Unit Feedback
Introduction
Unit feedback provides an opportunity for meaningful communication with your students to find out what works and build on this success, as well as identifying areas for potential development, for your unit and other units to be delivered. This is an iterative process and you are encouraged to share what works and what works less well with your programme leader and fellow unit leaders.
Essentially, students need to know that their feedback is valued and it influences their future experiences (both on the unit and throughout their degree), so it is important that there is some mechanism for feedback and sharing of learning.
Unit feedback guidance
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Unit Feedback Process
Unit Feedback should occur around the mid-point of delivery of a unit of learning. The process should include some enquiry about the level of intellectual stimulation/academic challenge and also how they are experiencing their taught experience. This is a means to engage your students in discussions about their learning and teaching and for you to reflect upon this and make in semester improvements.
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Conducting the unit feedback process
Here are some suggestions about how you can conduct your unit feedback process.
Activity Details Stop, Start, Continue via post-it notes. You can frame this to include a consideration about the level of academic challenge and also how blended delivery is working. You could ask your students to:
- Identify aspects of the unit that are not working for them (stop).
- Generate ideas about how the unit can be developed in some way (start).
- Reflect on what is working (continue).
One minute papers Give your students one minute at the end of the live session to write down the answer to a specific question. See are Active Learning Activities resource for more information. A round table conversation Identify a point in your session where you can simply talk to students about their experience.
As there are numerous surveys and questionnaires that students will be asked to complete, doing this electronically is not appropriate - this should be a ‘conversation’ with your students.
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Review and action planning
Once you have conducted the exercise, you can then consider your students’ feedback, respond to their comments clarifying any points, and communicate the actions you will be taking in response to their suggestions. Your UTA academic link is happy to discuss your ideas about developing your unit in response to unit feedback, if this would be helpful. It is also an opportunity to have mutually supportive conversations with your colleagues in the programme team to discuss and share ideas, perhaps as part of peer support for teaching.
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Feedback to Students
The final stage of the process involves a prompt communication with your students to let them know how their feedback has influenced the future direction of the unit. For example, you could post their comments and your response on Moodle and then talk with them at the start of the next session to explain the actions you will take and why some suggestions are not possible to action and the reasons why. Finally, you can reflect on your experiences to inform the planning process for your next unit feedback exercise. The final stage of this process is to communicate the key themes which emerge from this process to your Departmental Education Lead, so that best practice can be quickly identified and shared; similarly, if you are discovering that some activities or approaches are working less well, please communicate that, so that others can benefit from your experience.
Unit feedback contact
Unit feedback contact
If you have further questions about unit feedback, please contact Orlagh McCabe. Click on Orlagh’s profile card for more details.