Feedback Champions

Fostering a Supportive Feedback Culture

About

The project

Southampton Feedback Champions is a University initiative which aims to discover and share good practice in the delivery and use of feedback by staff and students. It originated from a previous European project led by the LLAS centre, which aimed to develop initiatives that improve quality practice and culture within higher education institutions. In the first phase of the project, the Southampton feedback Champions have interviewed over 100 students and members of staff across all disciplines and asked them what they thought about feedback in general, what feedback practice worked for them and how feedback could be improved. The outcome of our research is this website, which is dedicated to sharing good feedback practice across the university and promoting a holistic view of feedback as an on-going dialogue.

The Southampton Feedback Champions project will run from February 2014 to January 2015 and aims to:

  • identify and collect examples of good feedback practice from students and teachers
  • promote good quality feedback across the University
  • trial new ways of giving feedback
  • design professional development activities and resources for University staff and students
  • organise a student-led conference promoting the new resources

The following video has been put together by three students from the Southampton Feedback Champions: Rameesha Anwar, Abisola Tina Hammed and Rebecca Wainwright. It was done in collaboration with the University’s Institute for Learning Innovation and Development (ILIaD).

 

Who we are

The Southampton Feedback Champions is a CITE (Centre for Innovation in Technologies and Education) and LLAS (Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies) initiative, which was funded by the University of Southampton Education Enhancement Fund. It is also supported by the University of Southampton Students’ Union (SUSU).

Nearly 30 undergraduate and postgraduate students across the 8 University Faculties have been involved in the project. They carried out over 100 interviews with staff and students in the first few months of the project. Then, they analysed the data gathered in the interviews, developed this website and created materials, including a talk, a video and a toolbox amongst others, which are being used to promote the project to staff and students. They also worked on a feedback conference, which took place in February 2015 and which all staff and students were invited to attend.

The Southampton Feedback Champions are:

