Interpretation of student feedback

At the University of Tartu, student feedback on courses and teaching has been in use for more than 20 years. Questionnaires have been changed, but the core idea of feedback has remained - to gather information on how students perceive teaching and learning environment.  

The last significant change in course feedback took place in 2018 when the developers of the new feedback questionnaire took into account research from the previous decade on learning and teaching in higher education. The focus was settled on the learning environment of the course, student engagement, and the perceived value of the course.   

To support the interpretation of student feedback, the guide “Teaching staff guide for interpreting the course feedback” has been compiled. In addition, there are monthly workshops “How to interpret course feedback”, and you can always discuss your feedback with an academic developer.   

Preliminary findings collected with the questionnaire are presented in the article (intranet) “First results of the University of Tartu new course feedback survey from the spring and autumn semesters of 2019”.