Post on 15-Jul-2015
Engaging students by closing the feedback loop
www.unitu.co.uk
BY ANISH BAGGA
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What does ‘closing the feedback loop’ mean?
Why has it become so important?
Students provide feedback.
Staff show students how they’ve acted on it.
Closing the feedback loop
…devise effective ways of communicating to students when and where their feedback has been acted upon…This is often referred to as
'closing the feedback loop’.“ ”QAA, Chapter B5: Student Engagement
✓ Students must be able to raise issues that are important to them;
✓ There must be an assessment of what is important as well as satisfactory;
✓ There must be an explicit action cycle with clear structures for delegating responsibility for change and for providing feedback on action to students.
Lecky & Neill (2012) - Quantify quality: The importance of student feedback
Rowley (1995) - “Student feedback: a shaky foundation for quality assurance.”
Gathering relevant, representative and useful student opinion is a
necessary part of the quality assurance process. “ ”
CLOSING THE FEEDBACK LOOP WILL BUILD
STRONG ACADEMIC COMMUNITIES OF
TRUST AND TRANSPARENCY.
WE BELIEVE….
CLOSING THE FEEDBACK LOOP IS RARE
Harvey (1999) - “The sense in satisfaction.”“ ”
Powney (1998) - “Closing the Loop: The impact of student feedback on students’ subsequent learning.”“ ”
There is a degree of cynicism among students as they rarely get any information
about the consequences of feedback and this, in turn, can contribute to the
difficulty of getting students to engage in the process of quality assurance.
How does your institution close the feedback loop?
What challenges are you facing?
Electing more student reps
Hacking their own solutions
Creating more surveys
Hiring more specialist staff
SURVEYS
SRS
DISENGAGED STUDENTS
How can we overcome these challenges?
Dept. X Dept. Y
Faculty
University Wide
Dept. X Dept. Y
Faculty
TIMELY. RELEVANT. PERSONAL. CONTINOUS. INFORMATIVE
Students and staff collectively raise and resolve issues in real time.
Students can give feedback and raise issues at any time.
Reps can provide representative and unbiased feedback to staff.
Staff can instantly show students how they’ve acted on their issues.
Management can benchmark student satisfaction across departments at any time during the academic year.
BETA
Student engagement
The environment
Representational structures
Training and ongoing support
Informed conversations
Valuing the student contribution
Monitoring, review and continuous improvement
Engaging students by closing the feedback loop (Case studies)
Students provides feedback
Students engage with feedback
Staff act on feedback
Student Engagement