There is a competition on the higher education market, and the developed brand is not only the institutions’ but also the students’ brand as well. One of the opportunities of the creation of the brand, and of having a say is the continued measurement of student satisfaction, the evaluation of feedback about the teaching, based on which we can initiate development processes for further improving the quality of teaching. This is exactly the aim of our Medical School’s feedback system. It is not for our sake, but it provides basis for further implementations. With the help of special workshops and courses, it supports the developments of teaching skills, it integrates into the teaching requirements, and the quality of teaching work is a part of the teaching career. It increases the students’ sense of responsibility since their opinion really matters and it improves the cooperation skills of the students and the instructors.
The Feedback Committee and its predecessors measured the student’s satisfaction with teaching by paper-based questionnaires from the 1977/78 academic year. This method has extended from the 2010/11 academic year with the online and monitor group analyses. We have developed and introduced a special bonus system for the motivation of students answering our questionnaire from the 2012/13 academic year.
We put particularly great emphasis on the protection of the participants’ personal data when we created the online questionnaires. The questionnaires are totally anonymous and there are no (as there can be no) negative consequences of failing to fill them out. The system does not store data about which questionnaire was filled out by whom, it stores only the fact whether the student has filled out a questionnaire or not. Even the system developers cannot link the questionnaire with the student who filled it out.
The assessment of obligatory subjects and instructors
The questionnaire has two parts. In the first part, the students rate the subject and in the second part they rate the instructor related to the subject. All obligatory subjects of the three teaching languages are parts of the assessment. The questionnaires are published on the last day of the exam period after which the students can fill them out for two weeks.
The aim of the assessment is to evaluate the subjects from the students’ point of view, to explore the problems in connection with teaching, and to express satisfaction. The questionnaire is short, easy to handle, and it corresponds to the aims of the assessment although it cannot be perfectly adjusted to every subject. The more detailed feedback about the satisfaction with teaching is the task of the so-called Monitor group.
We reward the students who fill out the questionnaires regarding obligatory subjects with the opportunity of a one-day earlier registration for the exams. This means that those students who fill out every questionnaire evaluating the obligatory subjects within the deadline can begin registration for their exams one day earlier in the next instruction period. It is not necessary to evaluate the facultative subjects, lectures and exams to gain this benefit. Those students who plan to spend their next semester on a passive status have the opportunity to use this benefit for their next active semester’s exam registration.
Monitor qroup assessment – obligatory subjects
The so-called Monitor group is a student expert group and their task is to provide regular and detailed feedback about the lectures of the obligatory subjects in the given semesters. The members of the Monitor group are the students of the given year who represent not only theirs, but also most of the given year’s opinion in a responsible way in connection with the teaching.
The aim of the query is the detailed assessment of the subjects, and the definition of the strengths and weaknesses of teaching considering each subject. The students fill out a questionnaire consisting of 100-150 questions, which we create according to the given years, in accordance with the subjects taught in that year.
The tasks of the students:
- Regular and conscious attendance at the lectures; then filling out the questionnaire (through the COOSPACE system).
- Participating in the composition of a comprehensive questionnaire that includes the
- Filling out the questionnaire after the exams.
(Students taking part in the programme receive a symbolic award for their work during the semester.)
FURTHER ONLINE QUERIES
Students can fill out the questionnaires in the electronic education system. The questionnaire appears in the given subject’s menu where the student can fill it out once within the deadline.
The assessment of the facultative subjects
The questionnaires of the elective and facultative subjects appear in the menus of the subjects in the 13th teaching week for every student; they can fill them out for a month after the end of the exam period.
The assessment of the exam
The questionnaire regarding the assessment of the exams appears 24 hours after the exam and the students can fill it out for a month after the end of the exam period.
The assessment of the lectures
From the semester’s beginning, a questionnaire appears in the subject’s menu on the day of the curricular lecture, which the students can fill out for two weeks after the lecture.
“Enrolment questionnaire”
The newly enrolled (1st year, freshmen) students can access the questionnaire in every September. The 1st year students have to fill out this questionnaire in order to receive the benefit.
Facts about the feedback
- in 4 programmemes
- in 3 languages (Hungarian, English, German)
- we assess 475 obligatory subjects every semester
- Students have the opportunity to assess more than 3200 facultative subjects, 1900 lectures and 95000 exams.
So far, we have analysed more than 150000 completed questionnaires with scientific interest.