Surfacing skills… in the course evaluation
What is it?
Surfacing skills in the course evaluation helps students explicitly reflect on the skills they have developed and forms a connection between the relevance of their learning and future contexts. Essentially, it prompts both students and lecturers to make stronger connections between course design, learning outcomes and employability.
To provide a consistent way of referencing and measuring this, a supplementary ‘Skills and Employability’ question set has been added to EvaSys.
These three questions focus on the recognition, application and relevance of skills:
- This course has helped me recognise the future (professional) skills I am developing through my studies.
- This course has made it clear how learning can be applied in a real-world or professional context(s).
- I understand how the knowledge and skills gained from this course will be meaningful and useful to me in the future.
These can be easily added to the standard University of Glasgow course evaluation form and use the same Strongly Disagree → Strongly Agree response scale.
How does it work?
The lecturer adds the supplementary ‘Skills and Employability’ question set when setting up their course evaluation form, in line with the University’s Course Evaluation Policy.
The skills-focused questions are then presented alongside the core questions (and any additional items that have been added), ensuring consistency of approach and comparability across levels, academic years and courses.
The data provides a direct insight into how effectively skills and employability are surfaced within the course and results can be discussed with your College Careers & Employability Manager.
Responses can highlight areas of strength (e.g., clear links between course content and professional contexts) or indicate where skills and employability connections could be made more explicit. These results can inform annual monitoring, programme review and future course enhancement activity.
Does it work?
Research shows that students are more likely to value and develop future skills when these are explicitly named and explained, connected to real-world contexts and reinforced through feedback and reflection.
Therefore, the skills and employability course evaluation questions that have been designed encourage both students and staff to think more consciously about the skills and employability dimensions of the course. Their aim is to help lecturers identify where students feel less confident about skills recognition or application, creating a clear starting point for enhancement.
The wording of the questions also reflects those used in the National Student Survey (Question 9) and Graduate Outcomes (Graduate Voice – Meaningful and Skills Utilised), which will allow for future comparison.
What do I need?
- Access to the University’s course evaluation system (EvaSys).
- To add the Skills & Employability supplementary question set into your course evaluation
- A clear understanding of where skills and employability is surfaced in your course (e.g., through assessment, teaching methods or learning outcomes).
- Time to review and reflect on the responses once the data is returned, potentially discussing findings with your College Careers & Employability Manager.
You may also want to consider:
- Creating a plan for acting on insights, for example, by introducing a short reflection activity, strengthening assessment briefings or adjusting course communications to make skills more visible.
- Discussing results collectively at staff meetings or review sessions to share good practice and common challenges.
- Closing the feedback loop by letting students know how their responses will inform futue course development.
- Using data year-on-year to evidence improvement or identify patterns across disciplines.