How to Promote Response Rate at University

Transcription

1 HEA Surveys 2016 Raising response rates

2 Raising response rates The more students that take part in the survey, the more meaningful the data. The purpose of raising response rates is to make the survey more effective for enhancement across the institution. A high response gives greater confidence to results and makes it possible to deliver results at levels relevant to staff delivering teaching and learning. The resources and sample s have been developed with this in mind to help you and colleagues involved with students across your institution to promote the surveys and encourage as many students as possible to take part. A survey support tool is also available for contacting students. Below are ideas for using the resources available to encourage staff and students to get involved, based on the feedback and experience of officers administering past surveys. Please use the ideas and the resources freely and as appropriate to your institution s circumstances. Contents Section Page Introduction 3 Students 4 Students union reps 5 Teaching staff 5 Other staff and course reps 6 University communications or marketing teams 6 Between surveys 6 Analysing and reporting 6 Developing and implementing actions 7 Planning 7 2

3 Introduction A range of resources to promote HEA Surveys are available, including marketing materials such as posters and flyers, example s and guides for students and staff. Making use of existing personal contacts with the student generates some of the highest levels of student participation, however this can be difficult. Much of this guide focuses on effective promotion via , which is practically often the best way a central unit can encourage good response rates. Feedback from officers and case studies indicate raising response rates is most effectively done through: personalised s, make them informal and vary subject and content for reminders; involving staff and publicising actions that have been taken in response to student feedback; using a hyperlink that passes the student to the survey directly from the . Feedback from officers of past surveys indicates students are more likely to take part if they know their university, course leaders and others value the surveys and student feedback. More detailed guidance for contacting students is given below. In 2016 the HEA Surveys will be on the BOS2.0 platform. The survey platform: allows access both via standard link and a personalised hyperlink for the same survey; enables hyperlinks and the welcome screen to be customized; enables students to complete via a computer, tablet or on a mobile phone; allows an invitation and up to four reminder s to students. There is no one kind of institution that gets a good response rate in terms of size or student population. What matters are the technical resources and institutional investment that is placed in the survey, alongside the engagement of the students who are being asked to take part in it. We do not set explicit targets on what response rates institutions need to achieve, however for general guidance: the response rate to UKES 2015 was 15%; 15% is a low response rate for an online survey; 25% is an average response rate for an online survey; the response rate to PTES 2015 was 29%; 35% is a good response rate for an online survey; the response rate to PRES 2015 was 41%; 45% is an excellent response rate for an online survey. Whatever kind of institution you are, we are happy to help. There are also a series of meetings and online seminars where you can discuss how to promote the surveys with colleagues in other institutions. For details, please contact surveys@heacademy.ac.uk. 3

4 Students Practically, reminders are one of the most effective ways to raise the response rate in the short term. Sample s to use with students before, during and after the survey are available on the marketing materials pages for each survey. Some key points to bear in mind are: check with your IT department that your system can cope with the mass mailing and it won t identify the s as spam; it is helpful to contact students in advance of the survey to inform them about the survey, possibly including action the institution has taken in response to previous student feedback; in general, formats should be simple, short and informal; keep track of respondents, which you can do via BOS by downloading a list of respondents this will mean you can filter out those who have already responded when sending reminder s; if sending s via BOS, bear in mind that you can currently only send one invitation and four reminders to any individual student in the BOS system. The impact of s may be increased by: personalising s with students details e.g. name, address, department and course; signing off s with different names, for example the name of the students tutor, the vice-chancellor; sending to students personal address as well as their University account; varying the time of day/day of the week to see which generates the best response, but avoiding sending out s on a Friday afternoon or Monday morning, or close to school holidays; offering a username/password login with a standard link that teaching staff can distribute alongside the direct hyperlink login; arranging for one or more s to be sent from e.g. their tutor/ union rep; monitoring the response rate and keeping students informed about progress. Tracking the response rates can show up patterns when students are most likely to open the s and so be used to plan when reminders are sent. A survey support tool is available to help with some of these tasks, please contact surveys@heacademy.ac.uk for details. Other than s there are a range of initiatives that can engage students, for example: linking to university web pages about the survey and how past feedback has been acted on; local PR campaigns or pushes e.g. departmental leader boards; using the university s internal PR and social media, Twitter and Facebook to promote; incentives for all who take part (e.g. printer credits); prize draws (e.g. ipad, Kindle Fire, graduation costs paid for). 4

