Course feedback as a course element 

When planning the course it is beneficial to take a look back at the previous feedback and reflect on the development needs of the course. The feedback practices for the course are planned: What kind of topics would give useful information during the course? And what would be the most practical way to collect feedback during the course?

In a nutshell:

1. Have a look at the feedback from the previous implementation, if possible, and make adjustments according to need and your own consideration. You can find your course feedback here. If the adjustments have already been planned and implemented after the previous course implementation, you can focus on steps 2 and 3.

2. Plan the feedback practices for the course: formulate the questions for the during-the-course feedback survey(s) and the end-of-course feedback survey. Choose the tool for collecting feedback during the course. 

3. Reserve time in your course schedule to inform your students about your feedback practices and to collect feedback. This is likely to result in a higher response rate. 

It is important to inform students about the previous feedback and the development actions based on the feedback. Sometimes it means justifying the choices made, explaining the choices to the students and sticking to them. In the beginning of the course it is also good to inform the students about how and why feedback will be collected during the course.  

A variety of tools can be used for collecting feedback during the course, e.g. Zoom poll, Presemo or feedback tools in MyCourses. An informal feedback discussion is also a great way to get feedback, but students should always have the possibility to choose an anonymous feedback channel. During the course it makes sense to choose topics that help support students during the course, while more holistic questions aiming at course development can be included in the survey at the end of the course.  

Feedback received from students leads to giving a response. That can be done for example orally in the beginning of a lecture or written on MyCourses, addressing some of the most important observations.

In a nutshell: 

1. Inform your students about the feedback practices: when and how. 
2. Add your course-related questions to the end-of-the-course survey when you get the link by email. 
3. Reserve time for collecting feedback and promote it. You only get the results of the survey if the number of respondents is 5 or higher. 
4. Respond to the feedback you get during the course. 

At the end of the course the fully automated feedback system sends the end-of-the-course feedback survey to the students. The teacher can add their own questions to this feedback survey, too. The survey is open to the students before the course ends, and you can have a look at the preliminary report as soon as there are five or more responses. You can discuss and comment on the feedback given already during the last lecture(s). This reminds and motivates other students to give feedback too. 

Reflect on the feedback given in order to develop your course and yourself as a teacher. Respond to final feedback after the course end e.g., in MyCourses or by email. This is rewarding to the students, and it strengthens the feedback culture at Aalto.