What is the Learner Views Survey?
The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) launched the “Learner Views Survey” nationwide as part of the Framework for Excellence. The Framework underpins a simplified performance assessment system that will help drive up performance right across the further education (FE) sector.
Colleges across England are participating in the survey to hear the views of their learners’ on issues such as the information received at the start of the course, the respect staff show to learners and students’ overall satisfaction of their course. This information will then be given to your college where it can also be used to help shape the student experience for the better. This year, for the first time, results will also be available to view online, which will offer current and prospective students the opportunity to see the results for themselves.
The Learner Views Survey offers students an opportunity to impact on the future of the learning experience at their college by ensuring that the student experience and learner voice is considered a key performance criterion. This is not simply limited to FE colleges, but something that will be recognised across the whole FE sector.
It also gives students the opportunity to express their views directly to the body that fund the course they study. This feedback will be used to generate a performance rating for your college which will be compared to other providers. It will help your college to see how well students think its doing and give them the chance to respond to students views to improve your college experience. What’s more, the survey is carried out by an independent research company. This means that responses will be completely anonymous and colleges won’t be able trace answers back to students.
NUS believe that the Learner Views Survey has the potential to provide colleges with quantitative data based on the learner voice. With the date being made public, it would not only enable comparisons with FE institutions locally and nationally, but it will be valuable to local students’ unions as the results will provide evidence which could support learners views expressed through student council, executive, learner voice committees and through representation on college boards. Furthermore, the data could be used to support campaign action plans for the union and the college and to support student governors’ submissions to College Corporation.
The live survey period is open until Friday 12th February 2010. After this time, results will be independently collated and then sent to your college in June 2010. Results will also be made available online at this time.
Now is the time for your students’ union, student governors, course reps and class reps to promote the survey to students. Following this, these representatives should then also start talking to your college about how they plan to use the results of the survey and to explore how they will be able to utilise the results of the survey themselves.
So why not make sure that students are at the centre of the changes that are made? Complete the Learner Views Survey now!
If you want any more information on the LVS, or if you have any examples of good practice regarding how the Learner Views Survey is being used in your college, please get in touch with NUS and tell us what you have been doing. Contact our Project Officer: Learner Responsiveness, Dan Baxter. More information on the Learner Views Survey and suggestions on how to increase survey engagement can be found below.
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Complete the learner views survey here
About the NUS Learner Responsiveness Project
Getting your students involved in the LVS
The NUS guide to Surveys in Further Education gives information on all of the current surveys within FE
The LSC Learner Views offers additional guidance on the survey and also links to poster downloads
LSC Survey Site contains information regarding the other LSC led surveys in FE
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