What happens at Otago?

Course and Teaching Evaluations

Student Course evaluations and Individual Teacher evaluations can be undertaken for your courses using the Quality Advancement Unit's (QAU) Evaluation Service. Please refer to the website for guidance about this and how to order your evaluations.

Check with your course coordinator regarding the timing of evaluations. You can order evaluation questionnaires online by logging into Otago inFORM . our ordering system for questionnaires.

Log in using your University username and password, select a questionnaire type, and start designing your questionnaire. Once you are happy with it, proceed to “checkout” to submit your request. You will be sent a confirmation email with the details of your request.

After each evaluation has been run, you will be sent a report summarising the responses. Individual Teacher evaluation reports are sent confidentially to teachers only, but a Course evaluation report is sent to the person who requested it and the relevant Head of Department. Please contact QAU Evaluation Service if you have any questions:

Email evaluation@otago.ac.nz

Tel 64 (0)3 479 7581

Quality Assurance

The University’s standard processes for quality assurance of teaching and courses apply equally to distance learning courses and programmes. You may find, however, that implementing these processes takes greater forethought and monitoring.

Reasons for this include that:

• robust, coordinated, in-course feedback is rather difficult for your Class Representative to provide;
• in year-long courses without a final examination, and courses involving a dissertation or thesis, your students might be finishing at quite different times;
  
• if your course is team-taught, all teaching team members don’t have to be based in the same location (Dunedin, Christchurch, or Wellington, or elsewhere);
  
• the University’s standard evaluation instruments – from the Quality Advancement Unit – can tend have a stronger focus on on-campus learning opportunities, although changes are continually being made.
  

Class Representative System

In 2004, Senate reaffirmed the important role of the Class Representatives (Class ‘Reps’) and the accountability of Heads of Department for ensuring that representatives are appointed in all papers. For distance papers, finding representation usually requires direct involvement and facilitation from teaching staff.

Information about the Class Rep system can be found here and on the OUSA (University Student Association) website.

While written for a primarily undergraduate, on-campus audience, the Class Rep 101 Guide, found on the OUSA site, provides useful information about the Class Rep system, and the roles and responsibilities of your Class Rep.

Benchmarking

Where applicable, this can be internal – against the outcomes, pass rates, and course surveys of the on-campus offering. Benchmarking against another institution offering a similar distance programme is also worthwhile. If you would like assistance with finding an appropriate distance counterpart, the Director, Distance Learning may be able to help. Some Otago distance programmes, however, have no counterpart elsewhere.

Departmental Reviews & Academic Audit

Although review and audit panels do not necessarily include expertise in distance education within their membership, your courses will be included in Departmental Reviews and audits by the Academic Quality Agency for New Zealand Universities.

Student Experience & Graduate Opinion Surveys

These will, over time, involve your distance students. Administered by the Quality Advancement Unit , the surveys do not require your involvement. Results pertaining to distance students are extracted and reported to the Director, Distance Learning as well as to Divisions, Schools, and Departments after they have been analysed and summarised by the Quality Advancement Unit.