KEY FINDINGS FROM 2014-15 EVALUATION PROCESS
Students were happy with quality of learning
and teaching, the value they got from work
placements, volunteering opportunities and
live project briefs. While they highlighted
the concerns they had at the beginning of
the 2014-15 academic session related to new
systems and the impact of industrial action,
they acknowledged that staff had listened
to their concerns and acted on these with
positive results. Importantly, feedback from
students early in the new academic session is
that the student experience has significantly
improved on the previous year.
Curriculum and service staff have a
heightened awareness of the many factors
which contribute to successful outcomes for
students. The integration of representatives
from all service teams in each of the
curriculum team evaluations cemented a
college-wide approach and commitment to
improving outcomes for students. Integrating
service and curriculum team evaluations has
been very positive and will impact positively
on student outcomes in 2015-16.
18
AYRSHIRE COLLEGE / QUALITY REPORT 2014/15
Curriculum managers, a quarter of whom
were new to management roles, were
appointed to their posts at the start of
the 2014-15 academic session. Their focus
from November 2015 needed to be on
mitigating the impact of industrial action on
students. While there was an appetite and
enthusiasm to focus on evaluating the quality
of learning and teaching, there were limited
opportunities to do this for a large part of
the academic year. This is a key priority for
2015-16.
In March 2015, when employee relations
improved, Education Scotland ran a series of
capacity building workshops for curriculum
and service managers, which enabled staff
to engage in detailed discussions about the
quality of learning and teaching, and support
for learning. These workshops focused on
enhancements being made to our quality
cycle as a result of the action learning pilot
and enabled managers across the College
to shape and take ownership of further
developments.