Student Experience: Past Conclusions and Future Directions

This final chapter identifies some key themes that have emerged from the contributions to this book: the breadth of the student experience; the accountability of teachers; the role of gender in student evaluations; measuring changes in student engagement; the use of open-ended questions; the continuing role of lectures; variations in approaches to teaching; and evidence from social media. The chapter briefly considers how institutions have thus far responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. It concludes by identifying various issues for future discussion and investigation: balancing the need to update feedback questionnaires against the importance of a coherent time series of responses; the need for a more nuanced account of “student satisfaction” and “student engagement”; the scope for bias in course evaluations related to students’ age, ethnicity, and other demographic variables; the responsibilities and accountability of teachers in the changing world of higher education.