Supercharge Student Engagement through Feedback

Higher education institutions are facing an engagement dilemma and tips to increase student engagement has become a hot topic. Many have conducted studies and have found that giving feedback to students leads to engagement. According to ASCD (the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development), “setting objectives and providing feedback has a statistically significant effect on student learning (causing a 23 percentile point gain in learning)”. While giving students feedback may increase engagement, is the opposite true? Will engagement increase if students give feedback to their instructors? We think so and here’s why:

• Shows you care

  Instructors who actively seek feedback on their teaching effectiveness show that they are invested in their students’ learning. It’s true that caring is contagious. When an instructor shows that he or she cares about a course, students are also more likely to be concerned. Research suggests that “few factors in education have a greater impact on a student’s educational experience than a caring relationship with his or her teacher”.

• Caters to needs

  Instructors are able to enhance their teaching effectiveness by acting on the feedback they receive from their students. Feedback helps instructors determine what to continue doing, what to start doing and what to stop doing. Engagement naturally increases when instructors cater lectures to student needs, preferences and expectations.

• Fosters an improvement cycle

  Studies have found that students “are not inclined to give extensive feedback because they believe it will have no effect on the ultimate target of teaching”. This will change as students witness first-hand their feedback being used in the classroom and they will be more compelled to offer more feedback. Improvement will become a part of the culture, whereby learning and teaching is continuously raised.

Now that we have established that feedback has an impact on engagement, you may be wondering how to gather effective feedback from your students. Here are a few tips to guide you:

1. Change students’ beliefs about feedback

   As mentioned, students often believe that providing feedback will have no impact on their current situation. Change your students’ beliefs by explaining that you will be responding to feedback and making changes during the course of the semester to improve their learning experience.

2. Communicate what constitutes effective feedback

   Not all students know how to give constructive feedback. Explain what makes effective feedback. Highlight that feedback should: (1) be specific with concrete examples, (2) point out the good and the bad, (3) avoid emotionally charged words and (4) offer alternatives or recommendations.

3. Explain when and where to give feedback

   Explain to students when and where you will collect feedback. It can be difficult to come up with constructive feedback with little notice. Students will be able to give better feedback when they have had time to think about the questions beforehand.

4. Collect feedback regularly

   Building on the last point, collect feedback regularly. Feedback quality will improve over time and the regular timing ensures that students can prepare. Using a social, online platform to collect real-time feedback is great because it taps into students’ daily routine of social sharing and ensures that there is a steady pulse of student feedback.