Student Experiences of Learning (SEL) Survey

SURVEY INSTRUMENT
The Student Experience of Learning (SEL) Survey is the course feedback survey used at UNH. It has 7 basic questions (both qualitative and Likert Scaled) that are standard for all courses (see SEL Survey Instrument). There is the opportunity for individual instructors to add up to 5 questions of their own to each of their course surveys. These questions allow instructors to ask about various aspects of their course and/or teaching activities. Only instructors will have access to responses of their customized questions (unless they choose to share this data). As in prior course feedback surveys at UNH, the SEL survey allows each department/college/program to seek approval to create up to 5 additional questions that will provide feedback for continuous improvement, curricular enhancement, accreditation, and/or departmental needs. Instructors, as well as associating department chairs and deans will be able to view aggregate reports of responses to these department/college questions. Lastly for Discovery and Writing Intensive courses, there are several additional questions to assess the general education in aggregate.
 

ACCESSING SEL SURVEYS
Blue is the tool where SEL survey reports can be accessed by instructors and surveys accessed by students. These two knowledge base articles describe access for instructors and students.  Submit customized questions and/or request support. 

POLICIES.  You may find it helpful to review the Policies and Procedures for SEL Survey for the purpose and appropriate use of the student responses. There is a Redaction Policy that gives faculty the opportunity to request disparaging comments be removed prior to anyone else viewing their SEL survey responses.

Below are brief videos describing the ways in which SEL survey responses are important.

We encourage these to be watched and shared widely to raise awareness of the SEL survey, its utility, and importance. 

1. Introduction on the origin of the SEL survey  
2. Faculty perspectives for the SEL survey 
3. Another faculty perspective for the SEL Survey
4. One more faculty perspective of the SEL Survey 
5. Dean and Chair perspectives for the SEL survey  
6. Student perspectives for the SEL survey  
7. Other Student perspectives for the SEL survey 

 

 

Guidelines for Faculty/instructors

 

Guidelines for Students

  • Be constructive and specific in your comments. 
  • Comment from your own experience in the course—use ‘I’ statements to describe your experience.
  • Think about the course/unit/chapter learning objectives, and comment on how the course was taught in ways that helped you to meet those objectives.
  • Think about and comment on what will help improve the course for future students.
  • As a reminder, the feedback that you provide by completing the SEL survey are anonymous and instructors will not see any responses until after grades are posted.
     

Guidelines for Usage by Deans, P&T Committees, Promotion Committees, and Aggregate Program Assessments

The committee recommends that each college develop college-wide practices based on student feedback of teaching as a part of several methods for assessing teaching and teaching development.  This recommendation includes encouraging instructors and administrators to embrace a perspective of collecting student feedback on their experiences in courses rather than evaluating instructor(s) performance. This perspective is consistent with the research that suggests that students are best able to provide personal experiences about what supports their learning thereby helping instructors to better understand effective teaching strategies, rather than provide evaluative information about individual instructors.  In addition to using the proposed instrument, several additional metrics of teaching effectiveness grounded in best-practices are encouraged, including:

              1.Peer review
              2. Early-to-mid-term student feedback for in-course adjustments (templates available through in E3)
              3. Self-reflection on teaching philosophy
              4. Self-study of student performance

  • When factored into reviews of teaching, SEL information should be contextualized as much as possible (e.g., by cross-referencing responses to related questions and/or considering answers to qualitative as well as quantitative questions.) As noted above, the new standardized SEL survey does not ask students to provide overall ratings of instructors, the goal being to counteract over-relying on a single question/score in isolation from others.
  • Use only as part of larger, broader assessment of teaching process such as peer observation, peer review of syllabi & materials, and instructor self-reflection.
  • Use only when minimum response rates have been met (literature suggests 65%), and the course enrolls a minimum of 10 students.
  • Identify situations (e.g., very large course sections) in which sampling of qualitative comments from large data sets may be acceptable – sample from quartiles based on student’s ratings responses. This may minimize sampling error issues.
  • Provide guidance on how to responsibly interpret data.
  • Use aggregate data to demonstrate college and institutional effectiveness of teaching at UNH.

Many instructors seek information regarding effective strategies on interpreting and applying SEL survey results in ways that are constructive for teaching development. Analysis and interpretation of teaching effectiveness is particularly critical to documentation for P & T and contract renewals, especially in spring and summer as yearly reports and documents for promotion/retention are being developed and submitted. 

We offer guidance for instructors to effectively use student feedback, based on the following assumptions about the SEL survey:

1. The SEL survey is designed differently than previous course evaluations. Rather than asking students to give opinions on course elements and instructor methods, the SEL survey asks students to comment on what they found effective for their own learning and to reflect on what they did individually to promote it. The SEL survey also ask students about their overall endorsement of a course and instructor by asking them if they recommend this course/instructor to other students.

2. Because the primary questions are qualitative vs quantitative, and the intention is for self-comparison over time, instructors do not need a specified number of responses to draw useful information from student comments.  We encourage instructors to look for patterns or themes to underscore how strongly groups of students may feel about a course element; however, instructors may glean meaningful insights from just one or a few comments.

3. The use of numerical ratings for inter-instructor comparisons was never a robust nor equitable method among instructors.  Best practices suggest intra-instructor changes over time along with student comments is a stronger method of demonstrating continuous improvement and instructor responsiveness to students' needs. As a result, the SEL survey was designed for self-comparison of student feedback over time, with intention of showing trends toward greater positive feedback and endorsements of learning methods applied, as well as the rate of student endorsements/recommendations.

4. SEL survey feedback should be one part of a “portfolio” of teaching documentation that includes peer review, teaching philosophy and reflection, etc.

Review the linked recommendations for synthesizing the results of your SEL surveys

SEL Survey FAQ Page