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Educational Measurement and Evaluation

Notes local ownership and commitment but there may be costs in terms of efficiency and a loss of
comparability and analytic capacity.
20.3.3 Level

In discussing the purposes of student feedback, a crucial issue is that of level. Levels include :
• An individual lecturer or class
• A module or unit
• A semester or year of study
• A programme of study
• A subject
• A department
• A faculty
• An institution.
As we have already noted, different users will require feedback at different levels and for different
purposes. These may or may not be compatible. The purposes of users at the ‘higher’ levels of
institutions are likely to require a degree of standardisation of data - both in regard to what is
collected, how it is analysed and how it is presented (see below). Users closer to the ‘chalk-face’
have little need of standardisation and it may be in conflict with their needs. This might imply
different data collections to meet the purposes of users at different levels, or perhaps reliance on
some mechanisms rather than others to achieve certain purposes (for example, student
representatives rather than feedback questionnaires).
20.3.4 Use at other levels
Recognition that purposes differ, especially at different levels within an institution, could of
course result in a proliferation of feedback activity as every user emphasised the unique nature
of his or her needs for feedback. In such situations, the question inevitably arises as to whether
data collected at one level for one purpose can also be used at other levels for other purposes.
Can data be aggregated or, for that matter disaggregated, to serve different purposes ? It is
certainly the case that aggregating module feedback does not convert it into feedback on the
student experience of the programme as a whole. It does, however, provide some information on
the module ‘set’ that constitutes the programme and this is likely to be of interest to those with
responsibilities at this level.
Nevertheless, if feedback is to be obtained about the student experience of a whole programme
of study, this is likely to require feedback obtained at that level. This might be achievable
through a one-off exercise during a 3 or 4 year programme and so does not represent a large
additional load upon staff and students, who may also be obtaining feedback on each separate
module. It is also likely that data obtained by the new national survey of graduates will provide
institutions with some valuable information on the student experience at the broad subject level.

Module level feedback can be of use at the programme level in conjunction with
other relevant data, for example student profiles, progression data, external examiner
reports.

20.3.5 Timing
Another discussion point should be that of timing. When should feedback data be collected ?
When will it be needed ? When can it be used to best effect ? End of module questionnaires are
common but they cannot provide information to improve the learning experiences of the particular

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