Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts implements evasys for evaluations

The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) implements evasys for evaluations

Image courtesy of LIPA

About LIPA

936 BA (Honours) students
59 Foundation Certificate students
33 MA students
Over the most recent four-year period, 89% of LIPA’s graduates are in work four years after leaving, and 78% work in the performing arts
8 Disciplines – Acting, Applied Theatre, Dance, Design & Technology, Filmmaking, Management, Music, Sound Technology
227 Staff members

Background

With many of the UK and Ireland’s largest universities using evasys for module evaluation, it might be easy to assume that our technology is an enterprise-level solution for large institutions. However, evasys scales in either direction, meaning that small specialist institutions, like Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), benefit from our survey and evaluation software just as much as their larger counterparts.

In fact, with LIPA, the institution’s compact size offered an extremely nimble approach to researching, selecting and implementing their survey and evaluation solution.

evasys was delighted to partner with LIPA for a super quick implementation of the software for module evaluation. From project approval, integration, implementation, launch, to first surveys being sent to students – LIPA were ready to go within two weeks!

We caught up with Michelle Rushforth, Quality Manager and Kristel Cauwenberghe, Quality Officer, at LIPA to chat about how they’re implementing evasys survey and evaluation software across the institution.

LIPA has launched evasys for their End of Level Survey and for module evaluation. The uptake has been significant, with over 152 modules using evasys – that’s three-quarters of the institution – and eight disciplines taking part so far, LIPA has quickly been able to use evasys to engage with students and ensure their voices are heard. This is an ongoing project for LIPA, and they plan to roll out the software for all module evaluations in the coming year. Further work will also be undertaken to improve response rates and encourage engagement of students.

“We chose evasys because they are the market leader. We were aware of many institutions already successfully using evasys. And evasys have better analytics than any other system we’re aware of.”

Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts , (LIPA)

Key challenges:

Delivering a new approach from department to department

One of the reasons LIPA wanted to work with evasys was because the institution’s more traditional engagement tools and strategies for gathering student feedback took a lot of time and effort and weren’t always working for them across the whole institution.
LIPA had different questionnaires in place in different disciplines with questions determined by students each year. Whilst this approach had its benefits, it meant that every administrator and discipline was running their own surveys either manually or online, making it challenging to take an institution-wide view of feedback. There was also variance in response rates, due to the differing methods used throughout the university.
Michelle explains:
“The students now get emails, further reminders, and the surveys are now integrated into their Moodle page, all via processes automated through evasys. We also highlight to module leaders and staff to encourage students to complete surveys in class. It is anticipated that this new approach will enable us to close the feedback loop in a more efficient and consistent way. We will be able to centrally monitor response rates and take action to encourage more responses where we need to. We will be able to share overall student responses with all students in each cohort in good time.
Time that was being taken
Before evasys, module leaders were held responsible for sending out surveys and the process of gathering student feedback was a lot more manual. This process took up a lot of time. Now, there is more time to focus on responding to the feedback from surveys to enhance the student experience at LIPA.
Michelle expands:
“The fact that the evasys survey system is automated means it relies less on staff time – making the process as easy as possible for everyone. When you compare it to the time that each member of staff spent administering the survey and the data analysis, it’s definitely more cost effective to partner with evasys.”

The Solution

LIPA wanted to find a new way to communicate with their student population to enable the student voice to be better heard. They sought to gain some consistency with their surveys to make sure that it was easy to aggregate data for an institution-wide view, discipline to discipline as well as year to year.

Additionally, it is hoped that evasys will enable LIPA to boost survey responses by automating and streamlining the process.

It’s still early days for LIPA, as they initiated a mid-year soft launch, but they plan to go institution-wide at the start of the new academic year. They already have plans to extend the use into other departments.

Michelle concludes:

“The institution will be looking at where else evasys can be used, in addition to module evaluation and the End of Level Survey, for example, Staff Surveys. But, for now, the priority is looking to increase response rates and also at how we can best use the data, in advance of the full launch this coming academic year.”

LIPA’s favourite evasys features…

QUICK SETUP:
“The evasys setup was very quick! We had a colleague in our IT department who helped with the email integration and the Moodle integration, and that was all done within a matter of days! The ease and speediness of getting set up has been great. I didn’t think it’d be doable. I just didn’t think it was feasible to do it in the time scale we had, and it’s happened, all the surveys have gone out. It’s pretty impressive.”
SUPPORT:

“Mark Dawson from evasys has been excellent. If I have a question, he’s always been available on email. He goes into the system and checks if I’ve done it right or that everything’s set up properly. The support has been very good.”
“Bruce Johnson has remained involved in the project, which at this stage he doesn’t need to be, but he keeps in touch to check on how things are going. He hasn’t just sold evasys to us and moved on – he is keen to make it work really well for us and is very supportive throughout the process.”
EMAIL REMINDERS:
“The emails and the reminders are a great feature – and the fact that you set it up once and then it just runs with it. All I have to do is go into check if it’s going ok. It’s all automatic now and that’s been brilliant”
DATA ANALYTICS AND REPORTING:
“The assurance that I know that our heads of discipline are going to get the information they need at a touch of a button. I know the data and response rates are available and are going to go to the Programme Board consistently and on time. evasys has made it so quick for us.”