Use student feedback and plan for change

Peer or external review

Using the survey questions and reflections as a framework, you could ask for feedback from a peer, who may have their own insights and experiences to add.

You could also seek out an ‘external’ reviewer for further insight – perhaps a colleague who works outside your direct discipline or expertise. Those outside your immediate peer group may be able to identify different frameworks or ideas which can add to your analysis, and offer a fresh set of eyes on an ‘old’ problem. Other options here include booking in a consultation with the UTS LX.lab.

Awareness and observation – noticing and reporting

Another source of insight is ‘tuning in’ more consciously to what is said or done by students in your course, and consistently capturing this information. Over a particular semester you might choose a specific characteristic to focus on, and actively listen for evidence and information about this in your interactions with students.

Listening and noting the common questions students ask, for example, offers an indication about where they lack clarity and what they care about. If you keep this information in an easily accessible form or document, you could regularly pre-sort comments and suggestions into the categories covered by the EFS response questions.

Ask questions, and listen!

Consider ways that you can articulate and pose questions to students about your subject experience that add to your understanding of their experience, goals and intentions. This can be done verbally, in class, and via short, simple surveys to capture the experience of those who may feel less confident about speaking up.

Share solutions with students

You could also share some of the solutions you’re considering with students before implementing them. Share a quick example to see how the suggestion sits with your student cohort, and invite comments on how it could be adjusted or improved further.

In breaking down and analysing student feedback, the goal is to develop actions for change, and to see whether changes have the intended impact. During this process, consider how changes will be evaluated: how and when will their impact and effectiveness be checked, and how will you capture that information? 

Collecting and documenting information about change and impact is a good way to illustrate how you embed continuous improvement into your practice, as well as prompting you to check and re-visit changes. It also helps you to build a folio of evidence for performance evaluation or that you can use as part of a promotion application.

A suggested process could include:

• Create a document noting the changes you are making and the reason/interpretation behind those changes.
• Refer to this document when you receive survey feedback and look for links to the impacts of these changes (a change in the overall score for a particular item, or any comments in the open answer section).
• Consider if you need additional input and how you could confirm the impact with students – can you ask them informally in a class or set up a question in a quiz or discussion board?
• Prompt students in the lead-up to the next survey to for additional responses around a particular change, e.g. “In response to your EFS feedback I made this change in order to assist with X. I’m keen to know whether it helped so please let me know in the SFS comments section, so I can see if there are other changes I can make in future.”

Iterate on improvements over time

Whilst positive results are of course desirable, the ultimate aim in interpreting student feedback is to understand and evaluate what’s working and what isn’t, so you can learn and plan in response to that. An iterative approach is best rather than feeling the need to rebuild from the ground up. By making small changes and tracking their impact over a period of time, you can build a better foundation for understanding.