  • Rameesha Anwar is a third year student on the BM5 degree in Medicine. As part of her involvement with the project, she conducted interviews with staff and students in the Faculty of Medicine, worked on the project video, took part in the dissemination event to students, presented the project at a staff event on the Highfield campus and is taking part in the Southampton Feedback Champions Conference in April 2015.
  • Luis Arenal Mijares is a postgraduate student in Electronics and Computer Science. He supervised and mentored two undergraduate students who interviewed staff and students in the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering. He also project managed the student input in the creation of the Southampton Feedback Champions website.
  • Nicky Bundy is a 2nd year student on the PGDip Nursing (Mental Health). As part of her involvement with the project, she conducted interviews with staff and students in the Faculty of Health Sciences. She also took part in analysing the data from the 100 interviews.
  • Amber Dudley is a 3rd year student in Modern Languages. As part of her involvement with the project, she wrote the majority of the resources content on the website based on the staff and student interviews, and took part in organising and delivering the final conference.
  • Vinay Chatlani Daswani is a 3rd year student. As part of her involvement with the project, she conducted interviews with staff and students in the Faculty of Business and Law.
  • Thomas Dubosc is a 2nd year student in Web Science. He joined the team as an Excel placement student intern and created the project website in collaboration with a team of Southampton Feedback Champions..
  • Brooke Gamble is a 4th year student in the Medicine. As part of her involvement with the project, she conducted interviews with staff and students in the Faculty of Medicine.
  • Claire Gent is a third year student in Adult Nursing. As part of her involvement with the project, she conducted interviews with staff and students in the Faculty of Health Sciences, presented the project at the Southampton Opportunity Showcase, represented the Feedback Champions at a HEA meeting, trained a new Student Feedback Champion and is taking part in the Southampton Feedback Champions Conference in April 2015.
  • Abisola Tina Hammed is a second year student preparing a Master of Mathematics. As part of her involvement with the project, she conducted interviews with staff and students in the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, project managed the project video, took part in the dissemination event to students, and is taking part in the Southampton Feedback Champions Conference in April 2015.
  • Tsung-Hsing Ho is a postgraduate student in Philosophy. As part of his involvement with the project, he supervised and mentored two undergraduate students who interviewed staff and students in the Faculty of Humanities. He also took part in the interviews.
  • Giles Howard is a 2nd year student preparing an MEng Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence. As part of his involvement with the project, he conducted interviews with staff and students in the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, project managed the dissemination event to students on the Highfield campus, presented the project at a staff event on the Highfield campus, represented the Feedback Champions at a HEA meeting and is taking part in the Southampton Feedback Champions Conference in April 2015.
  • Chongyuan Mao is a postgraduate student in Oceanography. As part of her involvement with the project, she supervised and mentored two undergraduate students who interviewed staff and students in the Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences.She also took part in the interviews.
  • Victoria Morley is a 3rd year student in the Nursing. As part of her involvement with the project, she conducted interviews with staff and students in the Faculty of Health Sciences.
  • Alan Morris is a postgraduate student in Medicine. As part of his involvement with the project, he supervised and mentored two undergraduate students who interviewed staff and students in the Faculty of Medicine.
  • Tolani Oyetade is a 1st year student in Business.  As part of her involvement with the project, she conducted interviews with staff and students in the Faculty of Business and Law.
  • Alyssa Prasmusinto is a 3rd year student preparing an MEng in Computer Science. As part of her involvement with the project, she conducted interviews with staff and students in the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, project managed the creation of the project PowerPoint presentation, presented the project at staff events across campuses and is taking part in the Southampton Feedback Champions Conference in April 2015.
  • Peter Rejchrt is a postgraduate student in Business. As part of his involvement with the project, he supervised and mentored two undergraduate students who interviewed staff and students in the Faculty of Business and Law.
  • Laura Rusu is a BA Film Studies Graduate. As part of her involvement with the project, she conducted interviews with staff and students in the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment.
  • Magdalena Siembab is a 2nd year student preparing a BSc Mathematics with Economics. As part of her involvement with the project, she conducted interviews with staff and students in the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences. She also took part in analysing the data from the 100 interviews.
  • Kristina Stuartis an MSc Sociology and Social Policy student. She supervised and mentored two undergraduate students who interviewed staff and students in the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences. She also project managed the data analysis of the 100 interviews and wrote the final report, including recommendations to improve feedback at Southampton.
  • Anamika Talwaria is a 1st year student in English and Spanish.  As part of her involvement with the project, she conducted interviews with staff and students in the Faculty of Humanities.
  • James Tepper is a second year BA English and History student. He worked on the project as a Southampton Excel Placement intern for 12 weeks in which he created resources such as the Feedback Toolbox for students, a lecture shout and a series of posters to promote the project and its resources.
  • Rebecca Wainwright is a 3rd year student in Biological Sciences. As part of her involvement with the project, she conducted interviews with staff and students in the Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences, worked on the project video, took part in the dissemination event to students, presented the project at a staff event in Biological Sciences and is taking part in the Southampton Feedback Champions Conference in April 2015.

The project is managed by the following team:

Laurence Georgin is the project manager. She managed the previous EU Project SPEAQ (Sharing Practice in Enhancing and Assuring Quality), which also focused on feedback. She developed the project with Alison and Fiona and now manages it on a daily basis.

Alison Dickens (LLAS) was involved in developing the project idea, which follows up on work done in the area of feedback as part of an EU Project (Sharing Practice in Enhancing and Assuring Quality) which she directed. She has been supporting Laurence Georgin in managing the project and contributed to the start-up meetings with the student researchers which involved facilitating workshop sessions at which feedback practices where discussed and interview questions developed.

Fiona Harvey (CITE) has acted as mentor and support for the project. She has acted as a consultant and advised on activities with the students and how they may go about some of the discussions with academic staff. Her input has been invaluable in shaping the initial project idea, supporting its development and gaining an understanding of how the iChamps (formerly Digichamps) model could be applied to the Feedback Champions.

If you want to get in touch, you can send us an email or contact us via Twitter @FeedbackChamps. 

//