Reflective course construction: An analysis of student feedback and its role in curricular design

Abstract

This study uses formal and informal student feedback as a source for understanding the impact of experimental course elements. Responses were used to develop a codebook, which was then applied to the entire dataset. The results inform our understanding of student's conceptions of professional identity, learning styles and curriculum design. The study found that professional identity (both their own and peers/instructors) is a lens through which students view course content and structure. In turn, this study found that this lens was useful in understanding feedback related to curricular content and structure. It also found that the coding process provided a mechanism to explore student learning style preferences even though students rarely overtly statements regarding their learning styles. The study generated a coding framework that can be applied to a wide range student feedback and used this framework to bring together formal (e.g. end of term) and informal (e.g. recurring weekly but unstructured) feedback.