How to make your voice heard at UNSW!
EXPERT ADVICE
By Keelin George, Head, Educational Insights & Engagement
Now that you’re all settled into university life, we want to hear all about your first year at UNSW. We care about making the first-year student experience the best it can possibly be – and to do that – we want to hear your thoughts on everything from what you love, what you think could be improved, and how we can support you throughout your uni life.
We know it can be a juggling act to balance the needs of your studies, social life, and possible work commitments; but it’s important to take the time to share your experiences while you’re at University – as your feedback helps to shape the UNSW of tomorrow and has a real impact on the future experience students will have in the years to come.
What surveys should students keep an eye-out for?
The Student Experience Survey (SES) and myExperience surveys are the two most important surveys you will be asked to complete during your time at UNSW.
The Student Experience Survey (SES): tell us about your overall experience at UNSW! How was your experience of the teaching you received? Were the learning resources useful? Were assessment tasks well explained? Have you developed new skills?
If you are looking to influence change in your degree (or want to share the things you love!), it’s important you participate in the SES. Your feedback goes directly to Faculty Deans and Program Directors and they read through it all! This means your feedback is taken into account when making decisions about degree programs, courses, learning resources, assessment and the support services that are provided to you.
The myExperience Survey: tell us about the courses you're taking! This survey gives you the opportunity to share feedback on the courses you are enrolled in. During this survey, you will be asked if you think your assessment tasks are relevant and if you were given feedback to help you learn. Not only will you be asked to give feedback on course content, but you will also be asked to provide feedback on each member of academic staff that has taught you.
This survey is a great way to constructively suggest some changes that would help students in the future, and an opportunity to shout out what worked well and tell staff they’re doing an amazing job!
myExperience is completely confidential. Your comments go directly to staff and help them determine what worked well and not so well in the course.
When can I complete the SES and myExperience surveys?
The SES is an annual survey, which runs around September/October every year.
myExperience opens towards the end of each teaching period – you will see a survey for each of your courses.
How can I find the surveys?
The short answer is: keep an eye on your inbox! Both the SES and myExperience surveys are emailed to students.
The SES survey will be emailed to you by the Social Research Centre and the myExperience survey is sent from UNSW. We’ve also tried to make it easier for you, so simply login to Moodle and follow the prompts.
What happens to my feedback?
Did you know there is a whole division dedicated to Education and Student Experience at UNSW? Each faculty also has its own team responsible for gathering and implementing feedback – meaning UNSW has teams listening to you and ready to act!
Students across all universities in Australia participate in the SES, and the results are published online on the ComparED website – here you can see results for UNSW from last year for different study areas.
How is student feedback from these surveys put into action?
A recent project that was informed by the myExperience survey is Moodle Enhance.
Thanks to students’ feedback from surveys across 2017 – 2020, the Educational Experience team were able to identify the two key pain points in students’ online learning experience with Moodle, as being:
- The lack of consistency in course design or delivery
- Poor navigation
This discovery led to the launch of a large project, Moodle Enhance, where a dedicated team is working to uplift the platform and significantly improve the online experience for both students and academics.
The Moodle Enhance project is currently running a pilot where 29 courses across UNSW are delivered on the updated platform. Over the next 12-months, the Educational Experience team will be finessing the new and improved platform, ahead of broader implementation.
Where can I go to find out more about the SES and myExperience surveys?
Surveys are Your Voice. And this is Your University. We invite you to shape the future of education.
You can find out more about both the SES and myExperience survey here.
Head back to the First Years' Feed
Striving to constantly improve the student experience and meet the evolving needs of all who study at UNSW is serious business and the uni has outlined how it aims to support this continual improvement and growth in the Education & Student Experience Strategy.