Stellenbosch University Appoints Explorance for Module Evaluation Surveys Enhancement

Montreal, Quebec – February 28, 2024 – Stellenbosch University has selected Explorance to enhance its approach to module evaluation surveys following a competitive tender.

The public university, which has over 33,500 students across 10 faculties, previously used an internal survey system within its Learning Management System, and sought a different approach to “enhance student learning” and “increase automation and flexibility”.

Following a detailed procurement process and invitation to tender, Explorance was shortlisted and asked to present to a university committee.

“Strategically, we want to change the way the University thinks about the purpose of student feedback and shift the feedback culture to an enhancement of learning,” said Dr Gert Young, Senior Advisor in the University’s Centre for Teaching and Learning.

“The system we had been using was manually intensive and limited in its potential. Our student feedback office often used a set template, when what was needed was a platform with the flexibility to support academics’ variety of needs. Explorance has a diverse university client base which engendered trust and confidence, and on a personal level we got on very well with the team. We could see a long-term relationship developing.

“There has been a push on promoting student feedback here for many years – now, supported by Explorance Blue and what we feel is the ease of this system, it is about providing challenge to change. We are also very excited about MLY, Explorance’s AI text analytics development, as qualitative insight derived from open-ended comments is much more valuable than quantitative when it comes to teaching development.”

With implementation currently underway and testing to follow, the first module evaluations within Explorance Blue are scheduled for March this year. “For the moment we are focusing on low hanging fruit: module evaluation practice,” Dr Young explained. “This is the easiest to run in the first round, then extend evaluations to programme level, postgraduate surveys and even maybe alumni surveys within 12-18 months.

“We are also exploring the introduction of a mid-semester evaluation to help students gauge where they are in their learning. For this we will create opportunities for students to reflect on concepts, theories and skills that they feel they still need to master in the module. This is part of our approach to students’ developing skills to evaluate their own work.”

Dr Young outlined success indicators for the enhanced feedback system. “This is about identifying what we need to do in terms of improving student learning, and whilst we would like to see an impact on participation rates, what is more important is how we respond to data that we collect,” he revealed. “A related objective is individual academics taking action and engaging students on the feedback which is currently not really the norm.

“For our student feedback office, which administers our module evaluation surveys, now once they have pressed the button in Blue they will have more development time so we are looking at the value they can add. So instead of performing a number of manual actions to collect data and generate reports, they can direct their expertise at training users, enhancing survey instruments and doing research. This may include upskilling on research skills and facilitation skills to train academics on how to use feedback.”

Having attended Explorance’s Amplifying Student Voices in Higher Education: The Power of Student Feedback and AI impact tour in Cape Town in November, Dr Young added that he is looking forward to further opportunities for collaboration.

“The Explorance community in South Africa is growing and at the event I met a number of public and private institutions who are either customers or have expressed an interest in the product,” he said. “The community is set to become even more visible in the next few years.”

John Atherton, VP Sales EMEA at Explorance, commented: “We are delighted to be selected by Stellenbosch University, and are excited about supporting their work to enrich the learning and teaching experience for academics and students. Our presence in South Africa continues to grow, and this will bring opportunities for current and prospective universities looking to innovate their practices around student feedback.”