- a joint TDG project by Social Sciences Research Centre and Computer Centre

What is WebSET

WebSET is a project funded by the Teaching Development Grant and is jointly undertaken by the Social Sciences Research Centre (SSRC) and the Computer Centre.  It aims to improve the present system of student evaluation of teaching (SET) which uses simple web forms and paper forms.  The WebSET introduces a fully on-line approach for setting up questionnaires, collecting student responses and generating statistics for evaluation and reporting.  The WebSET system is expected to provide an efficient and timely solution for SET, and an alternative for those departments trying out new methods of teaching which need to ask different questions from those in existing questionnaires approved by the Faculty and University.

The current SET system

At present, students are asked to complete the evaluation on a course module or a course instructor, either on paper or on simple web forms, at the end of each semester.  The procedure is now well-established and provides useful student feedback on the effectiveness of teaching.  Students are assured of the anonymity of their responses and can express their feelings towards a course frankly.  This centralised SET system is governed by the Faculty and University guidelines and policy, and it is working quite well.

However, it is difficult to process the handwritten open-ended comments in these questionnaires unless a department is prepared to employ someone to decipher the handwriting and type in the comments in a word-processor for further scrutiny and analysis. Also, paper forms require a lot of manpower and time to design the layout and content of the questionnaires and process the computer-scanned data which often needs to be manually verified, and the economy of scale for printing costs means that the centralised system is biased towards large print-run of fewer questionnaires.

Therefore, the Computer Centre has collaborated with SSRC to develop the WebSET system with the latest web and java technology to improve the current SET procedure.  In the process of development, the ramifications and challenges to existing SET policy, guidelines, and practices were also re-examined in order to build an effective system.

Empower SET with WebSET

From the outset, WebSET was built to extend the existing capabilities of SET such as the anonymity feature and to further improve the processing time and to reduce the use of paper.  Using the campus network and web as the distribution and presentation medium, students and course coordinators can design, administer and process an evaluation anywhere, anytime in a paperless environment.  Teaching staff can now create their own questionnaires, administer SET at any time that suits them and their students, and get results back in the shortest possible time in a digital form which they can use to do more complex analysis.

The two main modules of WebSET provide web-based interface for the course coordinators to design the layout of a questionnaire from pools of predefined questions and answers,  schedule an evaluation, generate statistical reports with professional input from SSRC as well as for students to complete an evaluation on-line.  With the assistance of the WebSET system, the time and labour costs are significantly reduced since the responses are directly stored into a central database and analyzed at real-time to provide analysis results automatically.   Open-ended comments can also be collected into a file for teachers and departments to view and analyse.

The Computer Centre has completed all technical development of WebSET, and the system is now in its final testing stage.  It will be ready for user trials towards the end of February, 2000.  Interested individuals and departments are advised to contact Dr. K.W. Ng , Acting Director of the Social Sciences Research Centre, or the TDG grant holder, Angela Castro of the MSc(Eng) Internet Computing and Electronic Commerce Programme Office. Further details can be obtained from the undersigned.

Joe Lei
Tel: 2964 5738
E-Mail: mklei@hkusua.hku.hk