A customer feedback strategy has two main elements: gathering the feedback and taking action based on the feedback.
While many staff already collect student feedback at the end of semester using questionnaires and student group interviews, it is usually collected too late to allow staff to respond by implementing changes to improve the teaching of the students offering the feedback.
Staff who would like to be able to monitor their teaching during the semester in order to act immediately to improve their teaching might find collection of student feedback during the semester a useful strategy. As with all aspects of feedback and evaluation of teaching, it is useful to draw upon a range of different yet complementary sources of data.
While formal feedback strategies can be adapted to collect feedback during the semester, there are a range of strategies suitable for gathering informal feedback from students. Perhaps the most obvious way is to ask the students questions directly. If classes are small and interactive and there is mutual trust and respect on the part of the students and teachers, then posing questions directly to a class may be feasible. However, there is no scope for anonymity of student responses and some students may feel uncomfortable voicing less popular opinions in such a public manner. There are various strategies which have been developed to address these issues yet still permit quick and easy collection of feedback from students. Information on some of these is included in this section.