Getting Ready for your College Review

1. Getting Ready for your College Review Welcome and introduction Eve Lewis, Head of sparqs

2. Aims & Objectives Aim: to introduce college presidents to the Learner Engagement Questionnaire and get them ready to complete it at their college Objectives: • To develop a greater understanding of the college review process • To understand the role of the Learner Engagement Questionnaire • To develop skills to enable effective engagement with learners • To be able to plan for involvement in a college review

3. sparqs Student Participation in Quality Scotland was created in 2003 and is funded by the Scottish Funding Council Work with: • All colleges and HE institutions throughout Scotland • Students’ Associations • Individual students • Other sector agencies Aim to enhance the involvement of students in their learning and institutional decisions through…

4. sparqs • training and support • provide training for student representatives; workshops for staff and production of resources for students and staff • events • national conference on student involvement; workshops, seminars and events for staff and student officers • sharing practice • publications on student involvement; benchmarking of representative systems and learning from other countries & sectors • consultancy • 5 days support offered to each institution across Scotland

5. Learner Engagement Questionnaire 28th September 2010

6. I will cover... • Learner engagement • The role of the managing inspector • The important part played by the Learner Engagement Questionnaire

7. Learner Engagement The process of college managers and staff working closely with learners to make improvements is known as learner engagement How well are learners engaged in enhancing • Their own learning? • The work and life of the college?

8. Role of Managing Inspector (MI) • Scope of the review • Liaison with the college before, during and after the review • Manages the review team • Constructs the report

9. Learner Engagement Questionnaire • An important part of the college review • Informs HMIE of the views of learners regarding how well the college is meeting their needs • Informs HMIE how well the college actively seeks out, listens to and acts on learners’ views • Helps determine the scope of the review activities

10. The completed questionnaire will be considered by the Managing Inspector and the STM. It will assist them to identify areas on which to focus during theexternal review.

11. Learner Engagement Questionnaire Learners’ views are very important and will greatly inform significant aspects of the review of the college. We ask you to use this opportunity to provide us with a clear, accurate and comprehensive picture of student life in your college.

12. Learner Engagement Questionnaire • designed to capture and reflect the collective views of the whole student body across the college • not your own personal views

13. Learner Participation Involve • as many learners as possible • a cross-section of the learner population e.g. learners from access and NC/HN programmes, full-time and part-time; day/evening/flexible learning and any outreach activity • student representatives (perhaps in running focus groups) Reflect • views of the group, not those of any single individual.

14. The questionnaire • Questions • Prompts • Pro-forma • Additional information

15. Questions about high quality learning • Guidance and Support: Is the information, guidance and support you receive meeting learner needs? • Programme of Study: Do the programmes of study you are undertaking suit learners’ needs? • Relationships: Are all learners treated equally? • Learning and Teaching: How well do you think you are learning? How well do you feel you are taught?

16. Questions about learner engagement and quality culture • Learner Engagement: To what extent are you enabled to express your views on aspects of college life and how the college operates? • Students’ Association and learner representation • Action and feedback

17. Please make further comment, on behalf of your peers, if desired

18. Any questions?

19. What does the Learner Engagement Questionnaire look like? Alison Fleming, HMIE Student Team Member

20. Important things to remember • Need to say how you’ve consulted and how many with • Need to ensure that you engage with a range of the student body • Need to generalise feedback • Learner voice needs to be central throughout • Use the prompts that are outlined in the LEQ

21. Activity: Learner Engagement Questionnaire In small groups: • Look at the examples of responses and highlight what you think are effective responses and not as effective responses • Think about why some responses are more effective than others

22. BREAK

23. Developing skills for effective engagement Iain Delworth, sparqs

24. Research Project Management Leadership Listening Communication Time Management Team Work What skills are needed? Please now rate yourself using the scale in the workbook (1 meaning you need to work hard at improving this skills and 5 meaning you don’t need to do much).

25. Development of these skills • How do you think you can improve/develop these skills? • A useful website to that will give you some hints and tips to improve and develop your skills is www.mindtools.com.

26. Getting student responses for the Learner Engagement Questionnaire Alison Fleming, HMIE Student Team Member, and Sareta Puri, sparqs

27. Consultation tools • Survey/questionnaire: online, paper, face to face or telephone • Focus group • Individual interview • Paired interview • Poll • Interactive games • Comment cards • ‘Food for Thought’

28. Activity: consultation tools Split into four groups and list the pros and cons of the following methods: • Group one: focus groups • Group two: interactive games • Group three: surveys • Group four: interviews

29. Important things to remember • Use methods that you feel comfortable with • Use methods suitable for your student body e.g. online surveys for part time learners • Use at least two different methods • Make sure you have enough time to carry out the research • Don’t do it on your own: get other students to help gather opinions

30. Activity: surveys and focus groups Split into two groups and look at blank copies of the Learner Engagement Questionnaire. Think about how you would use either surveys or focus groups to get responses for the Learner Engagement Questionnaire • Group one: work through the survey activity • Group two: work through the focus group activity

31. TheA,B,C,D of Effective feedback Effective

32. Open and closed questions • An open question requires a longer, more detailed response • e.g. how have you been supported throughout your programme? • A closed question can be answered with one or two words or a short phrase • e.g. how supported did you feel throughout your programme? (on a scale of 1-5, 1 being not at all and 5 being extremely)

33. How supported did you feel throughout your programme? (on a scale of 1 – 5, 1 being not at all and 5 being very) Collating closed questions

34. Activity: collating open responses In pairs: • Group the response cards in bundles relevant to their meaning • Name each bundle with an overall heading • What conclusion can you draw from the results?

35. Important things to remember • It is important to consult across the college • Leave adequate time for each stage of the research • There is no right or wrong way to collate responses • Keep feedback accurate, balanced, constructive and depersonalised • Get help from the student body or support staff • The Student Team Member is available for guidance

36. LUNCH

37. Planning for your review Sareta Puri, sparqs

38. Consultation Toolkit • Aim: what do you want to to find out and why? • Target population: who do you want to consult with and why? • Methods & approaches: what tools are you going to use and how? • Partners: who would you involve? • Timescales: what do you need to do and by when?

39. Activity: timescales In small groups: • Sort the activity cards into time order and write on them: • Who you would involve in each stage • How long you would need for each stage

40. Activity: contacting students Split into two groups: • Group one look at how you would market a focus group and what the challenges might be • Group two look at how you would circulate a survey and what the challenges might be

41. Important things to remember • Consider the challenges at the start • When planning think about what you want to achieve • Ensure methods are relevant to the student body • Utilise other students and staff members • Utilise methods already being used

42. Using the review as a catalyst for development Heather McKnight, former President of Jewel & Esk College Students’ Association

43. Understanding the review

44. A Typical College Review Timetable

45. Feedback Session with College Management Feedback from HMIE A chance to question and comment Feedback from Student Team Member

46. The Report Available on HMIE website after the review Will get a summary at the end of the review week and have a good idea what it will say Report will include summary and further details on each area

47. The quality framework

48. Understanding the importance of using the review as a catalyst for change

49. What is so important about this review? Agreement between SFC and HMIE Annual Engagement Reviews from HMIE to check on progress Tool for identifying areas of risk and change

50. Students’ Association – what feedback? What can you improve directly? How can you use any positive statements to promote the Association within and out with college How any negative statements can be used to generate change and additional support – be reflective