Course feedback system

On this page you will find instructions for teachers on how to use the course feedback system Norppa.

The role of the teacher as part of a good and supportive feedback culture is important.

• Plan how to collect course feedback before the course starts. Why? The course feedback surveys open automatically, and therefore collecting feedback does not necessarily require any actions from the teacher, but if you want to collect feedback already during the course, you should plan the whole process in Norppa at the latest at the beginning of the course. If you need help using the system, please contact: teaching-helpdesk.tau [at] tuni.fi (teaching-helpdesk[dot]tau[at]tuni[dot]fi)
• Tell students about the importance of providing feedback of the course as soon as the course starts. Remind them during the course implementation as well.
• Tell students what kind of feedback your course has received in the past and how it has affected your teaching. This will show students that the feedback they give matters, which in turn will motivate them to give it.
• If you wish, you can use Norppa to collect continuous (free-form) feedback during the course implementation. This doesn’t replace the final course feedback but allows you to make fine adjustments during the implementation.
• In addition to continuous feedback, you can create an interim feedback survey in Norppa if you wish. Again, this does not replace the final feedback on the implementation, but allows you to fine-tune the implementation during the course.
• Make time for feedback from the last teaching session (remember to open the feedback survey earlier).
• Make the most of the system! In Norppa you can
  • add your own questions to the feedback survey
  • adjust the feedback collection period to your preferences
  • track the feedback activity during the feedback collection period
  • publish free-form feedback you receive (it will be shown only to students in the course implementation, and you can hide inappropriate feedback individually from the eye icon)
  • respond to students’ feedback (counter feedback)

Feedback from the teacher creates a good feedback culture. It shows students that their feedback has been read and is having an impact on teaching. This encourages students to give constructive feedback in the future, too. Respond to students’ feedback as soon as possible after the feedback period ends.

The collection and processing of course feedback is based on the common principles of the University, which are described in more detail in the following appendix:

For support in using the course feedback system Norppa, please contact Teaching Helpdesk (teaching-helpdesk.tau [at] tuni.fi (teaching-helpdesk[dot]tau[at]tuni[dot]fi)).

Instructions for using the course feedback system Norppa

• Teacher's quick guide
• User rights and roles in Norppa
• Editing the feedback survey
• Schedules for collecting feedback
• Publicity of the feedback: who sees and what in Norppa
• Additional feedbacks: continuous feedback and interim feedback
• Reviewing feedback and counter feedback
• E-mail notifications

Teacher's quick guide: go through before your course starts

• Log in to Norppa and check that the courses and implementations for which feedback should be collected are listed in the system.
  • The feedback target is automatically generated based on the implementation data of the course in Sisu. Note: From the academic year 2024-2025 onwards, the type of Sisu implementation will no longer influence to the formation of feedback targets. A feedback target can therefore be generated from any Sisu implementation type as long as the feedback collection is not blocked by the implementation classification factor. A course can have one or more feedback targets depending on the structure of the course in Sisu. Please note that the student will only be attached to and respond to one survey per course. For this reason, the number of students enrolled for the implementation in Sisu may not be the same as the number of students in the feedback target in Norppa.
• If you wish, you can add your own questions to the survey and adjust the feedback collection time to your preference. By default, the feedback survey opens on the last day of the implementation and closes two weeks after the end date of the implementation.
• If you want to collect feedback already during the implementation, you can do it with Norppa: activate continuous feedback or create your own interim feedback survey. Remember to also inform your students about these feedback opportunities during the course.
• At the end of the feedback period, process the feedback and respond to the students' feedback.

If Norppa lacks feedback targets or you need help using the system, please contact: teaching-helpdesk.tau [at] tuni.fi (teaching-helpdesk[dot]tau[at]tuni[dot]fi)

User rights and roles in Norppa

The roles of responsible teacher, teacher, administrator and student are defined in Sisu and are automatically inherited from Sisu to Norppa. The data of the responsible teacher, teacher and administrator are inherited from the data of the person in charge of the implementation, the data of the student are transferred to the feedback target through the enrolment for the implementation. The responsible person data of the course is also inherited by Norppa, but with this role the visibility of the individual feedback target's feedback is more limited. In Norppa, therefore, the responsibility role coming from the implementation of Sisu is more significant.

