School of Psychological Science
Quality Assurance of Units Report 2008 – Bundoora Campus

The School of Psychological Science is committed to providing a student-focussed learning environment. As part of this commitment, we conduct regular meetings with student representatives via a Staff-Student Consultative Committee. The purpose of this committee is to respond in a timely fashion to student concerns including issues raised on WebCT bulletin boards or directed to unit coordinators. We also conduct evaluations of each unit we offer, each semester in every year.

[Honours Units]

This report is a summary of the formal unit evaluations we conducted in Semesters 1 and 2, 2008. Each respondent was asked to provide ratings for each of a series of key objectives regarding the unit they were studying. The items reported here are a subset of those used to conduct the evaluations. We present these items in two graphs. The first focuses on generic skills developed by students in our units, including the following items:

• The unit helped me develop my ability to work as a team member
• Work in this unit enhanced my analytic skills
• Learning in this unit helped me develop my problem-solving skills
• I have developed my skills in written communication in this unit
• The unit has helped to enhance my confidence in tackling unfamiliar problems
• The unit helped me develop my capacity to plan my work

Respondents were asked to use the following response categories: 5=Strongly Agree; 4=Agree; 3=Undecided; 2=Disagree; 1=Strongly Disagree.

Semester 1 Units
Semester 2 Units

The second graph focuses on students’ views about the administration of each unit, including the following items:

• Appropriate forms of assessment were used in this unit
• The teaching staff gave me helpful feedback
• The workload was manageable
• The teaching staff worked hard to make this unit interesting
• Overall, I was satisfied with the quality of this unit

Semester 1 Units
Semester 2 Units

Honours Units – Semester 1
This report is a summary of the formal unit evaluations we conducted for 4th year psychology honours units, PSY4HNA (full-time students) and PSY4HOX (part-time students) in semester 1, 2008. As for the reports presented above, respondents were asked to rate the units they undertook. This is presented in the two graphs below.

The first focuses on generic skills developed by students in our units, including the following items:

• Work in this unit enhanced my analytical skills
• I have developed my skills in written communication in this unit
• The unit has helped to enhance my confidence in tackling unfamiliar problems
• I have improved my oral communication skills

Respondents were asked to use the following response categories: 5=Strongly agree; 4=Agree; 3=Undecided; 2=Disagree; 1=Strongly disagree.

The second graph focuses on students’ views about the administration of each unit, including the following items:

• Appropriate forms of assessment were used in this unit
• The teaching staff gave me helpful feedback
• The workload was manageable
• The teaching staff worked hard to make this unit interesting
• Overall, I was satisfied with the quality of this unit

The School is always striving to improve its performance and the feedback shown in the charts above forms the basis for curricula review at the end of each year in preparation for the next teaching period.