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© Proceedings of the Ruhuna Quality Assurance Sessions 2021 (RUQAS 2021)
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21 September 2021

The questionnaire for virtual teaching consists of twelve 5-Likert scaled questions and two open-ended
questions. The questionnaire is the same as the one on in-hall lectures with two additional questions on

the technical issues encountered and about the lecturer paying attention to the chat box messages. Both

questionnaires were made available on the IQAC website to be downloaded, and Google forms of the
questionnaires were shared with the Gmail account of the Heads of the Departments. The IQAC

monitored obtaining SET by the departments and followed up the measures proposed by the
departments to improve their teaching based on responses received for the SET.

Progress of Obtaining SET in 2020

There were 97 academics in the faculty in 2020. Eight academic staff were on leave. At the end of the
first six months of the year, 57/89 (64%) obtained SET. By the end of the year, obtaining SET reached

91%.

Some of the main actions taken by the departments to improve teaching based on SET include,
improving the use of the Learning Management System, discussing feedback given by the students in

department meetings, improving the quality of tools used in teaching (PowerPoint presentations, video
materials, hand-outs), discussing questions and answers at the end of the lecture, and improving the

quality of technical aspects during virtual sessions.

Discussion

All 15 departments of the faculty conducted SET during the year 2020. Based on the feedback

received, individual departments identified and implemented the measures to improve teaching-
learning activities. As suggested by many studies conducted worldwide, obtaining SET has led to

improved teaching performances due to it being a platform where teachers could identify the

deficiencies in their teaching methods. (Wilson, 1986; Arubayi, 1987; Divoky and Rothermel, 1989;
Theall and Franklin, 1991; Marsh and Roche, 1993). It was highlighted in a study conducted by

Harvey (2011) that SET becomes an effective tool only when the stakeholders consider the process
seriously and plan appropriate actions according to student feedback. Therefore, the results indicated

that centralizing the SET process by the IQAC has ensured that the feedback received from the

students are being used effectively by the lecturers to improve the teaching/learning activities.

The results showed a positive trend in the faculty attempting to improve their teaching practices with
91% of the academics conducting SET in 2020. Literature suggests that one reason behind teachers

being reluctant to conduct SET is because they believe the practice of giving students a voice
regarding teaching practices could undermine the teacher’s authority (Flutter, 2007). The faculty has

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