I recently met with Pratik Ramkumar and Milan Paczai, the Student Representatives for all the Change Makers modules this academic year, and was really pleased with the positive student feedback they reported.
Pratik and Milan reported the findings of their survey of all Change Makers students. The students rated their Change Makers modules in response to questions on structure, content and learning materials and scored the modules very highly in all categories. Furthermore, every single student answered ‘yes’ to the question on whether they liked how the assessments worked.
In our discussions, we identified some common trends too. Across all the modules, the comments made by students for the open questions demonstrated an appreciation of three underlying qualities:
- the creativity that the modules promoted;
- the freedom of choice; and,
- the deep contrast that they provided with their core degrees.
This is something that we aim to achieve through our module design so it was good to hear it recognised by the students themselves.
Some of the individual quotes were pleasing too:
A great way to explore your interest and passion outside the degree curriculum.
Change Makers Independent Project
Absolutely brilliant course, really enjoyed it. We had very good guidance, as well as freedom for creativity.
Global Village: Innovation Challenge
Pretty amazing. The lecturer is really professional and really nice.
Lessons From History
Other comments from individual students did call for more practical activities and peer review in the Creative Futures and Global Village modules, and we are confident that as those modules return to the classroom for face-to-face delivery next year it will be easy to provide that.
Pratik and Milan were also keen to point out that although it appeared that a majority of students were happy that many Change Makers modules would be returning to a face-to-face mode of delivery next year, some students had strongly appreciated the benefits of online provision. They therefore requested that we maintain our online platforms and resources to facilitate continued remote and asynchronous access. And, accordingly, we will do this.
Finally – and very importantly for a Change Makers survey – our Student Representatives also asked students for ideas on how planetary challenges could be approached at Imperial College. In the survey, students called for less use of plastics, more sustainable practices from students themselves (e.g. recycling), more use of renewable energy and more seminars on these issues. We will continue to promote these key points for sustainable change!
We would like to thank Pratik and Milan for their time and for surveying the students so well.