Course feedback

To support the development of degree education, student feedback is actively collected at various stages of university studies. Course feedback is part of the university's education feedback system and is gathered throughout your studies. At Tampere University, course feedback is collected using the Course Feedback System (Norppa). Each feedback survey includes five university-level questions, which are the same for all courses. In addition, teachers can add their own course-specific questions to the survey. 

Based on a decision by the Vice President of Education, university-level common questions are:

• The course's content matched the course's learning outcomes. (strongly disagree - strongly agree)
• The instructions for completing the course were clear and sufficient. (strongly disagree - strongly agree)
• The amount of work on the course was (too heavy - too light)
• Which aspects of the course aided your learning?
• How would you develop the course? 
   

At Tampere University, providing course feedback is voluntary. If giving feedback is a requirement for completing the course (e.g. in some parts of medical studies), it must be stated in the curriculum. Although giving feedback is voluntary, the university strongly encourages students to give feedback - and teachers to respond to it. By sharing your thoughts, you have the opportunity to influence the content of courses, teaching methods and the overall development of education. Your feedback helps teachers improve their courses and teaching practices.

Your response is anonymous and cannot be linked to you unless you include information that identifies you. Please note that offensive or otherwise inappropriate feedback is not acceptable. If necessary, system administrators have the ability to identify the sender of inappropriate feedback.

Course feedback is primarily processed by responsible teacher of the course. Feedback is also processed by the planning groups of degree and doctoral programmes as well as various events related to the development of studies, many of which include student representation. The processing of feedback varies between faculties and degree programmes.

How does the course feedback system work?

Course feedback surveys are automatically activated based on the teaching information in Sisu. By default, the feedback survey opens on the last day of the course and remains open for two weeks, unless the teacher adjusts the schedule. Each feedback survey includes the university's common questions, and teachers can add their own course-specific questions if they wish.

You will receive an email notification when the feedback period begins. Please note that only students who are registered and accepted in Sisu will receive the notification and be able to submit feedback. The email includes a direct link to the feedback survey. You can edit your feedback as long the survey is open.

If you haven't submitted feedback, the system will send you a reminder shortly before the feedback period ends. Be sure to submit your feedback on time - once the feedback form is closed, it cannot be reopened.

If the teacher wishes to collect feedback from students during the course, they can activate continuous feedback in Norppa or create an interim feedback survey. Continuous feedback allows students to give informal (written) feedback during the course implementation. Interim feedback refers to a separate feedback survey created by the teacher, who defines the questions themselves. These feedback channels complement the official end-of-course feedback and allow the teacher to make adjustments to teaching already during the course.

In Norppa, you can 

• see all feedback surveys related to your courses,
• view the feedback you've submitted,
• view the (numerical) summaries of feedback and
• see any counter feedback provided by the teacher.

Teachers may choose to make some written feedback visible to students, in which case you'll see it in the feedback summary. If the teacher provides counter feedback (a shared response to all students), it will also be sent to your email.