison of means for each of the 16 SQCT items for the Fall terms in 2014, 2015, and 2016 showed the Fall 2016 ratings to be in line with the Fall 2015 ratings and slightly higher than the 2014 ratings. The same comparison was conducted for Western's Winter 2015, 2016, and 2017 mean ratings for the 16 items. For the Winter terms, the 2017 means were slightly lower than the 2015 and 2016 item means. Please take the possibility that the move of SQCTs online may have impacted the SQCT scores of individual courses into consideration for decisions involving these scores (e.g., Annual Performance Evaluation, Promotion and Tenure, Teaching Awards). For graphic representations of these scores, please click here.

Students at Western have completed university-wide questionnaires since Fall 1996, and the distribution of the questionnaires and generated results are supported by the Faculty Collective Agreement. Results gathered from the questionnaires serves a variety of purposes:

  • Instructors can use the results to identify course and teaching strengths, build on effective practices, and improve other practices
  • Departments and Faculties can use the results for course and program development
  • Questionnaire results are combined with other information to form a teaching dossier. It is also used in Western's regular faculty review process, including Promotion and Tenure
  • Students may use questionnaire results when selecting their courses
  • Previously, only students present when questionnaires were distributed in class could complete them. Now, all students will have access to their course questionnaires as long as they are open
  • The online system can generate reports tailored specifically to the instructor, department, and faculty level
  • Results are now automated, reducing the time needed to generate reports

Even though the Your Feedback system will provide students with access to their SQCTs for the duration of the course feedback period, instructors will still set aside 15 minutes of class for students to complete the SQCT on their own devices, as per senate policy. Research, as well as our own Your Feedback pilot in summer 2016, demonstrates that setting aside time in class both reinforces the importance of the SQCT among students and improves response rates. A full list of instructions and resources for individuals administering the questionnaires in class are found under the Departmental Coordinator Your Feedback Classroom Administration page.

Please note that as per senate policy, the course instructor must be absent from the room during SQCT administration.

Very little has changed in regard to scheduling SQCT in-class administration visits. Departmental Coordinators will still schedule these visits as they have in the past. More information about the process is available on the Departmental Coordinator's FAQ page.
High response rates are desirable. Your Feedback contains several automated features that are designed to encourage students to complete their questionnaire. Instructors should continue to provide 15 minutes of class time for students to complete questionnaires on their own devices. Please continue to support your instructors and Departmental Coordinators in this SQCT process. This site also provides a list of other strategies for supporting a high class response rate.

The questions on the Student Questionnaire on Courses and Teaching (SQCT) were revised in 2016/2017 based on the Western's Joint Working Group: Student Questionnaires on Courses and Teaching 2015 report. In that report, the Joint Working Group recommended:

  1. The questions in the SQCT be reviewed and revised;
  2. The revised questions be relevant to a variety of instructional modalities (e.g., face-to-face; online, blended);
  3. The end-of-course questionnaire be customizeable such that there will be a set of core questions with the possibility of adding supplementary questions from a question pool; and
  4. A committee consisting of faculty and staff with expertise in survey methodology and teaching assessment implement these recommendations.

As per the Joint Working Group's recommendations, a committee reviewed and revised the questionnaire. The revised questionnaire is somewhat shorter, leaving room for supplmentary questions, and includes modified instructions to provide students with more guidance on completing the questionnaire. The rating scale is revised to reflect agreement with the core SQCT questions, and the committee ensured that the questions are relevant to different course formats (e.g., face-to-face, blended, online).

The revised questionnaire was adopted as the core SQCT questions in Fall 2017.

A comparison of the revised and original questionnaires is available here (pdf).

Beginning with Fall 2017 courses, instructors will be able to select questions from a pool of items to add to the questionnaire.

While formatting may differ depending on the type of devices students use (e.g. smartphone, tablet, or laptop), all students will see the same information and undertake the same SQCT completion process. The Student How Your Feedback Works page provides a short video walkthrough of what students see when they complete their SQCT using Your Feedback. Step-by-step instructions and screen shots are also available there.

After student have submitted their SQCT, Your Feedback will display a successfully submitted message thanking them and indicating that results will not be released until after final grades are submitted.

Departmental Coordinators are able to track instructor and departmental response rates. Please go to the "Your Feedback" tool on extranet.uwo.ca for a guide on tracking instructor and departmental response rates.

Consistent with senate regulations, SQCT Results reports for courses with 5 or fewer responses are not sent to the instructor or Dean. An instructor for whom 3 or 4 students completed their SQCTs for a course may request a specialized report, the SQCT Minimal Response Report. This report only includes the SQCT ratings, not the instructor or course comments; the comments are suppressed to safeguard student anonymity, and is only available for SQCT results from the Winter 2018 term forward. The SQCT Minimal Response Report is only made available to the instructor of the course.

Instructors and Deans will be notified by email when any SQCT results are ready for you to view. The email will contain a link that will allow you to securely log in to the Your Feedback system and view the results. Results are released simultaneously to Deans and Instructors.

Yes. If you have a request for a customized report, please contact feedback@uwo.ca.

Rude words (e.g., profanity) are redacted and the comments with redacted words are reviewed to determine if the comments are also offensive (e.g., discriminatory, harassing), and removed if necessary. All other SQCT comments are released without review. If an instructor receives a comment that they believe is offensive and wishes to report that comment, they are asked to do so using the new SQCT Comment Review tool in the Faculty/Staff Extranet. If the comment raises concerns regarding faculty or student safety, Campus Police should be notified immediately.

Historically, offensive comments, such as those that violate the Student Code of Conduct (e.g., discriminatory, harassing, threatening), have been rare at Western.

As per the new Faculty Collective Agreement, means, standard deviations, and medians are no longer provided for student ratings in the SQCT Results Reports.