- 1.What is the course opinion poll?
The course opinion poll is a key tool for student assessment of teaching on a university-wide level. The opinion poll provides each student with the opportunity to provide feedback to teachers and their superiors regarding courses he/she was enrolled in in a given semester.
- 2.Who is eligible for participating in the university-wide course opinion poll?
The course opinion poll is open to all students with active studies; a student may complete a poll for each of his/her active studies. A student who has interrupted or completed his/her studies and who is not participating in any course in a given semester is not allowed to participate in the poll.
- 3.Is the course opinion poll truly anonymous?
The course opinion poll is anonymized. All of its components are filled out entirely within the authenticated part of the IS VŠTE. The respondent's identity, i.e. his/her name, personal identification number or other personal information, is not disclosed to anyone at any time.
The course opinion poll is anonymized. Although the students provide their course-related feedback after logging into the IS VŠTE, i.e. under their profiles, the information identifying them such as their names, personal identification numbers (UČOs), etc. is not revealed to anyone.
The reason why the respondents provide their feedback under their profiles and not, for instance, after using some anonymous codes distributed to them is that the latter method would not provide them with the comfort of the former. That is, the System, for instance, keeps track of who has participated in the poll already and thus it can prompt the ones who have not taken part in it yet to do so or it can grant access to the opinion poll results only to those who participated the previous year. Motivating the respondents plays a crucial role in ensuring there are enough of them and thus the feedback they provide is more reliable.
The respondents' willingness to participate in the poll depends on how easy to fill in the questionnaires are, whether the respondents consider the poll useful and, most importantly, whether they find it safe in terms of privacy. This is also the reason why the System administrators consider anonymity to be an issue of high importance. The school management appreciate the effort the students put into providing the course-related feedback. The Information System administrators are prohibited from revealing the respondents' identity to anyone. Any person found violating this rule is to be subject to strict disciplinary proceedings.
As all the operations made in the Information System are recorded, there is always a way of revealing the respondent's identity with some effort invested into it on the part of System administrators. You might therefore feel tempted to ask the question of whether it would be feasible to design the System some other way guaranteeing this cannot be done. Although the answer to this question is "Yes.", designing and administering the System this way would be rather uneconomical. That is, keeping the Internet transactions utterly anonymous (e.g. by not logging the IP addresses of the computers accessing the System, etc.) is complicated. Besides, investing money into the development of a system guaranteeing total anonymity in the environment of a university course opinion poll is pointless since students would have to believe that the poll is run the way it is said to be, i.e. with no cues that might possibly be used to reveal the respondent's identity recorded. The situation would therefore be the same as it is now – the students would have to trust the system. The fact the respondent's identity is never to be revealed to anyone is guaranteed by the school management.
- 4.Where is the course opinion poll located within the IS?
The poll may be accessed using the following path:
The Information System Student End of term Course opinion polls - 5.When can I participate in the opinion poll?
The course opinion poll opens following the end of instruction. Responses are collected prior to the end of the autumn or spring semester. The exact dates may be found in the application itself.
The Information System Student End of term Course opinion pollsAnswers may be changed and verbal comments edited at any point during this period of time.
The course opinion poll should only be filled out following the completion of an entire course (including any form of course completion requirement including the allocation of credits, taking of examinations, etc.) so that a student's experience with that course (and teacher) is complete and his/her answers are unbiased.
- 6.When is my course opinion poll filled out sufficiently?
In order to sufficiently fill out the course opinion poll, you must complete at least half of your courses or at least ten courses enrolled in the current period. In order for a course to be considered complete,, you must answer all of the mandatory questions for at least one course–teacher or seminar group–tutor combination.
The teachers will always receive all saved responses, regardless of whether individual students have filled out sufficiently the course opinion poll as a whole.
In case of multiple active studies, all courses enrolled in all studies are considered in order to evaluate whether your course opinion poll is filled out sufficiently. A course enrolled simultaneously in more than one instance of active studies is only counted once.
- 7.Which courses are included in evaluating whether my course opinion poll is filled out sufficiently?
A personalized list of courses and teachers is generated automatically from the Course Catalogue on the basis of courses enrolled in a given period with the exception of courses recognized from other studies or courses excluded from the poll entirely .
In case of multiple active studies, all courses enrolled in all studies are considered in order to evaluate whether your course opinion poll is filled out sufficiently. A course enrolled simultaneously in more than one instance of active studies is only counted once.
- 8.Why does my list of courses and teachers include teachers who never taught me?
A list of teachers associated with a given course is generated automatically from Course Catalogue. It is possible that such a list may include persons who did not teach the course you attended. In case your list of courses and teachers includes a teacher who has not taught you, please do not respond so that your answers do not distort the outcome. In order for a course to be considered complete, you must answer all of the mandatory questions for at least one course–teacher or seminar group–tutor combination.
Answers should always be associated with a specific teacher in case he/she is designated as a lecturer. Answers may also be provided for each seminar group you are enrolled in, separately for each seminar tutor. In case a seminar group you are enrolled in is not associated with a teacher, the seminar group will be displayed without one. If there are no seminar groups established for the course, then those identified as seminar tutors will be offered to all students in the course for evaluation in the survey.
Teachers will not be associated with a course in case they are listed as an alternate examiners, seminar tutors or assistants.
- 9.How do I choose the correct teacher or tutor from the list?
In case your list of courses and teachers includes a teacher who has not taught you, please do not respond so that your answers do not distort the outcome. Likewise, in case your list includes a course or seminar group you have not attended, please leave these items blank. You are not required to evaluate all courses, neither all combinations course–teacher or seminar group–tutor. For more information see When is my course opinion poll filled out sufficiently?. A course enrolled in more than one instance of active studies is considered sufficiently filled out once it has been completed in one of these studies.
- 10.What happens if I fail to complete the course opinion poll?
A student who fails to fill out the poll sufficiently and who has been enrolled in a degree programme for more than one semester will not be granted access to course opinion poll outcomes, i.e. he/she will not be able to access individual course results. However, a student enrolled in his/her studies for a period shorter than one semester may access existing poll statistics without limitations.
- 11.Although I completed the course opinion poll a long time ago, I do not have access to poll results.
Course opinion poll results will be made available only after the poll closes. The publication of responses prior to that time could have an undesirable influence on poll results.
- 12.I cannot see subject XY on the website with the course opinion poll results. However, I am sure I have replied.
Responses are only published in case all mandatory questions for a given course have been answered by at least 10 % of all enrolled students and no less than five students in total. Students who sufficiently completed the course option poll (see When is my course opinion poll filled out sufficiently?), may view the results of all sufficiently filled out courses at VŠTE.
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