Making use of course feedback and reports

Course feedback reports for teachers

Making use of course feedback

One of the key tasks of a teacher is to make use of the course feedback that either they collect themselves or Aalto University automatically collects for each course. It is possible and desirable to ask for feedback during the course and make adjustments accordingly even during the course. The end-of-course feedback gives the teacher, on the one hand, a chance to develop the course at different levels, usually during later implementations of the course, and on the other, tools for curriculum design. As a general rule, teachers are encouraged to make any necessary changes to the course that do not require changing the course description. 

Read more about the curriculum design practices at Aalto University.

Below are some questions to help in analysing and developing your course:

• How successful was the course implementation? 
• Did the students attain the learning outcomes set and at what level? 
• How did the teaching and studying methods further the attainment of the learning outcomes? 
• How did the key content and study materials support learning? 
• How did the evaluation methods support learning and the assessment of learning? 
• How did the students perceive the course workload? 
• Which activities did the students experience as inclusive and how could such experiences be further developed?

At Aalto, reviewing feedback, reflecting on it and considering further development measures are primarily the responsibility of the teacher in charge of the course (responsible teacher in Sisu). Depending on the school and programme, feedback may also be processed as a collaborative effort. When you have processed the student feedback on your course, make sure to inform the students of at least the most important observations and planned development actions.

Reports in the MyCourses course feedback tool

Teachers find the feedback reports of their recent courses in the course feedback tool. The MyCourses course feedback tool offers teachers a basic report on the responses to the feedback survey when at least five students have responded to it. On some courses with few participants, the form includes a question where the students are asked if they consent to the processing of their feedback even if less than five students give feedback on the same course. In those cases, the teacher can view the feedback of only those students who gave their permission, while the answers of all other students will only be visible if the limit of five respondents is exceeded. The reports are available for as long as the course workspace is available in MyCourses. 

When submitting the feedback to the students, the system automatically publishes a report on the students’ responses to the multiple-choice questions and sends it to the students. The responses to the open-ended questions are excluded from the report.

Course data for teachers (Power BI)

The end-of-course feedback is automatically transferred to the data repository as soon as the survey closes. However, any mid-course feedback is not stored in the data repository. Teachers can view their course feedback for the last five years in the Course data for teachers report view. Combining real-time observations with information obtained from the previous years’ courses allows teachers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the effectiveness of their teaching and gives them a chance to modify their teaching to meet the needs of the students.

Go to the Course data for teachers report (Course data for teachers > Course feedback).

The rights to access the course feedback data and the visibility of the various reports is automatically filtered on the basis of the teacher information recorded in Sisu.

Course feedback reports for leadership

Making use of course feedback

According to legislation, Finland’s universities must ‘evaluate their education, research and artistic activities and the effectiveness thereof’ (Universities Act, 558/2009). Course feedback is used particularly for evaluating and developing the quality of teaching and education. For that reason, course feedback is handled not only by teachers, but also by their supervisors and other department managers, programme directors, the heads of majors, working groups for developing the teaching provided through the programmes, the deans and the vice deans, and employees in Aalto’s service operations. Course feedback may be processed only by persons whose job descriptions include such tasks, because it includes personal data of both students and teachers. If necessary, the course feedback contact persons at the Learning Services of each school will provide advice on how to use the feedback. Below you will find a description of the most commonly used reports for leadership. 

Degree programme report tool (Power BI)

The degree programme report tool supports the monitoring and evaluation of programmes and majors and allows keeping track of students’ academic progress. Access rights to this web-based Power BI cloud service, which is accessible on the Aalto network or through MFA-identification, are available to degree programme directors, heads of majors and other relevant school and Learning Services staff.

Read more about the degree programme report tool.

Go to the degree programme report tool (Degree programme report tool > Quality > Course feedback).

Department dashboard (Power BI)

The comprehensive report aimed for the department leadership, Department dashboard, includes several individual reports, also concerning course feedback. The use and content of the dashboard are limited based on responsibilities.

Go to the Department dashboard (Department dashboard > Education > Course feedback).

Tailored or on-demand reports

Management Information Services, MIS, may also produce tailored reports on course feedback upon request. Such reports may be requested by the teacher's supervisor or by employees whose job descriptions include organising or developing teaching. You can contact MIS by email at [email protected].

Course feedback reports for everyone at Aalto

Aalto Key Information (Power BI)

The Aalto Key Information reports contain KPI indicators and other key figures on Aalto University teaching, research, staff and funding. The reports are available in the Power BI service. 

As regards course feedback, the reports present the results of the shared Aalto questions, excluding the responses to the open-ended questions. Results may be viewed by school or department. 

Go to the Aalto Key Information tool (Aalto Key Information > Education > Course feedback).

Instructions for processing feedback

When processing course feedback, you must take into account the Aalto policy on processing the student feedback, the guidelines for data protection and processing of personal data, as well as the Aalto University Code of Conduct.

Read more on the policy on processing student feedback.

Read more about data protection and personal data processing at Aalto University.

Learn about the Aalto Code of Conduct and especially its fifth pillar: Our responsibility for information and data.

You should also keep in mind the following:

• Collect feedback on processes and activities (e.g. teaching and evaluation methods, exercises, content of teaching, teaching events), not on individual persons and their characteristics (students, teachers, visitors or course assistants). This promotes constructive feedback and helps to reduce discriminatory and inappropriate feedback. This will also minimise the accumulation of personal data.
• Do not save feedback reports on your computer, as it will increase the risk of the maximum retention time set for the data being exceeded.
• Before forwarding any reports, please check that the recipient is allowed to process course feedback.
• You can share your course feedback with students and respond to the feedback. You should not, however, publish feedback that allows the identification of individual respondents.
• You can discuss course feedback with your supervisor or colleague. The teacher's supervisor and the departmental supervisor have the right to see teachers’ course feedback, including the parts that are considered to contain personal data. Your colleagues cannot see your feedback unless you share it with them.