Overheard in the classroom: Feedback on courses, syllabi

Universities and institutes across the country are going beyond ‘listening’ to students and are making them stakeholders in designing and executing curriculums, allowing them to shape what they learn and how they learn it. “At our institute, students provide feedback through discussions with the quality assurance team that ensures curriculum and course content is relevant,” says Anitha Ramanna Pathak, manager of quality assurance at SP Jain School of Global Management. “Institutes now want to know if a particular course is effective enough, if it serves the intended purpose,” says Umashankar Venkatesh, director of the postgraduate programme in management and professor of marketing at Great Lakes. “We would hold discussions with student representatives, collate the responses and send them to the University Grants Commission,” says Jessy Pius, coordinator of the college’s internal quality assurance cell and an assistant professor of botany. “Students also asked for certificate courses on forensic science and Indian heritage, which we introduced.” Open-ended feedback can help add value to existing systems.