5 Students union reps Students union staff can help publicise the surveys more widely and reinforce the value of the surveys to the university and students by: displaying promotional materials around the Students Union; posting messages on student union websites, Twitter and Facebook pages; getting involved in student campaigns (e.g. Presidents sending out the final reminder); or sending an additional final reminder to postgrads from the Students Union. Teaching staff Students are more likely to complete the survey if they know their feedback is important to their supervisors, department and university, and why. For surveys to have value at institutional, departmental and course level it is vital staff themselves see the benefit of taking the time and trouble to promote them. Sample s to use with departmental staff such as heads of department and course leaders, explaining the surveys importance and what they can do to support them, are available on the marketing materials pages. Their impact may be increased by: getting in touch with appropriate staff groups and offering to present on the survey, and inviting their contribution to selecting institutional questions if appropriate; enlisting the support of other staff such as course representatives, admin and student union staff to help publicise the surveys within their department; issuing a pre-survey from a member of the senior learning and teaching team (for example, PVC Learning and Teaching) outlining the benefits to the university and department; a series of s to programme leaders during the course of the survey; If local circumstances allow, this could be cascaded by heads of department; providing PowerPoint slides for staff to incorporate at the end of a seminar; sharing the results of previous years and how feedback has influenced decisions and actions e.g. through a link to a web page with more information; setting targets based on previous years participation rates/other institutions experience of first year and tracking and monitoring the response at university and department level; publicising departmental and faculty response rates to create a competition to maximise response rates. 5

6 Other staff and course reps Sample s to use with admin, staff and course reps to introduce the surveys and gain their support are available on the survey marketing pages. Teaching and administrative staff may be able to support department level activity by: displaying promotional materials around the department, libraries and admin areas; promoting the survey and displaying the banner advert on departmental websites; tweeting and posting on departmental Twitter and blogs; assisting teaching staff with promotion e.g. s to remote and international students; mentioning the survey to students they come into contact with. to library staff inviting them to use display the resources as appropriate in study areas. University communications or marketing teams Communications and/or marketing teams may be able to support your work locally by creating surveys pages in postgraduate areas of the university website and posting messages through university Twitter sites, blog posts and e-bulletins. They may also be able to advise on internal communications/marketing plans and help with publicising the survey Where university communications/marketing teams have access to PR agency support they may be able to develop a tailored campaign with your students during the survey window. Between surveys By involving staff at all levels and students in between surveys can help to embed the surveys as a business as usual activity. Analysing and reporting 6 share the results in stages and obtain feedback/input to action plans at all levels e.g. university graduate school, directors of postgraduate studies; present the results in condensed formats so that it is easy to see the key findings; tailor reports at departmental and college level so that results are directly relevant and comparable; make results available on intranet/shared drives in a format that is filterable e.g. by demographic and department; so staff can interrogate the spread sheet and measure progress; explore deeper analysis e.g. summary scores, filters, mapping of questions to previous years, school level results, trends and demographic groups enabling data to be queried; undertake further research with students, especially qualitative research such as focus groups and interviews, to gain a deeper understanding of issues and possible solutions; involve the students union and other students in the analysis and dissemination of results.

7 Developing and implementing actions consult with students e.g. through scheduled meeting with students regarding how far the findings match with their experience and use to inform reports and action planning; e.g. through dedicated events on enhancing the student experience; involve student representatives in forums involved in developing action plans so that students actively inform decision-making; share and communicate findings and action plans widely internally with student unions, library services, careers centres and consult at all levels to develop action plans; provide regular progress updates through committees, the intranet, university newsletters on action taken from feedback/changes made. Planning include surveys in student inductions and talk about surveys during the year so these become business as usual; hold sessions with students/lecture drop-ins to update on actions taken in response to feedback and how that has influenced the researcher/taught experience; consult students before the survey begins to find out what they see as the big issues and include in the additional questions. 7

8 Contact us +44 (0) Innovation Way, York Science Park, Heslington, York, YO10 5BR Higher Education Academy, 2015 Higher Education Academy (HEA) is the national body for learning and teaching in higher education. We work with universities and other higher education providers to bring about change in learning and teaching. We do this to improve the experience that students have while they are studying, and to support and develop those who teach them. Our activities focus on rewarding and recognising excellence in teaching, bringing together people and resources to research and share best practice, and by helping to influence, shape and implement policy - locally, nationally, and internationally. HEA has knowledge, experience and expertise in higher education. Our service and product range is broader than any other competitor. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Higher Education Academy. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the Editor. Such permission will normally be granted for educational purposes provided that due acknowledgement is given. To request copies of this report in large print or in a different format, please contact the communications office at the Higher Education Academy: or pressoffice@heacademy.ac.uk Higher Education Academy is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales no Registered as a charity in England and Wales no Registered as a charity in Scotland no. SC The words Higher Education Academy and logo should not be used without our permission. 8