The pile of evaluations from students who have completed a course programme may seem a little overwhelming. What data is useful, and what comes from isolated incidents? And how can teaching staff gain specific and useful insights from the feedback?

The CED is offering workshops for teaching staff from Health, at which feedback in the evaluations will be translated into specific ideas and changes for a course programme. Associate Professor Berit Lassesen from the CED says:

"We’ll be focusing on how an individual teacher or teaching team can use the course evaluations actively to develop their teaching. We will facilitate a conversation in which participants can identify different angles in their data before they decide on relevant changes for a course programme."

The first participants have signed up – but there is space for more

Rumours about the courses offered by the CED have already started to spread around campus, and the first educators have already signed up. However, there are still places for more teams and teachers who would like to work constructively with evaluations.

"We can tailor the workshops according to who you are, how many there are and how you want to participate, but it’s often a good idea to show up as a group. The positive aspect of working in teaching teams, or even across subjects, is that it also makes it possible to look at coherence in the degree programme, and whether there’s a need for adjustments in other courses to ensure that your own course can be better organised as well," says Berit Lassesen.

Important to use evaluations positively

Not only the amount of data can be daunting when teachers read the evaluations. It can also be difficult to navigate in some of the criticism that might surface. However, it is important that the negative aspects do not overshadow the positive, says Berit Lassesen:

"It's also about keeping a sense of proportion. In many cases, students express their opinion on topics that we can rectify without too much effort, e.g., overlap of content in a lecture series, alignment of expectations, etc. There may also be challenges that require a major revision of a course. The CED is happy to assist in any of these cases, if necessary."

And the teachers must be willing to work with the evaluations, says Vice-dean for Education Lise Wogensen Bach. She hopes that the offer from the CED will be well received.

"It's important that we can and do work with the feedback we get from students. This is where we learn what we do really well, and what we can do better. It’s therefore crucial that teachers take time to work with the evaluations and reflect on how we can adjust individual courses, so that both students and teachers get the best out of them. So, naturally, I hope that as many as possible will accept this offer from the CED," she says.

The CED has planned a series of workshops during the autumn, but individual workshops are also possible depending on the need and time. Each workshop lasts two hours, and participants should expect an hour of preparation. Contact Berit Lassesen to sign up for the workshops.