Encourage students to share feedback

One of the most effective ways to encourage student involvement is to show that their feedback will have a tangible impact. You can do this by describing or showing evidence of previous changes that have come from student input.

An effective way to do this is by wrapping it in a memorable anecdote or personal reflection – a short story that gives students an ‘anchor’ for the idea. This can motivate students who do have something to say to make their voice heard through the surveys.

If you’re running the course for the first time and don’t have a context-specific example to share, think about what you can demonstrate from previous experiences when you have used feedback to change practice as part of your work. 

The Early Feedback Survey (EFS) may be the best time to encourage responses as you are offering students the opportunity to benefit directly from any changes made, in a reasonably short timeframe. In contrast, the SFS asks students to offer feedback which will benefit future students, but not necessarily themselves, and therefore may not be as motivating.

Be clear with students that their feedback is important, that you are responsive and open to change. Your attitude shows students that you value their input and that their time on this is well spent.

In order to encourage considered opinions which will inform future cohorts, we need to support students in thinking and reflecting on their learning experience.

You can help students to articulate experiences and opinions by framing relevant questions or prompts. When you introduce the surveys, it’s helpful to briefly unpack the questions and highlight the kinds of things students could comment on:

“How did you feel about the lectures? Were they useful? Did you find them easy or hard to follow? What would make them more helpful?“

This sort of unpacking also indicates openness to change; in the case of the example above, you are giving students permission to tell you that they might have found something less than helpful.

When using prompts like these, bear in mind that these may influence the focus and content of students’ answers. Be conscious of the language and examples you use, and take them into consideration during interpretation. Ultimately, the benefits of more thoughtful feedback from your students are likely to outweigh any impact from ‘leading’ questions.

Thinking, evaluating and then articulating those thoughts in an open text box demands a greater effort than ticking a row of check boxes. You can validate and encourage this additional effort by emphasising to students the high level of value behind their written answers.

Consider different ways to communicate this when you ask for their input to the surveys, for example by sharing an example of a student comment (anonymised) from a previous survey that helped you see something differently and make a change.

While you can suggest to students that their feedback will be responded to with useful change for them in the future, you can also give them some particularly special information at this point as an invitation to return the favour. Students appreciate your experience and knowledge of your domain/industry, so you might offer them a story from your personal experience – perhaps a hint about the industry, or something with an amusing element that you can use as a bridge to the feedback request.

The best form of something like this can be a past situation where you learned the importance of gaining and responding to feedback, which then allows for a connection back to the matter of feedback. For example:

When I was working [in that role/ industry] I did things in a certain way and a [awkward/ difficult/ amusing situation emerged]. From that I learnt the importance of doing things in a different way/checking in to make sure that I was doing things the right way. That’s one of the reasons I really appreciate any new perspectives you can offer me in your feedback responses.

Showing fallibility as part of a story such as this is another element here that reinforces your interest in, and openness to change.