Student Feedback

Feedback is a critical part of courses in general, but especially for Olin courses. Olin students are so wired at this point to give feedback that if you don’t provide an avenue to do so, they’ll probably just shout criticisms from outside your dorm room.

 

So when thinking about feedback, think about enacting a structure that will allow students to generate feedback semi-regularly. If you wish to have feedback more often, you should probably either allot a time block during class time to complete it, or have it be a fraction of how they are assessed for the class. Also consider the benefits of qualitative versus quantitative feedback. With a larger class, it might be burdensome to sift through multiple short-answer feedback responses. Quantitative feedback is definitely less granular and less specific (also highly individualized despite attempting to have a consistent metric) but is more efficiently parsed. A happy medium would incorporate both of these techniques.

 

Which - is what we did! Specifically, we made the use of feedback surveys (hosted by our favorite search engine, Google). We also incorporated larger feedback sessions in the middle of the semester (during class) and end of the semester (survey).

 

Not all feedback needs to be utilized in the class. As the adage goes, “you can’t make everybody happy”. After all, you are students, and there is a limit to how much you can change. However, addressing feedback is important - or, “feedback on the feedback.” It’s a helpful technique so that students know that their efforts in contributing to feedback sessions or surveys are not moot. And if there is something you want to change but don’t have the wherewithal, that can be considered a long-term delta.

 

Finally, it has always been the case that students might not wish to share their feedback with you directly. Fortunately, this is where your content advisor can help - encouraging students to bring up issues with your faculty advisor can put some distance between them and you and allow them to express themselves more honestly.