As a responsible teacher and an administrator of course implementation, you can

• see all feedback of the implementation (numerical summary and written responses) in Norppa
• add your own questions to the feedback survey
• adjust the feedback collection time
• open and respond to continuous feedback on the implementation
• create an interim feedback survey for the implementation and respond to the given feedback
• respond to students' feedback (counter feedback)
• publish feedback to the students of the implementation at your discretion.

As a teacher of implementation, you can

• see the numerical feedback given to the implementation
• not edit the settings on the feedback survey

Student enrolled for the implementation can

• edit and delete their feedback (while the feedback survey is open)
• see the numerical feedback given to the implementation and the teacher's response to the feedback after the feedback period has ended
• see the written feedback given on the implementation, if the responsible teacher publishes it

Other roles

If you only have responsible person role for a course in Sisu (not the implementation), you will have the same rights as the teacher in Norppa, i.e. the right to view numerical feedback.

An unit-specific feedback liaison role is also defined in Norppa. In Sisu the organisation organising the course is most often the teaching unit and the right of feedback liaison is granted at this unit level. Each teaching unit (e.g. electrical engineering) has at least one feedback liaison. The feedback liaisons are nominated by the faculties and the user rights are granted through university's identity management (id.tuni.fi). The right may be temporary or indefinite.

The feedback liaison of the unit can

• edit the unit-specific settings
• close the feedback collection for specific courses, so that no feedback is collected of any of the course's course implementations
• control whether students who have responded to the feedback survey are shown to the responsible teacher if there are more than five respondents. The respondent will not be linked to the responses and the feedback will always be anonymous (unless the student provides some identifiable information about themselves in the feedback).
• add a common set of unit level questions, that will be visible on all unit's feedback surveys
• create a unit-specific survey
• see a summary view of the unit's feedback, as well as all feedback given (numerical and written feedback data) to the unit's course implementations
• download the unit feedback report (pdf or csv)

List of faculties' feedback liaisons can be found at the end of this page.

Editing the feedback survey

The feedback survey is automatically generated based on the course implementation data in Sisu. As the responsible teacher of the implementation, you can edit the survey in Norppa before the feedback collection period starts. You can edit the start and end dates of the survey from the "edit feedback period" button as follows

• both dates before the survey opens
• the end date while the feedback collection is running

Once the feedback period has ended, the dates can no longer be edited.

Feedback targets and university's common questions

The structure of the course in Sisu affects the number of feedback targets in Norppa: there can be one or more feedback targets for a course. However, only one feedback survey per course is available to the student. Primarily, the feedback survey will be opened for the implementation of the assessment item "Participation in teaching".  Please note that from the academic year 2024-2025 onwards, course feedback will also be collected for exams, internships and written assignments. By adjusting the Sisu implementation classification "Course feedback system in use" (yes/no), you can influence whether the feedback item is created in Norppa or not.

The feedback survey contains six university-level common questions, plus any questions common for the unit. The common questions cannot be deleted, but you can add your own questions to the survey.

University's common questions:

1. Which aspects of the course went well in terms of your learning?
2. How would you develop the course?
3. In your opinion, how well did you achieve the learning outcomes of the course? (sufficiently, satisfactorily, well, very well, excellently, cannot answer)
4. The work amount of the course in relation to the credits (approx. 27 h/credit) was (too heavy, somewhat too heavy, appropriate, somewhat too light, too light)
5. I think that non-discrimination and equality were achieved in the teaching situations (e.g. lectures) of the course. (strongly disagree, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree, strongly agree, cannot answer)
6. Give the course an overall assessment. (sufficient, satisfactory, good, very good, excellent, cannot answer)

Adding questions to the feedback survey

On "My feedback surveys" tab, you will find both ongoing and upcoming implementations for which you have been named as a responsible teacher in Sisu. The feedback survey can only be edited when the feedback period is not running, so be sure to make the necessary additions to the survey in time. By default, the feedback survey opens for students to answer on the end date of the implementation (defined in Sisu), but the responsible teacher can change the opening and closing date of the survey in Norppa.

