The aim of a university outreach team is to
guide students to make informed decisions
about post school or college life. Outreach
events such as careers fairs, workshops,
assemblies, and on-campus events are
designed to give students a forum for asking
questions about university life and their futures.
Although universities offer many opportunities,
we can only measure how helpful they are by
learning about the experiences of the students.
It is crucial we receive feedback to make
sure we are engaging students during their
time with us, not just lecturing them about
accommodation or finance!
1. To measure the “effectiveness” of events
Students should leave an outreach event feeling
more informed about their options and/or
university life. To do this, we need to know if the
event was useful. Including a question on the
form along the lines of what did you learn during
X event? can gauge how much information
students are retaining.
2. To assess delivery
Asking students how clearly and effectively the
information was delivered helps the outreach
team learn how the event could be improved.
This is particularly useful during the age of
webinars. It can be more difficult for a speaker
to gauge audience reactions for example when
sessions are delivered in an online format.
3. To improve future events
Feedback can be used to improve
collaborative relationships. More personalised
communications can be sent to students who
sign up for emails, or to teachers or advisers relating to any upcoming events which they feel
would be helpful.
Common feedback from an information-heavy
workshop, such as student finance, suggest
that workshops could be more interactive.
This approach may require extra work, but it
helps ensure that students are retaining the
information.
Below are some key factors to consider when
drafting your own evaluation form(s):
1. Explain why
It is important to stress to students why we ask
for feedback and how useful it is for us to hear
their thoughts.
2. Length and layout
Consider time constraints. The shorter the
questionnaire, the better. A visible progression
bar on the page identifies how quickly the form
can be completed.
Questions should be a blend of qualitative
and quantitative but a long response for each
question is unnecessary. Adopt alternative
measures such as a 1 = Poor to 5 = Excellent
scale.
3. Mode
Most universities are going paperless where
they can, and there are websites and apps for
constructing a form. A link or even a QR code
can be disseminated after the event and the
results exported into a desired format.
4. Anonymity
You want the student to feel they can be as
honest as possible. Consider not asking for
names – simply their school and year group.
If the comments will be used for marketing
purposes, make sure you ask for consent to use
this for the intended purpose.
5. Separate the mandatory from the optional
Universities will have questions they want
answers to, often based on their own team
strategies or targets. But be careful not to
include questions where the subsequent
answers would not have a useful purpose.
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