Feedback From Students

As primary recipients of instruction students are in a unique position to offer their perspective on aspects of teaching such as: student-lecturer relationships, workload, difficulty of material, choice and availability of resources, what they have learned in the unit, fairness of assessment, and aspects of lecturing such as the lecturer's ability to communicate clearly, the speed of delivery and audibility.

Past students may also contribute useful retrospective comments on the teaching they experienced. Students can provide feedback at any time during the semester. Whatever the approach you use, what is important to discover from students about teaching is whether and how it promotes or inhibits their learning. You can then use these discoveries in combination with personal or peer reflective processes to enhance your teaching practice.

The examples of opportunities for feedback from students listed below are divided into two types: informal feedback activities and formal feedback activities. Informal feedback activities can be undertaken at any time during the semester and require little in the way of extra time and preparation. Formal feedback activities take a little more of your time and of your students' time and are more often undertaken at the end of semester.

For more information about the informal and formal feedback activities below, please go to "The Lens of our students" and go to the required page as indicated in the table below.

Informal Feedback from Students
Formal Feedback from Students
  • Informal chats - (Page 4)
  • One-minute paper - (Page 4)
  • Muddiest point methods - (Page 5)
  • Post-it notes
  • Critical Incident Questionnaire - (Page 6)
  • Checklists - (Page 7)
  • Chain notes - (Page 8)
  • Pictures of student experience - (Page 9)
  • Suggestion box - (Page 9)
  • Questionnaires - (Page 10)
  • Interviews and discussions - (Page 16)
  • Students Consulting on Teaching - (Page 21)
  • Evidence of student learning - (Page 22)
  • Subject representative - (Page 9)
  • Virtual discussions (twitter, blogs, webinars)
  • Moodle feedback resources

For further information:

Brennan, J. & Williams, R. (2004). Collecting and using student feedback. A guide to good practice. UK Learning and Teaching Support Network. Available at:
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase
/id352_collecting_and_using_student_feedback_a_guide_to_good_practice.pdf

Diamond, M. R. (2004). The usefulness of structured mid-term feedback as a catalyst for change in higher education classes. Active Learning, 5(3), pp. 217-231.

McCormack, C. (2003). Evaluating Your Teaching - The Lens of our Students. Centre for the Enhancement of Learning, Teaching and Scholarship, University of Canberra.

Quality Promotion Team, Unit for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (2004). The staff resource pack. Available at: http://www.kent.ac.uk/uelt/ced/themes/archive/files/feedback.pdf

Richardson, J. T. E. (2005). Instruments for obtaining student feedback: A review of the literature. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 30(4), pp. 387-415.



|For more information email - Coralie.McCormack@canberra.edu.au|