History Department Response to Student Feedback
HSTY2629: Sex and Scandal (2009)

Unit Coordinators: Dr Frances Clarke and Dr Kirsten McKenzie

Sex & Scandal received very positive student feedback this year, with 93% of students expressing overall satisfaction with the unit. We also received particularly positive answers to whether staff were responsive to students’ learning needs, no doubt a result of the two exceptional tutors (Sophie Loy Wilson and Amanda Kaladelfos) who helped teach the unit.

• Student Suggestion: Because the unit covers such an array of topics, ranging over such a long period, some students requested more background information to orient them in the periods covered
  Response:
  We will take these comments into account in two ways next time we teach the unit: first, we’ll offer a timeline of scandals and a basic chronology of events; second, we’ll add contextual information to our lectures
• Student Suggestion: Lecture Notes
  Response:
  We taped our lectures and provided lecture outlines (along with powerpoints for students who requested copies). We also set up a WebCT site to provide these and other resources. A number of students, however, requested additional lecture notes.
  We’ve talked over the possibility of offering more detailed lecture notes. In the end, however, we decided that this would not be a good idea. The lectures for Sex & Scandal are eclectic. They’re supposed to be provocative and broad ranging, as opposed to offering detailed knowledge of a given era. Students are not asked to memorize material, nor is there an exam that asks them to recall the details of different scandals. We expect that different students will take different points away from the lectures. We felt that detailed lecture notes might end up negating our interest in provoking students to think about the material for themselves.
• Student Suggestion: Smaller Tutorials
  Response:
  It was extremely difficult to accommodate our 260 odd students. The tutorial rooms were often overcrowded, and the tute sizes unreasonably large.
  The department is in the process of considering ways to deal with this situation.
  In the meantime, we’ll ensure next time we teach the unit to add extra tutorials before semester starts. Sex & Scandal had a sizeable, unforeseen increase in student numbers in the first two weeks. We’ll simply bank on this happening again in future and act accordingly