Introducing Helena Hohn, ESAB member 2023-2024

The importance of feedback

Hi! My name is Helena. I am a bachelor student at the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience and since the beginning of 2024, a proud member of ESAB, the student advisory board of EDLAB.

I believe that giving feedback and having a place where your personal viewpoints on education are strongly valued, appreciated, and sought after is incredibly important. Realising that ESAB values my perspective conveys to me the feeling of being heard and understood as a student, which has also helped to increase my own educational motivation.

A platform for student voices

ESAB offers students this platform in a very informal way, making it easy to discuss personal thoughts, fears, ideas and perspectives on education innovation without any feeling of judgment. 

Before joining ESAB, I had never engaged in an educational committee or programme at the university. However, education has always been a prominent topic for me, as it is for every student. Discussing likes or dislikes about courses, tutoring methods, lectures, and educational opportunities is common among students, and ESAB provides a way to communicate these ideas to the university. 

This gives UM a chance to better incorporate the student's perspective, which is exactly what both students and the university seek.

Workshops and advice

ESAB offers every student the space to discuss and engage in topics they find important. It is also a great opportunity to engage with open-minded students from different faculties and discuss differences between educational programmes. We plan Student-Meets where all students are invited to gather and talk about education-related topics, such as the fear of failure.

Recently, we organised our own workshop for the UIM Education Days, where students, teachers, and all UM members could sign up to explore various education-related topics. Our workshop focused on understanding why student participation in course evaluations is so low. To investigate this, we created an online questionnaire to gather insights from students about their reasons for engaging or not engaging in feedback after completing a course. We presented our findings at the UM Education Days and offered advice on how UM members could increase participation in course evaluations.

Overall, I love the exchange of ideas with students from different faculties and recommend everyone interested in education to participate in our events or join our board. ESAB values every student's voice, ensuring it is heard!

By Helena Hohn, ESAB member, bachelors student  FPN