Tuesday 31-01-2023 - 12:22

 

For Reps, it can be hard to know where to start when getting feedback on your classes. You’ve done an amazing thing putting yourself forward to get your coursemates’ voices heard, so we thought we’d put together a little guide to help Reps to get that important feedback.

 

Make yourself known

How can people give you feedback if they don’t know who you are? Here are a couple of ideas to make people aware of who you are, and how you can help their voices be heard as their Rep:

 

• Posters/info stations - Put up a notice in the buildings where your classes are. Explain what your role is and how you can help, give them a way to get in touch with any thoughts they have!

 

• Lecture shouts - You’ve got a captive audience during classes, so ask for a few minutes at the start or end of a lecture to introduce yourself as the Rep, get some immediate input, and maybe direct people to somewhere they can give more after class, like a Google Form.

 

Getting the Feedback

This is the juicy part of being a Rep – getting to find out what other people think. But what are some ways that you can gather that information?

 

• Emails - Sending out an email to your whole class gives an easy and accessible space for people to give feedback, hopefully they’re checking their emails regularly so it’s a great way to reach out outside of the classroom. You can ask your lecturers to send out emails to the whole group on your behalf, as they have access to the full list. If you’re doing it yourself, remember to BCC your recipients for data protection, and so you don’t end up with people flooding each others’ inboxes. 

 

• Polls - A quick way of getting a sense of how people feel about a topic is a poll. If you’ve got everyone together already you can just ask for a show of hands, or you could send out an online poll. This is a fast, easy way to insight into the general feelings of the people on your course.

 

• Questionnaires - If you need some more specific feedback, a questionnaire is kind of like a poll but offers more detail with specific questions, scales, and room for feedback. You can set it up online easily using tools like Google Forms. This gives you results that can be compared easily, so you get both detail and trends in a really clear way.

 

• Focus Groups - Setting these up can allow for more honest discussion among your cohort by taking a small group to talk privately about their thoughts. You can get a representative understanding of how they are feeling about the course without the social pressure of a full class, or the easy-to-ignore email.

 

• Group Chat - Setting up a group chat with students on your course is an easy and casual way to discuss what’s going on with your course. You can get responsive feedback as things go, and people can add their thoughts easily - it can be like a less structured focus group. 

 

Passing on Feedback

As a Rep, you need to be prepared to present your feedback to the University on behalf of your coursemates. There are multiple avenues you might go through to share your feedback.

 

• Student Staff Consultation Forums (SSCFs) are opportunities to share the feedback you have received from your coursemates with the tutors. This is the first chance the department will get to make the changes suggested by the people you have spoken to.

 

• Programme Boards - The next level up, these are a little more formal spaces to raise issues that might not have been fully resolved after SSCFs.

 

• Campaigns/consultations - Your elected SU presidents often run campaigns to make a difference to student life. As a Rep, you can provide valuable insight into what your coursemates' thoughts are on the most pressing issues to students. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like to work with them on a particular project. They are here to make sure your voice is heard!

 

Reps are really important to help improve the experiences of all students at the University, and it can be hard work. But we hope that this has given a bit of a pointer to ways that the job can be done.