Closure Report
Project Summary
This was an Edinburgh University Students' Association led project, supported by the three Colleges, Academic Services and Information Services. This project piloted 2 platforms using Learn and MS Teams for facilitating the Programme Representative feedback process in support of the Students' Association.
It was planned to run for one academic year on 3 programmes, 1 for each college. The colleges selected the programmes taking part in the pilot.
The project would be suspended during the academic year once the pilot has started. Support would be provided by the Students’ Association, existing service management and LTW. An evaluation of the success and student satisfaction with each of the technologies would follow.
At the initial stage the decision was made to exclude Unitu from this pilot.
Also out of scope is implementation of the recommended system to the wider University.
Objectives and Deliverables
| Ref | Objectives and Deliverables | Priority | Owner | Achieved |
| O1 | Implementation of a pilot scheme to test two potential new support systems for Programme Representatives | |||
| D1.1 | Colleges to select programmes in the Pilot | Must | CMVM, CAHSS College Office and CSCE | Y |
| D1.2 | Pilot of three programmes using Blackboard Learn in the 3 colleges | Must | the Students’ Association, Blackboard Learn | Y |
| D1.3 | Pilot of three programmes using Microsoft Teams in the 3 colleges | Must | the Students’ Association, MS Teams | Y |
| D1.4 | To complete a communication plan | Must | Project Services, the Students’ Association |
Y - Project was planned and delivered, but as the pilot was not taken up this was not achieved |
| D1.5 | To plan and deliver a promotional plan for the pilots with the reps and the students on those programmes | Must | the Students’ Association | Y - Student's Association completed the original documentation, however this was not taken up by reps/students |
| D1.6 | Documentation and communication material to students | Must | Project Services, the Students’ Association | Y - Was provided to the reps at the start of the project when the pilot was rolled out |
| O2 |
Recommendation of a platform for Student's Association and the university to adopt. |
|||
| D2.1 | Evaluation of the student experience using each of the platforms | Must | Project Board | N - Not completed due to lack of student engagement. Not enough experience to evaluate on either platform |
| O3 | Assessment of resources required to expand project across the whole university. | |||
| D3.1 | Evaluation of the tools for joint programmes | Could | Colleges Programme Directors, Students’ Association, Student Reps | N - Had a joint programme as one of the selected, however the project has not provided results to be evaluated. The only evaluation has been drawn from the student end of year surveys by the Student's Association |
| D3.2 | Evaluation of the resources required to scale a solution to the wider University | Must | LTW, Service Management and the Students’ Association | N - The project, due to lack of student engagement and the change of working life (aligned to the pandemic coronavirus since mid March 2020) has changed how we would handle this in the future. So this has not been considered in this project |
| D3.3 | To complete the DPIA and EqIA for the pilot | Must | Fraser Muir, Project Services | Y |
Benefits
The system will deliver benefits to the student, the students’ association and the University as a whole - this pilot will only cover the programmes selected in the platforms pilot:
| Item | Benefits | Achieved | Result |
| 1 |
Make it easier for students to raise concerns or issues with their programme representative |
N | Due to lack of student engagement none of the benefits have been realised |
| 2 |
Make it easier for the representative to seek input and prioritise issues to raise with the School, College or University |
N | Due to lack of student engagement none of the benefits have been realised |
| 3 |
May make it quicker for the University to respond to issues raised by the student body |
N | Due to lack of student engagement none of the benefits have been realised |
| 4 |
Make it easier for the representative to communicate resulting changes back to their students in a timely manner |
N | Due to lack of student engagement none of the benefits have been realised |
| 5 |
Improve overall student satisfaction |
N | Due to lack of student engagement none of the benefits have been realised |
| 6 |
May make it easier to handover existing feedback |
N | Due to lack of student engagement none of the benefits have been realised |
Success Criteria
| Item |
Project Success |
Achieved | Result |
| 1 | The 2 platforms have been set up and in use for a year | Partially | 2 platforms set up and been available for use, but have hardly been used. |
| 2 | A survey of students using the tool on their experience and satisfaction (including reps) | N |
Students association has still run their own usual survey, but the results are not restricted to the pilot |
| 3 | Engagement with at least 20% of the students on the programmes | N | Due to lack of student engagement we have not achieved 20%, but less then 1% |
| 4 | The majority of students using the system find it easier to use than existing email based tools | N | Not applicable due to lack of student engagement |
Analysis of Resource Usage:
Staff Usage Estimate: 31 days
Staff Usage Actual: 31 days
Other Resource Variance: 0%
Outcome
Evaluation
Project was successfully set up by a very adept student intern. The only loss, to us, was that the student intern had to return to study as the pilot began and that her degree was not one of the selected programmes.
Semester 1
- Slow start picking the programmes in the pilot
- Pilot did not get fully rolled out until week 8 (it was hoped this would happen in week 3)
- No one turned up to the collaborate session to find out about the pilot
- Very small student engagement and the students that did look at the site did not engage further
- Did not matter which platform it was, results were much the same
Semester 2
The project team decided to hold a further Student Voice Pilot workshop in week 3 (after a discussion with Student's Association advising a more suitable time of day)
- There was zero attendance
- Student's Association and key stakeholder considered amendments for questions to take forward to the yearly student survey
- Governance board decided to review the status of the project in June
- From mid March the University had to change the way we work (due to the coronavirus / pandemic), where we have all had to adapt to a different way of working
Key Learning Points
- Excellent experience for our student intern setting up this project during the summer break.
- Overall student interaction with the 2 platforms in the pilot was disappointing.
- Inadequate communication, where staff changes /departures in Students' Association at the start of term, delayed the communication to reps in Semester 1.
- Drawing some conclusions from the Students Association regarding how the students feel it should be run in the future.
- If a similar project takes place again then the project team should consider starting from the findings from the yearly student's survey run by the Student's Association.
- Very disappointing results from this pilot and we have to hope that the programme reps were / are using other tools to engage with their students.
- Although the Pilot has served its purpose, the environment has changed to a new way of working which we will move forward to in 2020/21.
Outstanding Issues
In the future-
The Project Board is reviewing the way forward in line with the new ways of working, and how to best support the communication / feedback with reps
.