The principles of feedback in education at Aalto University guide collecting and utilising student feedback. The goal is to support the active development of our feedback culture at Aalto so that we have interactive, impactful and streamlined feedback processes. Teachers can use these principles both to support the development of feedback practices in their teaching, as well as when discussing the feedback theme with their students. As a part of tenure track promotion teachers’ ability to actively collect and utilise student and collegial feedback in developing teaching is also assessed (Tenure track evaluation criteria | Aalto University).
We wish to promote an open feedback culture and the reciprocity of feedback. We give feedback in a direct and constructive manner. We respond to the feedback we receive. We discuss feedback with students. We gather feedback from several viewpoints, from an extensive range of actors.
Feedback results in the development and evolvement of operations. We collect feedback in as real-time as possible, in a way that genuinely enables us to process and benefit from the feedback. When giving feedback, we consider how it could be used for the development of operations. We monitor the development that is carried out based on feedback.
We collect comprehensive feedback on multiple levels. Giving feedback is easy, and it is a part of every process. Our feedback portfolio is student-oriented and clear. The feedback we give promotes students’ learning and supports the development of teaching.
Course development is a continual process, as it occurs both during the course and after it. After each course, student feedback is automatically collected via an electronic feedback system.
Teachers are also warmly encouraged to collect feedback on their teaching & students' learning during the actual course. For instance, it is particularly valuable to collect feedback on the perceived workload of students during the course.
Course feedback is collected via a system based on the Webropol online survey tool. The system retrieves course information from Sisu and creates a feedback survey to Webropol based on the Sisu information. At the end of the course, the system emails the students a link to respond to the survey. The system is administered by the Teacher services / LES.
The teacher receives an e-mail message from the system three weeks before the end of the course and before the survey is made public to the students. By following the link in the message, the teacher can add course-specific questions to the survey to develop the course.
Aalto questions (Wiki), four items, are asked in all courses. In addition to the Aalto questions, there are also school-specific questions as a default in each feedback survey.
A feedback questionnaire is sent automatically to those registered for the course. When the survey has closed and if a minimum of 5 students have answered, the teacher gets a feedback report via e-mail. In addition, summary reports for the leadership are created twice a year.
Aside from the official course feedback, teachers may collect feedback for their teaching in many other ways. Feedback collected during the course makes it possible to develop the teaching even during the course.
Regarding giving feedback to the students on their own performance, please see:
After the course, the teacher should analyse student feedback, compare it to his or her own experience, and prepare a development plan for the course.
Below you can find some questions to help in the analysis and development:
Changesnot requiring changing the course description can be made at the discretion of the teacher. Such changes include changes to the duration of a lecture series or instructions for a specific assignment. Part of the changes (such as lecture series information and detailed information) are written into the syllabus which has to be published three weeks before the course starts.
Careful and strategic degree-programme design and long-range planning of resources can avoid having to make changes to the curriculum in the middle of the two-year period. But in some cases, making the changes is justified. For more information, please see cases where changes to a valid curriculum are justified.
AllWell? survey studies how students are doing with their studies in their second bachelor's and first master's years. Students receive personal feedback and programme directors the programme level results of the questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of parts taken from the HowULearn developed at the University of Helsinki and rounded off with supplementary questions.
The Finnish Bachelor’s Graduate Survey is a national student feedback survey. The objective of the questionnaire is to yield information on teaching and learning in different disciplines and to form as specific an idea as possible of students’ experiences and opinions of teaching and learning.
The survey is based on the HowULearn survey and the questions in the questionnaire are based on research on academic teaching and learning. The results will only be examined statistically at the group level. Therefore, the information gathered on individual students will not be monitored or reported.
Responsibility for the development and implementation of the questionnaire lies with Universities Finland UNIFI.
Aalto uses the results of the survey to develop its operations. As of 2015, the Ministry of Education and Culture distributes annually 3% (approx. €50 million) of its university core funding based on this student feedback survey.
Since 2011, Finnish universities and Academic Engineers and Architects in Finland (TEK) have conducted a survey of newly graduated Masters of Science in technology and architecture. The survey encompasses all Finnish university units that provide education in the technology field, reaching almost every recent graduate with an MSc (Tech) or architecture degree. Response rates have been high – the rate from the graduating class of 2015 was over 70%. Owing to the high response, the survey has yielded reliable comparative information about the quality of education in Finnish universities of technology.
The survey is also an inventory of the skill levels of those who will shape tomorrow’s world. It also tells about how well the study system is running, the experiences of alumni in the workplace, the current employment situation and the general level of satisfaction with the degrees alumni have completed. Survey results are put to use in TEK activities in a number of ways, for example, they are factored into education policies and the development of member services (incl. career advice and consultation on salary levels). The universities use the results in developing results-based indicators that are applied to the work of designing the curriculum and evaluating the quality of teaching.
Aalto University School of Business and the Finnish Business School Graduates organisation gather feedback on study and employment matters from the graduating business students. The responses are handled confidentially and cannot be linked to individual respondents. The feedback given is used to assess university operations and development and to follow the employment rates and salary levels of graduates. The students are to fill in the questionnaire before receiving their degree certificate.
ISB is a global student survey that focuses on the perceptions and expectations of international students. Its results are used to improve international students’ experience of studying abroad and to develop student recruitment and marketing. The International Student Barometer survey is conducted by i-graduate.
A national career monitoring survey is conducted by Career Services of Finnish Universities. The target group in the Master's survey is alumni who graduated five years ago and in the Doctoral survey alumni who graduated three years.
The survey provides current information from the working life that can be utilized in the development of teaching and research. Additionally, students who are still deciding on their studies and job opportunities value the information gained from the career paths of graduates.
For more information: https://www.aalto.fi/en/collaboration/aalto-university-graduates-in-working-life
With the help of the annual study well-being questionnaire AllWell?, we gain research-based knowledge for planning actions for pedagogical development. The summaries of the results, regarding each programme/department, are delivered to the Programme heads and Deans.
Instructions for teachers what to notice before the course, during the course and after it.
This article offers information on course practicalities for teachers.
Curriculum design follows the Aalto University strategy as well as the strategic action plans of the Aalto schools. Here you can find more information about the strategy, policies and practical guidelines.
