Quantitative feedback - Numbers-based feedback that helps to demonstrate that the opinions you are sharing are held by a large majority! You will gather this feedback by asking closed questions, which are questions that just require a one-word response, e.g. ‘yes or no’, ‘agree/disagree/neither agree nor disagree’.
Qualitative feedback - Words-based feedback that helps to illustrate what the specific issue is that students are having, how it’s impacting them, and how they might like it to be resolved. This feedback is gathered through open questions, which allow the person responding to provide a lot more detail about how they feel/think about a subject.
When collecting feedback, avoid asking leading questions. These are questions are suggestive of a particular desired answer. E.g., Instead of asking, “how much did you enjoy your course rep training?” you should ask, “how did you find your course rep training?”
Group chats: You may have course group chats created already, and you can also make these easily on MS Teams using your university account.
Shout-outs in lectures: Ask your lecturer for 5 minutes before/after a lecture to collect feedback. This is a great way to get quantitative feedback through a show of hands.
Online surveys: These are useful as they allow students to share both quantitative and qualitative feedback with you in their own time, outside of lectures and seminars. They may also allow students to submit feedback anonymously. You have access to Microsoft Forms
Noticeboards: Departments often have notice boards, which you can ask to post on!
Catch-ups/drop-ins: You can always have drop-in sessions with people on your course! You could host these online,
Email: You can always send emails to your year group via your university email address!
Writing up Feedback: the ABCDEs Checklist
You can use the ABCDEs checklist to make sure your feedback is correctly representative of students in your cohort. before writing up and submitting your feedback, be sure to check:
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Is the feedback Accurate & Appropriate? –It is important that the feedback you share is accurate to what you were given and is appropriate to share in the space.
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Is the feedback Balanced? - Seek to understand the experiences of students from different backgrounds and try different approaches to enable all students to feel comfortable in sharing their views about the course.
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Is the feedback Constructive? - Seek to understand what is working well alongside what could be improved.
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Is the feedback De-Personalised? - Avoid naming individual students or staff.
Where Should I Report Feedback?
As a general rule, if your feedback is about your course or academic experience, it's appropriate to submit to a Falmouth SSLG/ Exeter SSLC meeting. However, you may receive feedback that doesn't feel entirely relevant to your SSLG/SSLC. You can use the flowchart below to check that you are taking feedback to the right place:
Please note, this flowchart should only be used for feedback that impacts a significant number of your course. If the feedback being raised to you is only impacting a small number of students or is a personal issue, you can signpost these students to the appropriate services to support them.
Academic and Non-Academic Feedback
As a rep, your primary job is to collect academic feedback to take to your course team. However, you may also still receive feedback on non-academic issues that are impacting your cohort. You can find more examples and information on academic vs. non-academic feedback below:
Examples of Academic Feedback
The SSLG/SSLC meetings you attend with academic staff are intended to discuss any feedback students have about their course, subject area or academic department. The following topics are examples of typical feedback you might take to Falmouth SSLGs/Exeter SSLCs:
- Teaching, e.g. course/module content
- Timetabling issues and concerns
- Learning resources, e.g. library, stores, IT resources
- Assessment and feedback
- Personal tutoring
- Student-led projects and events
- The overall effectiveness of Falmouth SSLGs/Exeter SSLCs and the actions of the department and The SU in response to it
Examples of Non-Academic Feedback
Any feedback you collect from your course cohort that relates to non-academic topics impacting your wider student experience such as accommodation, parking on campus, non-academic events on campus, etc., isn’t really appropriate to bring to meetings with academic staff, as they usually aren’t able to respond directly to the problem. There are various ways you can address non-academic feedback:
Make a Change - If you have an idea or campaign about how to change things for the wider student community, you can submit it on our make a change platform for other students to vote on.
Sabbatical Officers - Alternatively, if you have a pressing issue impacting the student community that you're not sure how to resolve, you can get in touch with your
Sabbatical Officer team. If you'd like to contact one of your sabbatical officers, simply
send them an email!
Closing the Feedback Loop
It is incredibly important that after every meeting you let your course mates know:
- What feedback you brought to be discussed in the meeting.
- How staff intend to respond to this feedback; what actions were agreed, and when will students see the results of these actions?
You can do this in the same way you may have gathered feedback, for instance;
- Ask to speak about SSLG/SSLC feedback at the start or end of a lecture, seminar or course meeting.
- Share the feedback to students' university emails - you could potentially get an update added to your department newsletter if they have one.
- Send a quick update to your course group chat.
- Post any updates on noticeboards in your department.
Closing the feedback loop is a requirement of your role as a Representative. If students don’t know how staff intend to make changes, they can’t hold staff accountable for those changes!
Need More Help?
If you're in need of further support with collecting, writing up or reporting feedback, get in touch with us at StudentVoice@thesu.org.uk.