HEA Surveys Raising Response Rates

Transcription

1 HEA Surveys 2015 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 postgraduate 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 Introduction 3 Students 4 Students union reps 4 Teaching staff 5 Other staff and course reps 5 University communications or marketing teams 5 Between surveys 6 Analysing and reporting 6 Developing and implementing actions 6 Planning 6

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 strong personal contacts to 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 2015 the HEA Surveys are moving to the new BOS2.0 platform, at onlinesurveys.ac.uk. There are several key differences for 2015, most relevant here: students can complete via a computer, tablet or on a mobile phone; the welcome screen for students can be customised for each institution; the look and ability to navigate through the survey is much improved for students. It is hoped this shift will further increase the response from 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 2014 was 13% 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 2014 was 28% 35% is a good response rate for an online survey the response rate to PRES 2013 was 42% 55% 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; Students first knowledge of the survey should not be the asking them to complete it. It is helpful to contact prospective respondents earlier to inform them that the survey will be taking place. At an early stage this communication could include what action the institution has taken in response to 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. Where local circumstances allow 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 vicechancellor 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 or on a Monday morning, or close to school holidays offering a username/password login with a standard link that can be distributed 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) 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 Student Union 4

5 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 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. 5

6 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 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. 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. 6