“During my first year at SSEES, the feedback we received was very unorganised and unclear. We worked with the department to create a standardised feedback form in order for it to be as helpful as possible to students.”
– An SSEES Rep
“The biggest achievement of our SSCC meetings was convincing the teachers to change their feedback sheets, which we were asked to fill out at the end of our modules. We suggested a better model would be (as some teachers already do) to ask for feedback mid-way through the module, so students could see the results of their suggestions. We have been told that teachers will now be encouraged to do this.”
– Hebrew and Jewish Studies Rep
“I created an anonymous electronic feedback platform, where students could raise issues and concerns, they have with regards to teaching, mental health etc.”
– Laws Rep
“Many people on my course were unhappy about the extreme differences in their grades so I helped liaise with staff. All papers were re-graded and a more objective standard of grading was implemented.”
– School of Management Rep
“One of our modules was graded in a way that many students felt was not appropriate. After speaking to my department about this matter they showed me email exchanges with the person responsible for the module where it was stated that unless the grading was changed the module could no longer be one of the electives for our course. I was happy to see that this issue had been dealt with.”
– Engineering Rep
“I was able to get provisional grades released before the July examination board even though the admin team had not previously been willing to do so.”
– Engineering Rep
“By meeting with our Head of Department and the Dean of the Faculty, we were able to get the department to release grades for an exam that had not been released. We also asked staff to release summary statistics for assignments so we could know where we stood in comparison to the rest of the class. This has now been raised with the faculty and will be done.”
– Engineering Rep
“As a rep, I helped to change exam feedback. In an exam with four essays, we were given four grades. However, we could not be told what the questions were for the grades we got due to questions being in a pool for future years. I highlighted that it was useful to know which topics people did/didn’t do well in, in order to improve. From this, we are now told the lecture/topic that each question came from.”
– IOE Rep
“My fellow reps and I raised the issue of inappropriate essay feedback at our SSCC meeting. This was taken very seriously as it was a deeply and widely felt issue. I then worked with a member of staff from the department to gather evidence and build a case, and then we were able to revise the feedback and discuss how it could be made more objective and standardised in the future.”
– Biosciences Rep
“The students I represent had an issue with a particular piece of coursework from our Research Project module - I was able to discuss these with the module lead and feedback sessions were arranged afterwards.”
– Medical Sciences and Engineering Rep
"I was able to raise an issue of feedback on summer exams being not available to students. This was raised during SSCC meeting in October. The general feedback on the essay questions from some BIOL modules was made available to students who wished to see this."
– Biological Sciences Rep
"An issue, which was shared amongst a large number of my peers, was the PGTA advice which we received as part of Engineering Challenge 2, as well as how we were being graded. We felt like different PGTAs gave different advice, which really slowed some teams from progressing with their work. At the end of the challenge, every team had to give a presentation about their work. We were all given guidance on what to include and what not to include in the presentation, however a lot of teams shared that they had been penalised for not including certain information, which we were instructed to avoid. To resolve this issue, the other course rep and myself spoke to the professor, who organised the challenge. After having a discussion about our concerns, he assured us there will be an increase in moderation in relations to both the marking of our presentations, as well as how the PGTAs interact with us."
– Electronic and Electrical Engineering Rep
"I worked with the Head of Teaching to make progress on student feedback mechanisms (...) the department has recently launched the Anthropology Student Hub, with a ‘You Said, We Did’ page to showcase the actions taken in response to student feedback, as well as tutors’ responses to Opinio surveys after students suggested a more open forum for seeing feedback. Furthermore, a small group teaching working group comprised of both staff and students was formed in order to develop a best practice tutorial model
– Anthropology Rep
"Some students were concerned about not getting enough feedback on assignments. This was discussed during an SSCC meeting and staff told us of appropriate points of contact for us in order to get additional feedback when necessary."
– Medicine Rep
"One issue was the feedback time for assignments were lengthy. This was raised to the department and feedback were provided within four weeks, and in some cases, within three weeks."
– Built Environment Rep
"One major change we saw across modules this year was improvements in feedback-giving. My cohort brought up concerns that formative assessments were provided with the bare minimum of feedback, stating that they wanted a numerical grade as well as more personalised comments to improve their work. We brought this up at an SSCC, resulting in numeric grades being given and more detailed feedback. This can still be improved for the future."
– Epidemiology and Healthcare Rep
"One example is the expansion of informal 'mid-module rep meetings' between module course reps and module leads. I suggested this in the 2018/19 academic year and trialled it with the avidly supportive module lead for the MMB module. It proved to be effective in sharing specific Unitu feedback, addressing smaller technical and organisational matters and beginning to broach deeper and/or more core structural matters relating to the module. The positive feedback allowed me to expand this style every 'horizontal' module (so, not CPP), and it continued to deliver, most notably in the GDC mid-module feedback in which a meaningful discussion about an inaugural Eugenics in Medicine lecture was had."
