Francesca Mangili
F. Mangili - Encouraging student participation
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As students being co-actors and co-actresses of their own learning is important. Expressing opinions and suggestions on aspects of the degree course one is following promotes a sense of responsibility and encourages one to be more motivated in one's learning pathways. With a view to the continuous improvement of student participation in basic education, a pilot project involving first-year students of four Bachelor's degree programmes was launched in 2021. The aim was to enhance existing practices, test new measures by involving those concerned, and with them discuss their effectiveness before gradually implementing them in the other courses of study. In this context, one initiative that has involved the student body is that of intermediate feedback, which is now spreading to all departments. Among the four degree courses that took part in the pilot project was the Bachelor in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence where lecturer-researcher Francesca Mangili teaches Probability and Applied Statistics. We spoke with her about this experience of student participation and the results that emerged.
In the pilot project in which you participated, the introduction of intermediate feedback was among the measures taken to encourage student participation. Can you tell us what this is about?
鈥嬧赌�Interim feedback is a moment of exchange between lecturers and students of a module that takes place about halfway through the semester. The purpose is to understand how the module, or the course, is perceived by the students and whether there are any aspects that can be improved to foster learning. It can be implemented in various ways: for example with a paper or online questionnaire, or with a direct dialogue between the parties.
In the first year, I combined both ways to achieve a more in-depth sharing. It was a relatively new course, and the hybrid teaching mode had just been introduced, with part of the lectures being face-to-face and part online. I therefore felt that there were several aspects to consider and discuss. I therefore asked the students to evaluate, through an online questionnaire, the usefulness of the different activities proposed (such as face-to-face lessons, exercises, quizzes, workshops, etc.) of the material provided (books, slides, etc.) and to reflect on their difficulties and what could have helped them overcome them. I returned the feedback results anonymously, asking the students to read and discuss them as a group, and then returned the feedback to me in the START/STOP/CONTINUE form, i.e. focusing on what would be useful to introduce (START), what they suggested should be taken away (STOP) and what should be continued, possibly improved (CONTINUE). I then reflected on their proposals and considered which and how they could be accepted, and then discussed them together in the classroom.
Did the feedback from the male and female students result in suggestions that were actually implemented? Which aspects of the training did they concern?
鈥嬧赌�The main changes as a result of the feedback were already introduced during the semester itself. The fact that they were discussed as a group made the suggestions more specific and clearer than in the individual feedback. I remember, for example, that at first the theoretical lectures were planned online and the exercises in presence, while the students were all fairly unanimous that it was easier to understand the theory in presence and do the exercises at a distance.
Other changes concerned, for example, the choice of textbook, or the way in which some of the Moodle exercises I proposed as a review at the beginning of the lesson were turned into homework, as the students expressed the need for more time to solve them before the classroom discussion.
In ottica futura vede altre modalit脿 con cui incoraggiare la partecipazione studentesca per lo sviluppo della qualit脿 della formazione?
鈥嬧赌�Alla base ci devono essere le condizioni per un confronto sereno e costante tra studenti e docenti. Il feedback intermedio 猫 uno strumento utile sia per dare la parola a chi preferisce non esprimersi direttamente con il docente, sia perch茅 chiede agli studenti di riflettere in modo approfondito sulla loro esperienza di apprendimento. Un鈥檃ltra modalit脿 utile di confronto, non focalizzata per貌 sul singolo corso, 猫 stata proposta in uno dei seminari sull鈥檌nnovazione didattica del Dipartimento tecnologie innovative. Alcuni studenti del secondo e terzo anno sono stati invitati a esporre la loro opinione su alcuni metodi didattici sperimentati nei corsi che avevano seguito (ad esempio, l鈥檜so di quiz interattivi come Mentimeter o di progetti competitivi tra studenti). Durante il seminario ci siamo divisi in gruppi: alcuni studenti hanno raccontato come avevano vissuto quelle esperienze di studio, perch茅 erano o non erano state apprezzate e come avrebbero potuto essere migliorate. L鈥檋o trovato utile per diversi motivi, tra cui il fatto che gli studenti coinvolti, essendo giunti quasi alla fine del bachelor, avevano la visione di insieme necessaria per confrontare corsi, metodi ed esperienze. Questa consapevolezza rispetto alla loro esperienza 猫 stata preziosa per noi docenti: un confronto di questo tipo ci permette di conoscere l鈥檕pinione degli studenti anche su modalit脿 di insegnamento diverse da quelle che siamo abituati a usare, potendone trarre ispirazione. Inoltre, in questa modalit脿 di feedback, gli studenti si sentano pi霉 liberi di esprimersi, perch茅 le loro opinioni non riguardano necessariamente uno specifico corso o docente.