Five Questions with Wayne Franklin
Charles Darwin University, NT, Australia
Wayne chose to be interviewed in Chair #6
1. What is your job title?
Student Experience and Evaluation Officer
2. Briefly, how would you describe your role in terms of your place in your institution?
As the importance of data continues to grow I believe roles such as mine and our Survey team are quite vital to the institution. Being able to collect, collate and analyse large amounts of data for the purposes of improving quality, the educational outcomes of students and using it to inform the decision making process is an important function for any organisation.
I oversee a wide variety of survey activities from organising data for the national Higher Education surveys, to setting up, distributing and reporting on our own internal Higher Education unit surveys.
Charles Darwin University is a dual sector University so I also run and report on the VET Learner Questionnaire (LQ) and Employer Questionnaire (EQ).
I’m not the most talkative person and tend to keep to the background with my spreadsheets and various software applications, manipulating data while my boss and colleague talk to people. I did co-present at the 2016 AAIR Forum which was way out of my comfort zone but a good experience.
3. From your perspective, what are the emerging areas of interest in institutional research?
One emerging area of interest for our small survey team is the work that is currently being done around the SES in relation to external student engagement and how a whole section of questions are not well suited for this modality. The majority of the Charles Darwin University student cohort studies in external mode so how we measure and monitor their engagement and their path to success are of great importance to us.
4. What do you believe will be the future priorities for institutional research?
Coming from a dual sector university I’d have to say that a review of the VET Learner Questionnaire (LQ) and Employer Questionnaire (EQ) should be a priority. The questions are outdated and it seems to be little more than a pro forma exercise for which I have to apologise to lecturers that I am unable to change the survey instrument. Furthermore, we receive no feedback on the data and results that we are required to lodge each year and, there are no benchmarking opportunities with other RTOs either which is something that would be beneficial for the sector.
5. Complete this statement: In my role, I can’t operate effectively without…
…the help and support of my colleague and other member of #teamawesome, Rhianna Harker.
Also…music, put in my headphones and good to go.
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