One of the university's tasks as part of quality assurance is to determine the success of Learning and Teaching and to identify potential for optimisation. The evaluation of Learning and Teaching is an essential part of the university's internal quality management. As students, you can make a decisive contribution to improving the quality of Learning and Teaching at Fulda University of Applied Sciences at all levels. Because only with your feedback can measures for optimisation be initiated.
Your attendance at evaluations is very important for our university as well as for you personally in order to sustainably improve not only your own future at the university, but also that of the following generations of students. Nevertheless, your attendance is of course voluntary and anonymous and has no study-related consequences for you (more on this under data protection on the right).
All evaluations are intended as a constructive feedback tool, e.g. on a specific course, your study programme or your introductory stage. You can find out what you need to bear in mind in our handout "How do I give feedback?".
If you have any questions about evaluation at Fulda University of Applied Sciences, please contact the evaluation team in the DLS division (see below for contact details). If you have an acute problem or a complaint, the following offices are at your disposal:
Teaching evaluations relate to a specific course or your entire study programme and serve as a tool for reflection and feedback on, for example, learning content and objectives, didactic design or general studyability. The results of the evaluations are received exclusively by the persons in charge, i.e. your feedback is addressed directly to your instructors so that they can initiate suitable further developments in teaching.
However, you also benefit directly from teaching evaluations, as they are also a means of self-reflection: What did you take away from the course? How did your own learning go? What did you gain from the course content for your university studies as a whole? And how can you organise your own university studies?
You as a student or former student will be asked about various aspects of your university studies, your information or counselling needs, for example, at specific times at the beginning of your studies, during your studies or afterwards. The information obtained provides valuable starting points for quality assurance and development in the university's service centres, as well as in the departments, for example in the context of re-accreditation. As part of a continuous study progress analysis, factors that influence the academic success of students at Fulda University of Applied Sciences can be identified so that optimisations and measures can be initiated on this basis.
In addition to internal evaluation activities, we coordinate external surveys on Learning and Teaching in which Fulda University of Applied Sciences is involved. The implementing partners are renowned players in higher education research (e.g. CHE - Centre for Higher Education Development, DZHW - German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies). Internal coordination ensures on-site processing. In order to ensure data protection at all times, it also acts as a direct intermediary for the relevant surveys to the students.
The Hessian Higher Education Act (§ 14; German only) requires evaluations to be carried out. All data subjects have the right to information, correction or deletion of their personal data, to restriction or objection to the processing of their data and to data portability. In this case, they can contact the responsible university employee. In addition, data subjects have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority in charge of data protection, the Hessian Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (poststelle(at)datenschutz.hessen.de).
Data protection concerns are taken into account in all surveys and all evaluation data is treated with great care. The results of evaluations are only processed with due regard to the protection of personal data and are published in aggregated form in agreement with the bodies in charge, so that it is not possible to identify individuals. We ensure that the data is treated as strictly confidential and that no efforts are made to identify individuals. All data will be anonymised for the purpose of evaluation. This also applies in particular to personal data in free text responses, which are treated in accordance with our Guideline on Handling Free Text Responses in surveys.
In addition to the legal framework (Hessian Data Protection and Freedom of Information Act (German only), Federal Data Protection Act (German only), European General Data Protection Regulation), the Statutes for the Evaluation (German only) and the Implementation Regulations for the Evaluation of Teaching, Learning and Academic Continuing Education at Fulda University of Applied Sciences (German only) serve as the authoritative framework for our activities. All issues relevant to data protection law are coordinated with the data protection officer of Fulda University of Applied Sciences. In addition, we base our work on the "Standards for Evaluation" of the German Evaluation Society (DeGEval), according to which evaluations should have four basic characteristics: Usefulness, feasibility, fairness and accuracy.
The Office for Learning and Teaching (evaluation(at)verw.hs-fulda.de) will be happy to answer any questions regarding the implementation of evaluations of learning and teaching at Fulda University of Applied Sciences. All matters relevant to data protection law have been coordinated with the data protection officer of Fulda University of Applied Sciences; queries can be directed to datenschutz(at)hs-fulda.de.