Acting on Unit Evaluation Data: A report on a strategic development initiative in Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Although the collection of unit evaluation data is now widely practiced in the higher education sector, there appears to be limited documentation on the practices/strategies adopted by academics in responding to the data and even less on their evaluations of improvement initiatives. This paper will report on a systematic strategy for analysing and acting on the data being collected and the subsequent methods being developed for evaluation of that action. In particular, the paper considers two items in the Monash Unit Evaluation Survey, constructive and timely feedback. Since 2005, the university ratings for tehse two survey items have been poor, with the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (MN HS) scoring well below the university average. Part of the strategic development initiative included a staff professional development workshop on feedback that invited students to engage with staff on feedback issues. The workshop event was evaluated highly by participants and subsequently stimulated a collaborative research-driven and student-guided approach to quality improvement. The paper will discuss: (1) the workshop and the improvement initiatives that evolved, and (2) the subsequent methods being implemented to measure the impact of the improvement strategy.