Chapter 8 - Accessing Student Voice: Using Qualitative Student Feedback

Abstract

Student surveys are used to improve the quality of the learning experience. Various instruments are used to monitor the experience of students. Some national and international instruments enable benchmarking and setting new targets and initiatives. Historically, an area of limited focus in student feedback has been the use of qualitative data to improve students’ learning experience. More than 300,000 qualitative comments are collected annually from a range of surveys in medium-size universities with 30,000 students. To date, limited attempts have been made globally to analyse such data and compare the results alongside quantitative findings. The use of quantitative, qualitative and other institutional performance data, such as student complaints, learning analytics and student retention and attrition, provide a trigger to identify areas needing improvement. This chapter outlines how qualitative student feedback can be used in a university with the help of specialist software to analyse such feedback.