The University greatly values student feedback on learning and teaching, which helps us to develop and enhance our teaching programmes.

We have reviewed the ways in which we ask you for feedback, to make it an easier, quicker and more effective process. Find out how you can share your views via the Student Evaluation of Learning and Teaching survey. We want to know what is working well and what could be working better.

About the SELT survey	Find out more about the purpose of the programme-level SELT survey and what it contains. Feedback from students on their teaching and learning experience is vital – it helps staff to understand how programmes are going and to shape improvements to your academic experience, where possible in the following semester or next academic year. What does the survey cover? The survey questions are intended to capture your views on your experience of teaching and learning across your whole programme and cover a range of topics including online provision and Canvas resources, student engagement and workload management, assessment and feedback, communications, and programme organisation and resources. You will be asked to respond using the Likert scale (Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree, Strongly Disagree). The survey is relatively brief, and should take no more than a few minutes to complete.
When the survey takes place	The SELT survey is designed to be completed mid-way through the teaching on your programme, usually towards the end of a semester. For the majority of students, the SELT survey should be completed towards the end of the first semester and again at the end of the second semester. The first semester survey will be open between 15-28 November 2021. The second semester survey will be open between 6-19 June 2022. However, there are a number of programmes within the University that operate on different timescales, including distance-learning programmes, and that may not commence in September and finish in June. Students on these programmes are not expected to complete the survey in the standard ‘windows’ noted above. Instead, your programme team may issue their own survey, at a different stage within your programme, and may advise you not to complete the SELT but to complete the programme-specific survey at a different time.
How to take part	Access the survey via Canvas and the student mobile app. The SELT survey is open to all students on taught programmes (both undergraduate and postgraduate). When the survey is launched, it will be made available via global notifications to all students via Canvas and the student mobile app, as well as through other communication channels managed by Schools/Colleges and the Guild of Students. Simply click on the link to the complete the survey on your phone, tablet or PC. It should not take more than 5 minutes to complete.
Why take part in the survey?	What benefit is there for me, and other students, in completing the SELT survey? The SELT survey gives you the opportunity to have your say on the learning and teaching you receive. It’s important that we gather as many perspectives as possible, so that the programme team have a full picture of the views of the entire cohort. This helps them to identify what’s working well and if anything can be improved. Sometimes the feedback received will not indicate strong majority agreement on the part of respondents, or it will not be appropriate to make changes to the programme content or organisation, for a range of reasons. In all cases your School and/or programme will explain their reasoning for the decisions they take. Please recognise that some changes e.g. to assessment methods, can take longer to implement, so it may not be possible to introduce them until the next academic session. You can nevertheless be assured that your feedback will be of benefit to future cohorts, just as you are benefitting from the feedback that others have given before you.
How your feedback is used	Why student feedback is so important and how is it used. Share your views in confidence. Student feedback on teaching and learning is gathered in a variety of different ways: Through surveys, such as the Student Evaluation of Learning and Teaching programme survey, mid-module evaluation questionnaires, or ‘pulse’ surveys which are scheduled during the semester, in order to provide a snapshot of how things are going. Through the Student Representation System – the Student Representative for your School or programme gathers views and shares them with staff members on Staff Student Forums and in Programme Committees The feedback gathered from all these different sources is gathered together and used in a number of ways: To help programme teams to plan and develop teaching: student feedback on what is going well and what could be improved is used alongside other sources of information in order to decide on short term and long term improvements Within quality assurance and enhancement processes, such as annual review and School Education Plans Remember that your feedback in the SELT survey will be kept confidential - the programme team will not be able to link your name or email address to the responses you provide. In addition, if any programme receives five or fewer responses then the survey results will not be shared with the programme team, in order to protect the confidentiality of the students on that programme. For further information about student privacy, please see the Student Privacy Notice.
Survey results and responses to your feedback	Find out how and when you will receive a summary of results for your programme, and responses. A week after the end of the SELT survey window, a summary report of all the results is sent to senior staff in your School. The programme team will consider all the feedback and prepare a response which will then be shared with the cohort. This may be done via Canvas, or via another method, such as email, a newsletter, or a video message. Please note that if any programme receives five or fewer responses then the survey results will not be shared with the programme team, in order to protect the confidentiality of the students on that programme.
Evaluation skills and mitigating unconscious bias/response bias	What is 'unconscious bias'? 'Unconscious bias refers to a bias that we are unaware of, and which happens outside of our control. It is a bias that happens automatically and is triggered by our brain making rapid judgements and assessments of people and situations, influenced by our background, cultural environment and personal experiences'. (Equality Challenge Unit: 2013 Unconscious bias in higher education) The University of Birmingham has a strong commitment to equality and diversity. All staff and students should be treated with respect. Therefore, it is important for students to be aware of the risk of unfair bias when responding to a programme evaluation survey. The SELT survey questions have been carefully designed to encourage reflection on your learning and teaching environment without personal bias and your answers will be treated with respect and consideration. Unconscious bias can be very dangerous as it could lead us to derive inconclusive or wrong insights from the survey results. Often, unconscious bias is caused by an inability or lack of desire to answer questions correctly. This can be caused by a lack of knowledge or experience, unfamiliarity with the context, inability to recall information, or unwillingness to respond honestly. Here is a video from McGill University about giving constructive feedback and how to avoid implicit/unconscious basis in course evaluations. If you would like to explore this subject more, there are a number of materials on unconscious bias available through LinkedIn Learning, including: Course: Communicating Across Cultures Key Video: Overcoming Unconscious Bias (Links to an external site.) Course: Unconscious Bias Key Videos: What is Unconscious Bias? Why does Unconscious Bias matter? Understanding we're all biased The Impact of Bias Course: Confronting Bias: Thriving Across Our Differences Key Videos: Exploring Unconscious Bias How to Counter Unconscious Bias
Other ways of giving feedback on learning and teaching	Staff Student Forums Programme Committees Through the Guild of Students’ Surveys and through your Student Representative – find out your Rep here In Weekly Group Tutorials Nominating academic staff for an Outstanding Teaching Award Mid-Module Review Questionnaires Through national surveys such as the National Student Survey (NSS - final year UGs only), UK Engagement Survey (UKES) and Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES)

© University of Birmingham