Gathering Data – The Pitfalls!
Feedback forms
The questions used are so important – yet the time given to this exercise was limited far more than I would have like.
The changing in timing of the workshop, bringing it forward a week, meant that I had a week less time to think about and sample my questions.
However, I did manage to get some feedback from others and did revise some of my questions (in fact most! If I remember rightly!!).
I did not want my questions to be too simple, not too many Yes/No answers. It was important to have an element of reflection for the students too.
MS Forms is a great tool for gathering data quickly and collating and producing nice graphs and statistics.
However, there are a few pitfalls too, See table below:
One such, and important pitfall is that you are not able to see when a participant has completed a feedback form, whereas if you have paper forms, you can hand them out and collect them in at the end of the session. This also adds a sense of obligation to complete the feedback.
Bias is another issue that can be associated with feedback forms when asked to complete by tutors or people that participants want to be nice to, impress, or if they like them, they don’t want to upset them!
Advantages of electronic forms:
Inclusivity. Allowing students time to use translators to read questions and take time to think about answers. I thought that this was a really important point, given the high proportion of international studying at UAL. Not all International students will experience a language barrier, however, everything that we can do to be as inclusive as possible is a positive in my book! These advantages can also be of benefit to other students too, additional time to process questions and reflect and formulate answers will work in many students favour, including neurodivergent students too.
Disadvantages of Paper forms:
On the spot feedback tend to be rushed, with little time for reflection.
Can be difficult to manage if large numbers, (even small numbers, if long questionnaire).
See table below:
