7.8 “I thought that ... ”

Reflection on the project process should include staff. Often this does not occur even when students do participate.

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This bundle encourages students to reflect formally on the project process, and provides material to assist staff and project managers in reviewing and improving it.

The way it works is to encourage (or require) students, on completion, to complete a survey in questionnaire form of their perception of project process and outcomes. Precise questions asked will depend upon local feelings about shortcomings or problems in affairs, but standard guidelines in the preparation of questionnaires (Oppenheim, 1992) obviously apply. The act of completing the exercise is of immediate benefit to the students, and the outcomes usually point to adjustments that departments might make to improve. The outcomes can also be of value as pre-publicity to students

It works better if the largest possible percentage of the cohort can be surveyed; one approach is to make the return of a private copy of the project report contingent on this action having been taken. It also assists if students operate in a culture of responsible feedback in which coercion is not necessary to encourage them to state frank and responsible views.

It doesn't work if too much credence is given to student opinion, which is often an unreliable source of quality information, and it may not work if the survey is conducted prior to assessment, when frank opinions may not be forthcoming. There may be a problem in extracting opinions after assessment when students are under-motivated to engage in this kind of exercise.

Reference Oppenheim, A. N. (1992) Questionnaire Design, Interviewing and Attitude Measurement, Pinter, London

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So: obtain the widest inputs you can to surveys of project process and outcomes. Use them to improve and inform, and to initiate reflective thought.