Good Practice in Australian Physiotherapy Education

Good quality feedback on courses that inform educators about student perceptions of their teaching is often difficult to obtain. This lack of student feedback may leave the educator relying on their own perceptions of teaching successes and difficulties. The School of Physiotherapy at Curtin University of Technology has developed and now routinely uses a web based evaluation system called CEW (Course Evaluation on the Web) to encourage staff and students to work together to continually improve the quality of programs.
Using CEW, students in all undergraduate and postgraduate programs are encouraged to reflect on all aspects of their learning experience and provide anonymous feedback via the Web on subjects studied and on their experiences of the overall course. Teachers undergo a process of reflection on all aspects of their teaching using the student feedback. Teachers summarise student feedback to identify key themes and then discuss their feedback and proposed improvements with an experienced academic colleague who is a year or course coordinator prior to preparing a report on proposed changes to the unit. Discussions include assistance with strategies to improve teaching skills, evaluation strategies, development of appropriate resources or guidance on appropriate teaching skill seminars within the university or the opportunity for 'buddying' with more experienced educators. The process is viewed as a peer mentoring/developmental process to improve teaching skills rather than a formal staff review, and staff value the opportunity to discuss the outcomes of their teaching and further ways to improve their performance to deliver a high quality program.
 
A mechanism for open dialogue and reporting back to students on the changes to be made as a result of their feedback completes the feedback loop and is unique to CEW.
The course evaluation is modeled on the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ). Managers determine how students rated each semester using the CEQ subscales. Using CEW, CEQ data can be predicted well in advance of its collection and publication allowing for early feedback and timely responses or changes. Course managers are able to not only compare subjects at one point in time, but also see how particular subjects change over time. Likewise, students and academics are able to review how the course changes from one year to the next. The trend in subject and year feedback/performance can be plotted over time to determine whether changes implemented have resulted in improvements in student satisfaction with their program and across the CEQ subscales.
Hence, student evaluation of teaching can be used as a measure of performance of academic programs, as well as a continuous quality improvement mechanism. University programs are audited by external bodies such as the Australian Universities Quality Agency and are required to demonstrate quality improvement processes to monitor effectiveness of their programs. It is essential to have a mechanism that demonstrates accountability, is sensitive to program changes and responsive to student feedback.