Responses to Student Feedback - British Romanticism (Alan Rawes)

BRITISH ROMANTICISM: REVOLUTION, TRANSGRESSION, EXPERIMENTATION

Most students reported that their attendance was good. Students found the course challenging in ‘good’, ‘interesting’, ‘engaging’ and ‘inspiring’ ways. Many thought that the seminar discussions particularly helped their learning and development, describing class discussions as ‘useful’, ‘brilliant’, ‘organic and fun’. A large number of students also liked the focus on close-reading skills and essay writing techniques.

Students felt their studies were supported by a range of helpful resources, including the course textbook, JSTOR and the library’s substantial holdings in Romanticism. Many students on the course also particularly appreciated the tutor’s feedback on their essays, both written and in seminars, finding it ‘constructive’, ‘very useful’, ‘extremely helpful’. The course involved a seminar devoted to essay writing as part of the feedback on coursework essays. Students found this session very helpful, though some thought such a session should come before the essay submission date. I will certainly consider this suggestion in future.

A number of students commented on the fact that there were problems with the Blackboard provision for this course this year. This was regrettable, but was eventually sorted out and I don’t anticipate similar problems in the future.  Finally, a few students felt that that they would have liked more structure to the course, with a list of texts set by the tutor available in advance. However, the course actively encourages students to be involved in the choice of texts studied, allowing them to follow their own interests as these develop over the course. I would hope to hold on to this feature of the course in future years.