Select the implementation for which you want to edit the feedback survey. Once you have opened the survey for the implementation you want to edit, navigate to the "Edit" tab. You can add your own questions or the text using "Add question" or "Add textual content" buttons at the bottom of the survey. If you have a perfect set of questions already made for some course implementation, you can copy the questions to the other survey in Norppa.

There is no ready-made question bank in Norppa. 

Types of questions in the survey

• Scale of values - 5 scale likert + can not answer, you can define the verbal equivalents yourself (e.g. sufficient, satisfactory, good, very good, excellent, cannot answer)
• Open question
• Single choice question - choose one
• Multiple-choice question - choose several

You can also add text to the survey by clicking on the "Add textual content" button. This allows you to, for example, add additional information to the feedback survey for respondents or to add a subject line at the beginning of your own questions.

Adding the grouping question to the feedback survey

Grouping allows you to see and compare answers of single Sisu groups in the feedback results. Norppa automatically groups students' answers based on their confirmed study sub group. If your course implementation does not have any meaningful study sub groups in Sisu or you want the students to manually choose their group, you may create a multiple choice question and mark it as a grouping question, to have students' answers be grouped based on it. A survey may have only one grouping question and it is always the first question in the form.

Please notice, that should any single group have 1-4 feedbacks, the grouping of results won't be available. This is to protect anonymity of students' answers. If you create your own grouping question, try not to ask too specific things or add options that might get less than 5 answers. The grouping question can be added to the feedback form in Norppa's Edit tab.

Schedules for collecting feedback

By default, the feedback survey will open on the last day of the implementation, based on Sisu data, and will close two weeks after the end date of the implementation. You can modify these default settings in Norppa as the responsible teacher. You can make changes to the feedback survey and its opening time until the survey opens.

As the responsible teacher, you will receive an automatic email notification one week before the feedback survey is about to be opened for students.

If you want to collect feedback during the implementation, you can use continuous feedback and/or you can create interim feedback survey.

Publicity of the feedback: who sees and what

The feedback given can only be viewed in Norppa and only by those people who are connected to the feedback target through either Sisu or through additional permissions granted via university's identity management (id.tuni.fi). What feedback each person sees in Norppa is defined by the so-called publicity settings:

• Public means that the feedback given can be seen by all people who are somehow involved in the course (students enrolled in the implementation, teachers, administrators). In addition, public feedback can be seen in Norppa with additional access rights granted through the university's identity management.
• Non-public means that the feedback given is only visible to the course implementation's responsible teacher, administrator and the unit's feedback liaison (the right is granted through the university's identity management).

The numerical feedback on the University's common questions is public and cannot be changed to non-public. Written answers to university's common questions are by default non-public. However, as the responsible teacher, you can edit the non-public written answers to public if you wish. Students enrolled in the course will then be able to see the written feedback given.

When you as a responsible teacher add your own questions to the feedback survey, choose whether you want them to be public or non-public. Public feedback will become visible to students of the implementation after the feedback survey closes.

Make the publicity settings before the feedback period opens. The student's Norppa view differs from the teacher's view, and the student does not see the publicity adjustments made by the teacher. Therefore, inform the students participating in the implementation about the level of publicity of the feedback you collect. It is recommended to regularly check the feedback already during the feedback collection process. If you notice, for example, inappropriate feedback or feedback with identifiable information, you can hide individual responses as the responsible teacher. Answers can be hidden on the feedback item page under the Answers tab. When publishing open feedback, take care of data protection, and do not publish feedback that identifies the student. For written answers, a student may inadvertently write something that identifies them or another student. Such feedback may not be published.

Additional feedback makes it possible to collect feedback already during the course. 

