Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning

CATL prepares Student Perception of Teaching (SPOT) questionnaires at the request of staff members teaching or coordinating particular units. Teaching evaluation through SPOT surveys is voluntary and the questionnaire design is flexible. Results of surveys are confidential and are provided only to the academic staff member whose teaching/unit was evaluated (see Consent paragraph below and SPOT Policy). Further information (including purpose and survey structure) is available at the SPOT homepage.

Ordering questionnaires

SPOT questionnaires can be requested by completing the order form which is available on the Web.

The following information should be supplied by the coordinator/teacher:

the items (questions) to be used in the surveys, i.e. the item numbers in the SPOT item bank
name of unit
name(s) of lecturer(s)
name(s) of tutor(s)
name of the unit coordinator (if the unit is to be surveyed, i.e. "About the Unit …")

If a unit coordinator requests a questionnaire for all lecturers and tutors involved in the unit, the questionnaire is produced by CATL on the assumption that all lecturers and tutors named in the survey have agreed to the survey being carried out.

If a number of lecturers and tutors are to be surveyed using the same questionnaire, care should be taken to include the names of all lecturers and tutors, as students become confused if the relevant person's name is not on the survey form.

Limit the number of items to approximately 10 under each subject heading, i.e. "About the lecturing of ...;" "About the unit ...;" etc. Please note that three global default items will automatically be included unless specifically requested otherwise.

It may be helpful to check the relevant optional default items for your chosen heading, i.e. "About the lecturing of ...;"; "About the tutoring of ...;"; "About the unit ...;" etc., and see if they suit your needs. When a questionnaire is ordered via the web, the 11 optional default items will be included if you tick the optional default box (number 3 on the order form).

NB: Questionnaires are produced within a week of receiving orders. If the master copy is not received within this time, please check with the Spot Administrator to ensure your order has been received.

Consent

Written authorisation must be received by CATL in order to release a copy of the SPOT report to anyone other than the person whose teaching was evaluated. If students' written comments are to be included, it must be specified in the authorisation to release the SPOT report.

Email addresses

SPOT Services will require an email address in order to send out the survey reports. Reports are sent as PDF files attached to emails. It will save time if email addresses are supplied when ordering the questionnaire.

When to Conduct a Survey

Surveys are often carried out towards the end of each semester. However, if a short survey is conducted earlier in the semester, i.e. just before or after the mid-semester break, it gives the students an opportunity to provide early feedback on teaching/unit and the lecturer has the opportunity to discuss the survey outcomes with students and perhaps make adjustments if required.

Photocopying

SPOT Services will send only one printed copy of the questionnaire. The required number of photocopies to be distributed to students are to be made in the department.

Please take particular care when photocopying. The questionnaires are scanned electronically and in order for the software to read the data accurately, all recognition marks must be visible and clear. Please ensure that the recognition squares in the four corners of the questionnaire are not cut off, smudged or skewed.

See examples of questionnaires:

Data from poorly photocopied questionnaires may have to be entered manually which is a time-consuming procedure and causes a delay in preparing and sending reports. Occasionally large bundles of completed questionnaires that arrive at CATL include some with clear scanner marks and others unreadable by the scanner. These questionnaires were probably photocopied in batches. Therefore please check at the beginning of each photocopy session.

For questionnaires that have two pages please photocopy back to back, i.e. two pages on one sheet of paper. If the two pages are photocopied on separate sheets and stapled together, the staples must be removed before the questionnaires can be scanned. Sometimes the scanner marks are damaged while removing staples. Photocopying two pages to a sheet saves time and other resources.

NB: Please inform SPOT Services if modifications to the questionnaires are required. The SPOT Administrator will make the changes to the questionnaire and the SPOT database. If modifications to the questionnaires are not made by SPOT Services , the report, which is based on the SPOT database, may not reflect the changes. Modificiations to questionnaires can be made at an hour's notice as long as someone can come and pick up the new master copy from CATL.

Returning questionnaires to the SPOT Administrative Officer

Address the envelope to the "SPOT Services, M401" and send it through the internal mail.

If surveys are carried out at separate times using the same questionnaire, for instance in tutorials, please mark the envelopes (e.g. 1 of 3, 2 of 3 and 3 of 3). Where possible please return them together, i.e. in one large envelope or bundled together. If students are administering the questionnaires, please ask them to return the sealed envelopes to the main office to be held in a secure place until all bundles have been received. Then forward them together to SPOT Services. If the surveys are to be carried out at separate times, please inform SPOT Services staff when ordering the questionnaires. SPOT Services will then supply sufficient administration information sheets to be lightly glued to the back of the envelopes and instruction sheets to be inserted in each envelope. Please seal envelopes securely to ensure that questionnaires do not fall out in the internal mail.