But how well do SETs work to improve teaching and student engagement in learning? Research has found a large number of challenges and problems with SETs, including, (1) they do not assess teaching quality; (2) they often use quantitative, predefined scales that leave little space for additional comments; (3) they often have unclear goals, with course improvement not being the main one; and (4) there is often little student engagement, indicated by low response rates for online evaluation.

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At the Geophysical Institute (GFI), University of Bergen (UiB), we consider high-quality feedback from students to instructors important in order to improve course outcomes. However, we wanted to move away from SETs and so looked for alternative feedback methods that would better represent student views (respecting both their qualitative and quantitative aspects) and could be presented to the instructors in a motivating way.

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We chose to experiment with the Teaching Analysis Poll (TAP; Hawelka, 2019) that was, to our knowledge, developed at the University of Virginia and has been used in different higher-education institutions, countries (e.g., United States, Germany, Switzerland), and disciplines. The recommended TAP procedure for face-to-face classes takes about 30 minutes and is performed by an external facilitator who collects student feedback on three aspects, which are then communicated back to the class instructor:

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Which aspects of the course facilitate your learning?

Which aspects of the course hinder your learning?

What suggestions do you have for improving the obstructive aspects?

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Read the peer-reviewed publication here (link to https://tos.org/oceanography/article/tap-teaching-analysis-poll-for-student-feedback)

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