Your Voice: student feedback

What is Your Voice?

The Your Voice app was developed so students could have a simple method of supplying feedback on various aspects of teaching. Students can feedback on any session or workshop and when gathered, the feedback is anonymous.

Students have two options when composing feedback, spontaneous and requested. Spontaneous feedback is delivered to the Faculty of Health’s feedback team who will then anonymise and forward any actions to the necessary teaching staff. Alternatively, requested feedback is used when the provider ‘requests’ feedback from a particular teaching session (e.g. at the end of a taught lecture). The requested feedback gets sent directly to the provider as an email digest which is sent once per week and actioned accordingly.

Feedback categories

Your Voice provides five categories which students can feedback on:

1) Learning resources 
2) Teaching quality
3) Assessment and feedback
4) Academic support
5) Organisation and management
Additionally, the web app uses a happiness indicator, which takes the form of emojis. This not only allows for a fast method of providing feedback intent but also acts as another measure of satisfaction.
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Prior to its development 

Before Your Voice was developed in 2015, feedback was generally captured via non-digital methods (e.g. post-it notes on a board). Capturing data without a digital system can create large administrative tasks which increase the more students use it. 

Using a digital method helps with the administrative tasks for the most part, but also assists with speed of access, accessibility and intuitiveness which can encourage use. Furthermore, tools such as this can be linked to from within related teaching and learning services such as the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), therefore students can easily provide feedback alongside their learning resources or other online activities.

Testimonials

"The Your Voice app has made it easy for students to write feedback spontaneously, increasing the quantity of feedback we receive. The feedback is overwhelmingly positive, providing a morale boost to staff and showing that students value their efforts. It’s also been a good way for students to communicate small niggles, such as sound quality and uploading presentations before sessions.” 

Dr Karen Johnstone 
Lecturer in Genetics at Faculty of Health: Medicine, Dentistry and Human Sciences

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