“From Diary Room to Board Room”

Using the Student Voice to Inform Institutional Practice and Policy to Enhance the Student

Experience

Nicola Poole - UWIC

Investigating the Student Experience

• Why?– Good teaching means seeing learning through the

learner’s eyes (Ramsden,1988)– HE is placing increasing focus on understanding the

student perspective not only to enhance learning and teaching but also to make strategic decisions around a whole range of issues

• How is it investigated at present?– NSS, End of Module Evaluation, Internal Surveys,

QAA

Questions Raised

• Are our students in danger of being over surveyed?

• Do students have the right to be involved in all stages of academic life including design and development?

• How do we get the findings across to a number of different audiences?

Diary Room

• Aim – To capture the Student Voice in an innovative

and engaging way– To provide information to be presented in a

new high impact way– To use the information to inform policy and

practice

• Ran over 4 campuses• Promoted in Student

Newspaper/Posters/Student Portal

• Student ambassadors used to circulate flyers on day

• Additional (optional) incentive of a prize draw

• Held end of first term – prior to Christmas break

• Consent form

Interface• Questions asked by a

laptop • Students responded

to the camera• Question also on

screen• Allowed diary room to

run without staff presence

Questions

• Centred around key issues that originated from the Learning and Teaching/Quality Enhancement Strategies– Assessment– Feedback– PDP– Personal Tutors

Analysis• Transcription from the video tapes• Qualitative analysis – thematically within

questions ( By School and Programme where possible)

• Follow up focus groups held – to test interpretations of the questions and responses

• Video Clips selected – provide palpable sense of student voice

Results• The method of allocating and introducing the

personal tutor is an area for further development

• Many preferred to have one to one feedback

• Many felt feedback was often received when it was too late to act on it

• Many students thought that the process they had gone through would be of use when they left

• Would like to have more tutorials

• Most knew of their student representative but didn’t really use them

• Students thought talks from external visitors helped, as did careers talks etc.

• Students liked to have smaller tests throughout out their course so they knew where they stood

Sound Clip

Dissemination of Results

• Reports to Learning &Teaching Boards

• Data – qualitative at school level to all Directors of Learning & Teaching to inform School Planning

• Presentation to Governors

• Meetings with School Student Representatives

• Article in ‘Retro’ student newspaper

Staff and Student Reaction• Staff

– Helped to inform and support other results e.g. NSS to specific School/Programme level

– People can’t argue when they see the students commenting in the flesh

• Student– Initially a little awkward but soon relaxed to

answer the questions– Good to have a different way to express our

opinions – good questions – time to think

Outcomes• Introduction of Personal Tutor Handbook• Allowed good practice examples to be

highlighted – e.g. formative assessment• Provided a method to create discussion, from

which action plans for improvement can be developed

• Diary Room Results Usage Form-ensuring results are used for Learning & Teaching Development and not Marketing

Future Developments• Next Diary Room to focus on ‘Student

Expectations• Staff Diary Room to be held at UWIC

Learning and Teaching Conference July 2008

• Creation of teaching pack/tool for staff development – used to facilitate discussion/understanding of the issues raised by the students