R. A. Lewis
Department of Physics,
University of Wollongong,
Wollongong, NSW 2522
Performance indicators are now an established feature of the tertiary sector. Performance is measured in many ways. The main concern of this study is the student evaluation of teaching. At Wollongong a central unit administers teaching surveys. Surveys have been routinely conducted (a) for all courses taught by a Department on a biennial or triennial basis (b) for all courses taught in at least three sessions by staff seeking promotion (c) at the request of a staff member as a diagnostic service. Much data has been collected over many years and averages are available for the university as a whole and for each faculty.
An extra dimension to the appraisal of teaching may be gained by considering the variable of importance along with that of performance. Such an analysis has been pioneered by Martilla and James [1] in the field of marketing. In the present study, a large first-year mechanics class was polled concerning the importance of the various items on the standard teaching survey. A standard teaching survey was administered. Results are shown in Fig. 1 for the 14 aspects covered by the teaching survey. Areas may be delineated in which further effort is needed (high importance-low performance), in which too much effort is expended (low importance-high performance), and in which effort is appropriate (high importance-high performance, and low importance-low performance). The analysis may assist in the judicious allocation of resources, in particular, away from the second regime and into the first.
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As a more general approach to the question of importance, the attributes of a Wollongong graduate have been ranked by incoming physics students and this ranking compared to that of a large number of employees. The results show a number of interesting similarities and differences. It is believed importance-perfomance analysis provides a broader base on which to evaluate the educational endeavours than by using performance indicators alone.
[1] J. A. Martilla and J. C. James, Importance-Performance Analysis, J. Marketing 41, 77-79 (1977)