– Medical School Rep
"The very tight feedback loop was successful in giving students the feeling that they could contribute to the course design. As a result, they suggested many small changes of which the majority was implemented, e.g. more feedback throughout the year in a specific module, an additional careers session, a revision of the tutoring model, etc."
– HCI Rep
"As we were the first year to experience the newly-modified masters' programme, active feedback was crucial throughout the course. I was able to convert the lecture feedback form from paper to online (google sheets), which not only improved students experience and accessibility, while committing to the UCL's sustainability goals by reducing excess waste. Once anonymised feedback forms were collected, I sent the collated response sheet to individual lecturers who wished to receive immediately. This allowed an active feedback loop between students and lecturers and helped to optimise the following modules accordingly."
– Ophthamology Rep
"An issue we initially faced with was that not enough students were responding to our feedback forms as the answers required were long worded answers, which students felt like they did not have the time to complete. We later created feedback forms with multiple choice questions which would be quicker to complete. Using these multiple-choice questions, we were able to identify problems within the course. We then created another feedback form for students to expand on the issues they identified with the course from the previous feedback form. We also talked about the problems on the 2nd year whatsapp group chat and asked students that they could personally message us to talk about it. For some students this was more convenient to do than fill in the feedback forms."
– Chemistry Rep
"An example is that we have not received any feedback on our submissions for the "Nanotechnology and Society" course for a couple of weeks. At the SSCC meeting we put forward a request whether feedback would be available anytime soon. As a result feedback and marking was received roughly a week after the meeting took place."
– Electronic and Electrical Engineering Rep
"There had been many issues with the quality of feedback received and I have sat down with the year coordinator and module coordinator on multiple occasions to follow the issue up and ensure it does not happen again. This has been followed with emails to keep professors in the loop of any issues that do come up and allow for a healthy dialogue."
- Mechanical Engineering Rep
"Assignments feedback and grades were unclear at the beginning of the year as to what criteria was followed to achieved the grade. I brought this up and fought for a change. Feedback and marks in assignments are now broke down into components and clear explanation on why marks were taken is given."
- Epidemeology and Healthcare Rep
"A student had concerns about the essay feedback they received and mentioned to me that few comments made them feel uncomfortable and even demotivated. I then asked the student to explain and expand the situation, and ensured her that actions will be taken but her name will be anonymous. Later on, I set a meeting with the course organiser/adviser to whom I explained the issue and we then came up with two solutions: either set another meeting with the student and the lecturer or the module convenor/organiser has a meeting with the addressed lecturer to discuss this complaint further. The affected student agreed for the adviser to have the meeting with her and the lecturer. She later emailed me and thanked me because, although much did not change (in terms of her grades), she felt like her voice was heard and she was not neglected. The lecturer at the end did receive an informal complaint."
- SELCS Rep
"Several students raised concerns that they were unhappy with the quantity and consistency of feedback received on module assignments. The team collected examples of student feedback demonstrating that some received more detailed feedback than others (even if they had been awarded the same grade) and presented these at a meeting with the course leads. We suggested ways to make the feedback more helpful to students and they have implemented these as well as set up workshops for markers to ensure feedback is more consistent."
- Clinical Trials and Methodology Rep
"One of our issues was during the lab sessions of a module, students would not know how they performed as there was no feedback system. What I did was collect student thoughts via the whatsapp group we had set up, collated them in a word doc and contacted the stats module lead. I outlined that there was a consensus among the cohort about the quality of these sessions, and proposed having some sort of system where we have access to the correct method of each week's lab sessions once it had concluded. I offered to meet with the lecturer via vid call to discuss further. The outcome of this was that every week the lecturer would upload an answer sheet for the previous week's questions. At times they would even uplaod a video of the steps taken in the exercises for students to compare to their own methodology. The cohort received this very well."
- Pschology and Language Sciences Rep
"One of issued we had was the delay of receiving marked work. At first, I gently reminding the module lead so that he knew the students were anxiously waiting. Then, because we still had not received it, I bought it up in the SSCC meeting. The course tutor communicated with the module lead and furthermore with the Education Director for the Division of Biosciences. The Education Director then investigated and sent us all an email to inform us that the module would be receiving extra support and the work would be returned shortly. This was reassuring for the students as we then knew there was some progress."
- Biomedical Sciences Rep
"I was able to speak with fellow students about an issue with Q-step module marking and spoke with the module leaders on their behalf. They marker then organised individual sessions with students to go over the feedback issue. I believe this was a good resolution."
- Social Research Institute Rep
"One issue was that students were unhappy with the level of feedback they received, and hoped for more input (both positive and negative). Staff arranged feedback sessions which were open to all students and covered general points that were covered well and outlined general areas that were lacking. This was the most time effective way of giving students the more in depth feedback which they desired."
- IGH Rep
"This year the reps received a lot of feedback from students about issues with marking and feedback from staff. Having learned more about the marking systems and difficulties with communicating feedback with students, we were able to go back to the student body and explain the most effective ways of engaging with the feedback they received. As a result, a greater focus was placed on the important role of formative feedback, with the department determining to look more into this in the future."
- Psychology and Human Development Rep