Methods for gathering student feedback

Different sources of information can be used to get feedback on your teaching. Obtaining feedback from students is important because their perception of the teaching methods impacts directly on their learning experience. Feedback can be informal or formal.

Informal feedback

can be obtained from anecdotal comments and questions during teaching sessions. However, specific methods for gathering feedback can also be used. For example:

Stop, Start, Continue - What do you want me to continue' doing? What do you want me to start doing? What do you want me to stop doing? Answers to these questions can be written anonymously on post-it notes, or students could write on a whiteboard. Also, you or a colleague could facilitate a brief class discussion and record responses;

ask students specific questions, such as, how well did that video demonstrate how to make ...?

a suggestion box where written suggestions can be left anonymously;

focus groups - questions and a discussion about how specific strategies are working. Students could do this with a class representative recording their responses while you are out of the room.

Formal student evaluations

these can be evaluations about your teaching - teaching evaluations - and also about how the course is run - course evaluations. Most organisations have systems in place for gathering this information, generally using surveys.

• Find out from a colleague how to organise a formal evaluation for a course or your teaching.

A formal inquiry or evaluation process

is another way to collect feedback from students. A resource called A tertiary practitioner's guide to collecting evidence of learner benefit was developed by Anne Alkema for Ako Aotearoa. It has lots of useful information and tips about gathering evidence to evaluate teaching. The booklet can be downloaded here.

The whole point of self-evaluating your teaching practice is to make improvements so that your students have the best learning experiences that you can offer. If students are happy, they'll tell others about the course, and if they perform well in your programme they may well get employment! What more do we want as teachers?

Activity

Decide on a method to gather informal feedback. What method will you use to gather informal feedback about your teaching strategies and the learning environment? When will you do this and how? Explain the context and what is involved. Outline your plan for gathering informal student feedback. Include the method you will use, along with when it will occur and how you will collect the data. (Up to 150 words.) Post to your portfolio and share on the Moodle forum. Give feedback to at least one other person on the forum or directly on their portfolio.