AUA Annual Conference 2021 Exhibitor Blog
EvaSys
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Now, more than ever, it’s critical for students to feel their voices are heard; by their lecturers, heads of school and by university leaders. Closing the student feedback loop at module level is a highly effective way to enable that two-way communication between student and institution – and, of course, provide a constructive framework to enable lecturers to reflect on and enhance their practice.

While many universities do take the time to request and collate student feedback on modules and courses, how many share results with the students and, even more importantly, provide commentary and reflection from module leaders back to individual students?

There’s a tool for that

Even with the greatest of intentions, it can be a little daunting, from a time-management standpoint alone, to facilitate individual responses to student feedback; however, an integrated digital approach can deliver the solution in a fraction of the time it would take manually.

So, the simplest way to close the student feedback loop at module level? Find a software solution that does all the heavy lifting for you.

Communication is a two-way process

You’re looking for a tool that digitises surveys and allows you to transform your approach to evaluation, enabling you to easily collect rich data that will provide actionable insights.   And it needs to facilitate instant feedback on the whole survey to all participants. Your solution needs to:

• Automatically provide overall survey outcomes directly to participants when a survey closes; this allows students to view their own experience against their peer group and understand whether their views are typical or not
• Enable module leaders to review and digest results, then easily provide commentary and reflections back to students; this could be anything from thanks for positive comments to communication on how any issues raised may be addressed

Both of the above make the conversation between students and university two-way, providing students with a sense of ownership in terms of module content and future direction. And this sense of ownership makes for engaged students, which is a driving force behind student wellbeing, success and retention.

Wait, there’s more

When you digitise module evaluation and close that feedback loop, the positives don’t end with consistency of approach and two-way communication with students.

Overall, the benefits of using a digital tool to run evaluation surveys and close the student feedback loop include:

• Increased student satisfaction and engagement (ultimately reflected through NSS)
• Timely reporting of survey results and actions to be taken
• Early warning of issues at module level
• Digital capture of rich data that can help to enhance teaching and learning delivery
• Open dialogue with students to allow collaborative improvements
• Improved response rates in survey completion
• Enhanced understanding for lecturers on the student experience
• Enriched relationships between lecturers and students
• Reduction in time spent creating, running and analysing evaluation surveys
• A consistent, institution-wide approach to module and course evaluation
• Provision of a framework to enable lecturers to genuinely reflect on their practice, and to make enhancements to improve the educational experience of future cohorts

Closing the student feedback loop makes students at your institution “active partners” in ensuring that teaching and learning delivery works well and continues to improve over time.  When their voices are heard, students feel more responsibility to continually provide feedback – reducing survey fatigue and driving up response rates.  Lecturers will understand more about the student perspective on specific modules, enhancing delivery and enriching their relationship with students through positive action as a result of feedback.

Make sure you stay in the loop

Creating an effective process for module evaluation that enables dialogue between student, module leader and the wider university is an ongoing project. Once you’ve started closing that feedback loop, you need to make sure that you keep on doing it.

And the simplest way to do this is to deploy a digital tool specifically designed for surveys, data collection and reporting.  Done well, digitising surveys and the student feedback loop boosts engagement and retention, reduces manual workload and sets in motion a cycle of evaluation that will ensure collaborative improvements to teaching and learning delivery for years to come.

EvaSys is proud to sponsor the AUA Annual Conference 2021.

EvaSys is the leading provider of module evaluation software to UK HE.  Working in close partnership with Universities, we offer efficient and effective solutions to close the loop on student evaluations.

EvaSys provides instant feedback reporting and a range of management reports for all stakeholders.  Closing the Loop features enable teaching staff to reflect efficiently and effectively on feedback and to respond directly to students through an integrated interface.

You can find more information about the organisation on the EvaSys website.