HESA asked 5,886 current undergrads to rate, on a scale of 1 to 9, the importance of various factors that went into making a class a favourite. Most students reported that the single most important factor was "interesting subject matter," followed by "instructor's engaging teaching style" and "interesting course texts/materials."
While these may sound fairly obvious, consider that other factors commonly cited as equally vital to the classroom experience—small class size, technology and effective teaching assistants—were shown to be fairly unimportant in comparison.
Surprisingly then, a big class size is not necessary seen by students as a problem, so long as the teacher at the front of them is engaging and the subject matter is interesting. The findings also suggest that the active participation that comes with smaller classes isn't much of an issue for students either.
The report concludes: "The overall impression is that students view the learning process somewhat passively.
A kinder way of putting it would be to say that students wish to be 'engaged' or 'stimulated,' but the data could also be interpreted as saying that they simply want to be entertained."
What factors go into making your favourite course?
The numbers show a mean score out of 9:
Interesting subject matter 8.24
Instructor's engaging teaching style 7.85
Interesting course texts/materials 7.33
Interesting and challenging assignments 6.55
Helpful and knowledgeable teaching assistants 5.74
Intelligent contributions from other students 5.52
Use of up-to-date technology/equipment 5.51
Small class size 5.27
Easy workload 4.92