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8. Student feedback from teaching period I, autumn 2020

Last modified by kpalmgre@helsinki_fi on 2024/08/16 12:50

Student feedback was collected using e-lomake on the following courses:

  • Vuorovaikutukset ja kappaleet
  • Perusopintojen laboratoriotyöt I
  • Matemaattiset apuneuvot I
  • Mekaniikka (previously Analyyttinen mekaniikka)
  • Fysiikan matemaattiset menetelmät Ia
  • Introduction to Relativity theory
  • Electromagnetism

More info on e-lomake feedback system: see bottom of the page.

Some general notes on the feedback

Here are some common notes from the collected course feedback:

course information & communicating with students

Students should be clearly told that they are supposed to follow the course’s Moodle or home page. This should be emphasised especially with freshmen who might not be accustomed to remote studying.

The assessment criteria and exam arrangements of the course should be announced well in advance. The sooner the better.

sense of community on courses

The suggested organisation of remote exercise sessions (dividing students to breakout rooms) does not work, if activating students in breakout rooms is impossible. Assistants might need support in finding ways to activate students to discuss and solve exercise problems together.

Before dividing students to breakout rooms, there could be a short common introduction to the exercises. The idea is that everybody gets started and is not left alone pondering how to start solving problems.

The assistants who have taught in remote exercise sessions commented that for them dividing students to breakout rooms has worked very well.

If group work is used on the course, it demands teacher's attention more than in contact teaching. The instructions need to be very clear and students should be supported in organising their work evenly.

Many students have liked courses' Telegram chats. If teachers participate in Telegram discussion, it is especially appreciated. Though, the most effective and preferable situation is if students answer each other's questions and discuss together.

Unfortunately, looking at the feedback, it seems that students have not found ways to study together outside the teaching times. How could we support them to cooperate and study together?

workload

Especially in remote teaching, the workload of courses should be monitored closely. A course should not demand too much time and effort from students.

Also even distribution of the workload during the course should be ensured. For students, it is difficult to plan their studies if the workload fluctuates very much from week to week.

If the weekly schedule of a course is clear and well planned, in the best case scenario, it helps students to structure their (remote) studying also in general.

other

In remote teaching (and especially if there are no live online lectures), teachers should emphasise very clearly what topics are central on the course.

It would be advisable to try to activate students on live online lectures. In course feedback, students thanked especially Presemo questions used on lectures.

Students appreciate additional materials made/collected by teachers. However, it can be quite overwhelming if there is a lot of materials offered on the course. In this case, it should be clearly communicated what material is essential and what is only additional.

Many students ask for lecture recordings. Recording lectures might decrease student activity on the lectures – but the possibility to watch lectures afterwards is highly valued. It might be a good idea to discuss with students if they wish the lecture recordings to be made.

If students report problems in course arrangements, try to solve them and after that make sure to be in contact and double-check from students that the problem has been solved. In remote teaching, it can be difficult to know whether the situation improved for the students, as they may not feel comfortable asking several times, if they experience no improvement.

Feedback system

  • Small courses: through WebOodi (coordinated by Tiina Hasari; tiina.hasari(a)helsinki.fi)
  • Large courses: through Inkeri, Elina or Olli
    • e-lomake web form (https://elomake.helsinki.fi/)
    • A part of exercises, students get a couple of exercise points for responding
    • Response rate circa 80 %
    • Very thorough feedback. Useful if you want to develop your teaching or change something on your course.
    • Both qualitative and quantitative data.
    • Data are analysed by us and we present it to lecturers (and teaching assistants).
    • We can also help you developing your course; we have quite comprehensive data from courses from different years and a lot of experience in analysing them.
    • We response to the feedback so students see that the feedback is really analysed.
  • The idea is not to make everything perfect – in teaching good enough is enough!
  • Feedback is not used to grade lecturers (you can of course use that in applications etc. if you wish).
  • More info.

contact:

  • inkeri.kontro(a)helsinki.fi
  • elina.palmgren(a)helsinki.fi
  • olli.pakarinen(a)helsinki.fi