Continuous feedback allows the teacher to collect informal (written) feedback in Norppa. Continuous feedback closes when the actual course feedback survey for the implementation opens. The questions and opening period of the interim survey are determined by the the responsible teacher.

Continuous feedback

As the responsible teacher, you can collect feedback during the course if you wish. This is how you can start using the continuous feedback:

• Select the desired course and implementation on the "My feedback surveys" tab in Norppa.
• Select "Continuous feedback" from the implementation page.
• Select "Activate continuous feedback for the course implementation".

Continuous feedback is an open text field where you cannot add your own questions or answer options. The option to provide continuous feedback will appear on the student's Norppa home page. Please note, that students will not receive an automatic notification of the opening of the continuous feedback. Please inform students if you collect feedback during the implementation. You can, for example, share a link to the feedback page on the implementation’s Moodle platform.

The continuous feedback given will appear on the implementation page under "Continuous feedback". If you wish, you will receive a daily e-mail summary of the new continuous feedback to your e-mail. The continuous feedback given will be visible to the responsible teacher of the implementation. You can reply to the continuous feedback, the response will only be visible to the student who provided the feedback.

Interim feedback

In addition to continuous feedback, interim feedback is a form of feedback that complements the feedback of the course and can be used by the responsible teacher of the implementation if they wish. Interim feedback works in the same way as a normal course feedback survey: the view for the responsible teacher and the basic principles of creating a survey are the same as in the feedback survey that is activated at the end of the course implementation. The interim feedback survey does not include university's common questions. The feedback period of the interim feedback survey is decided by the responsible teacher.

Reviewing feedback and counter feedback

As a responsible teacher, you can view feedback provided in real time. However, please note that students can edit their feedback and delete it while the feedback survey is running. You can download the feedback summary as a csv or pdf file at any stage of the feedback collection process. This can be done on the implementation page under "Answers". Select "Download feedback" from the right side of the page. You will then be able to select the file format of your choice.

After the end of the feedback collection period, you can see a list of students who have given feedback, if there are at least five who have given feedback (on "Respondents" tab). There is no link between the person who gave feedback and the feedback given, so this list of students does not allow you to determine what feedback each student gave. If you don't wish to see the list of respondents, please contact your unit's feedback liaison, who can disable the functionality for the course. (List of faculties' feedback liaisons can be found at the end of this page.)

As a responsible teacher, you can respond to students' feedback directly in Norppa. The counter feedback will be given collectively for all feedback given on the implementation after the feedback collection period has closed. You can also edit your counter feedback after it has been submitted. The counter feedback will be visible in Norppa for all those who have enrolled for the implementation. Students will also receive an automatic email notification after submitting the counter feedback, if this option is selected in Norppa.

The teacher's response to feedback from students is an important part of the mutual feedback culture. Counter feedback indicates to students that the teacher has read their feedback and that the feedback given is meaningful. This encourages students to continue to give feedback. In your counter feedback, you can thank students for participating in the implementation and providing feedback, compile a summary of the given feedback, and highlight individual feedbacks that you feel are important, comment on them, and respond to them. Students appreciate the feedback, which informs about possible changes to the teaching, if the feedback received leads to such changes.

E-mail notifications

Norppa sends automatic e-mail notifications to the student and the teacher regarding the main course feedback of the course (at the end of the course).

The student receives a notification from Norppa when the feedback survey opens for response. The student will be reminded three days before the end of the feedback period if the student has not yet given the feedback.

The teacher will receive notifications from Norppa both before the feedback period opens and after it closes. The notifications will remind you of the steps to be taken at each stage of the feedback collection.

In addition to the automatic notifications, the teacher can choose to send additional reminders from Norppa, e.g. reminding students to provide feedback as the feedback deadline approaches. After giving counter feedback, the teacher can send a message to the students from Norppa, so that the counter feedback is also sent to the students by email.

Please note, that the continuous and interim feedback are forms of feedback surveys that do not send an automatic notification to the student. In these cases, share the survey link with students (e.g. via e-mail, Moodle) or direct them to Norppa.