This page introduces some templates and tools that can be used to conduct in-depth, qualitative evaluations, either of a teaching session or programme of sessions. The approaches introduced will take a relatively significant amount of time and resource to implement, and may be more successful when applied with students who are engaged with a programme of teaching, or multiple teaching sessions over time.
This has been designed and provided by Laura Jeffrey, Academic Skills Librarian at Wolfson College. Laura talks about her use of the Reflective Statement with students:
“At Wolfson College, we run a programme of workshops aimed at first year students. We conduct in-sessional feedback for immediate insights into how students’ confidence and grasp of skills have developed. After a workshop, we also invite them to complete a reflective statement structured by several questions. Students can choose when to fill this in; it is available on Moodle. These give us valuable feedback compared to in-sessional forms and help us learn about the medium-term impact of a workshop on student learning. Perhaps more importantly, they also engage students in a process of of reflective practice, giving them the opportunity to think about what they have learned and how they have put it into action, or to identify where they might seek further support should they require it. You could ask any cohort to complete such statements after a workshop, but you may be more likely to receive submissions if students are particularly engaged with the workshop or a programme of sessions. We incentive submissions by offering funding to those who have completed a set number of workshops and reflections.”
The template linked below can be adapted for use in similar situations to that described above. Analysing the qualitative data gathered from the reflective statements will take time and some experience, it may not be as appropriate for larger groups of students who you may only see for one session and who might not feel engaged enough with the session or programme to spend time reflecting in this way.
This questionnaire was developed by staff from across the libraries at Cambridge, to share as a template with the Cambridge libraries community. The questionnaire has been designed to be as generic and non-discipline/cohort specific as possible. It is intended to provide the basis for a mechanism to gather feedback following a programme of teaching or training, rather than on one isolated session.
The Word document version of the survey construct linked below can be downloaded and edited by libraries for use with their preferred survey platform. The University of Cambridge preferred survey platform is Qualtrics (www.qualtrics.com).
Click here to request access to Qualtrics through the University Information Services (UIS).