Abstract:

Student assessment of satisfaction with courses is important in the context of quality assurance in higher education. Although the literature recognises surveys as a dominant collection method for student feedback, different forms of qualitative student feedback may also be found. However, the effects of student qualitative feedback on further course improvement has not been much discussed to date. This paper presents the results of student end-of-course qualitative feedback in the undergraduate course, Informatics Services Management, along with discussion about potential course improvements based on those results. The course is organized with respect to the principles of problem-based learning and work-based learning. In order to identify course strengths and weaknesses, student motivation and satisfaction with teaching methods and acquired skills and knowledge, students were asked to write a brief review (about 500 words / one A4 page) on their own work and progress within this course, as well as to indicate their course satisfaction and potential course improvements.

When writing a review, they were asked to address the following issues:
• What is your motivation for this subject and the content it includes?
• How satisfied are you with the acquired knowledge and skills? Which of them are most useful for your future studies and career development?
• How satisfied are you with the methods of laboratory exercise work? Do you have any ideas for improvement?
• How satisfied are you with the teamwork and contributions of some team members of your project tasks?
• How much time and effort have you invested in this course and what were the most exciting tasks/activities?
• To what extent are you satisfied with the final outcome (project) you have done within the course?

Altogether 162 student reflections, based on six defined questions from the academic year 2018/2019, were analysed for this study. The present study resulted in five main course areas for potential improvements which had not been obtained by the previous quantitative course evaluation: reflecting on students’ feedback; enhancing students’ motivation for the course; revising course content and workload; ensuring continuity in student assessment and teaching students teamwork. Even though certain study limitations are recognised, the proposed qualitative feedback form has been shown to be a useful method to provide teachers with deeper insight into students’ views on potential course improvements.

Keywords:

Qualitative feedback, end-of-course reflection, student reflection, course improvement.