More than 3000 students participated in the recent student communications survey, providing invaluable information about the channels that are currently considered most effective, their preferred channels, and what they want to see done better or differently.

“Following the success of the recent staff communications survey and the improvements that resulted from those findings, we wanted to support recommendations for improvements in student communication methods and channels with some solid quantitative data,” said Internal Communications Manager David Sams.

“It was really interesting to see how closely the findings aligned not only with the feedback from some small, qualitative focus groups we did late last year, but with three years of student communications surveys I’d previously conducted at another institution.”

“It was important that we asked questions that would also provide useful feedback to our colleagues across campus,” said Student Communications Specialist Amanda Leverett, “and we’re grateful for the input and advice provided by the Learning & Teaching Centre, Campus Life, Wellbeing, Informatics and the Student Advisory Board (communications sub-committee) in preparing the survey.”

Channels identified as most effective and most preferred by students
There is close correlation between the most preferred channels and channels considered most effective (see fig.1). Email and iLearn are clear leaders in the preference and efficacy metrics, closely followed by teaching staff, Facebook and the student homepage in the most effective rankings.

However in the most preferred rankings, administrative and support staff, Ask MQ and other students move up the rankings between the student homepage and Facebook (see fig.2), suggesting that there is work to be done around bringing the effectiveness of these channels up to meet their preference ranking.

Student comments
Popular recurring comments included the need for greater mobile optimisation, increased customisation and personalisation of interfaces and the information they deliver, and the desire for a ‘single sign on’ location, such as a portal, where all of the key student-facing systems and services are delivered.

Vision to the future
The core channels identified by students are the current focus of the Internal Communications team, who will continue to encourage student-facing administrative and support service units to also focus on these channels, and work with them to improve channels where effectiveness does not match preference ranking.

The popular and recurring comments relate directly to the work of the Our University: A Framing of Futures ‘Web Transformation Project’, and Internal Communications will continue to work with that project team to ensure these student findings are reflected in the outcomes of that work.

Key findings and recommendations will be tabled for Senior Executive soon, after which time the Internal Communications Team will share more detailed data with the campus community.

View the complete info graphic and read the winning comments.

Find out more about effective communication at Macquarie.

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