Shift!

What, Why, & When[edit]

Shift! is a dialogue-based approach that enables teachers and students at Leuphana to jointly give qualitative feedback on their courses and enables agreements to be drawn up for further cooperation.

Goals[edit]

Shift! serves as a tool to collect, analyse, and interpret qualitative course feedback, with the aim of integrating the insights into subsequent sessions or in the teacher’s future course design.

Background[edit]

Shift!, in the sense of “shifting your perspective”, was first created at Leuphana University by Team Q (Responsible for quality management in teaching and studying, integration into the teaching service since 2025) and the teaching service (Service unit for teaching and teaching development) in dialogue with teaching staff in the winter semester 2016/17 and has been continuously evolving since. Shift! has been scaled up with moderation training for students since 2022.

Its origins lay in the teaching staff’s need for qualitative feedback beyond the already-established, mainly quantitative, survey method. The qualitative method Shift! can be used in diverse settings, e.g., small or larger groups, for feedback on specific topics, or joint solution finding by the participants, etc. It provides an alternative or supplement to the standardized quantitative course evaluation, which is centrally supported by the administration in terms of methodology/process and results.

In contrast to other qualitative feedback approaches, like e.g., the Teaching Poll Analysis (TAP), the focus of Shift! is on direct dialogue. For TAP, external moderators first have a conversation with students about three standardised questions, and then a separate discussion with the teacher about the results, with the final discussion and agreement seeking not being moderated externally. Shift! moderators ask for topics and questions for discussion from students and teachers separately first, but then the focus is on jointly framing the supported dialog and creating a space for developing and recording ideas for improvement together.

Getting Started[edit]

Teachers can sign up for a Shift! session at the beginning of each semester by email to shift@leuphana.de. Shift! usually takes place in the middle of the semester but can also be used at the beginning or end of a semester, depending on its purpose and the teachers' specific needs; for instance, when teachers want to receive feedback and make changes to their teaching during, or reflect on the course at the end of the semester.

After signing up for the format, teachers are contacted by the Shift! moderators to set a date for a short briefing. There, teachers outline their ideas and expectations for the Shift! session, which are distilled into key questions that serve as the basis for the in-class dialogue. Students enrolled in the seminar also get contacted and have the opportunity to formulate their concerns to contribute to the thematic focus of the session.

For a constructive feedback session, at least five students should participate. The session usually lasts 45 to 60 minutes and is led by a team of two Shift! moderators. The moderators are either staff from the Teaching Service and student moderators or tandems of student moderators who have received in-depth moderation training.

Typical structure of a Shift! session

Structure of a Shift! session[edit]

The session is structured in four phases:

1. Presentation of the Shift! format[edit]

Shift! Starts with a brief introduction of the format and the workshop agenda. The moderators suggest rules for communication and discussion and present the key questions from the briefing with the teacher and from the students’ input.

2. Working on the pre-agreed key questions in small groups[edit]

The participating students of the seminar discuss the questions in small groups. They collect their answers either on pieces of paper, digitally via a Miro board or Power Point, or other tools that are suitable for data collection and analysis. The method thus produces qualitative data. During the student discussion, the teacher leaves the room in order to create a safer space for the students to address their concerns, and to work on questions that the Shift! team formulated for them specifically to deepen the teacher’s reflection.

3. Plenary discussion[edit]

The different group answers are presented, discussed, and clustered according to the questions. The participants and teaching staff have the opportunity to exchange viewpoints as well as arguments for the points made, while the Shift! moderators facilitate the interactions between the two parties.

4. Joint agreement on further cooperation and development of the course[edit]

In order to implement the results of the plenary discussion, the moderators note down agreements, which the teacher and students approve of. This can be done on a poster or digitally on a Miro board or Power Point. After the session, the teacher receives a short report documenting the results with the joint agreements, and a certificate of attendance can be issued.

Strengths & Challenges[edit]

Strengths[edit]

Shift! sessions are a conscious dedication of time for dialogue between the students and teachers. Depending on the timing of the session, this can either create a clear structure of the course in the beginning, outline how it can be improved, or simply provide in-depth qualitative feedback at the end of the semester, which can, in turn, lead to improved teaching and learning outcomes. It can also foster understanding between students and teachers, and taking joint responsibility for successful teaching and learning.

The design of the session is very flexible. The group size of students can vary from a handful in small seminars to several dozen in large lectures. Depending on the situation, a more direct exchange of experiences can take place between students and teachers, or, in the case of bigger courses, the small groups can appoint representatives for steps 3 and 4.

The Shift! feedback tool is evaluated at regular intervals. Teachers rate Shift! as very helpful. The evaluation results since winter semester 2022_23 can be found on the website: https://www.leuphana.de/einrichtungen/universitaetsverwaltung/qualitaetsentwicklung/evaluation-feedback/shift.html

Insight into the evaluation of Shift! by teachers

Challenges[edit]

In order to successfully carry out Shift!, open and committed teachers and students are needed who live an appreciative feedback culture. Furthermore, resources are needed to enable Shift!, with i.a. well-trained moderators, Shift! coordination, and session materials. Just like the quantitative feedback format, Shift! is not perfectly suited for every teaching format, for instance, very large lecture halls. Although it is possible in general, in these cases, it is not always feasible to equally integrate the views of all students. One solution can be to form small working groups, each of which selects a spokesperson who represents them in the discussion with the teacher.

However, only those students who participate in the course and therefore in the Shift! session get to share their views. Giving students the opportunity to hand in their concerns anonymously before the discussion mitigates the effect. The joint agreements, however, often reflect the voices of the already engaged students, who might not be able to point out structural flaws in the course design that hinder others in their participation.

Normativity[edit]

Conducting a Shift! session is a normative process: the constant discussion and development of teaching in academia and what we - students and teachers, members of academia but also society - want it to be.

This process is currently biased due to the group of lecturers who use Shift! and, consequently, in the selection of assessed courses. Predominantly, lecturers who make improving and developing teaching a priority will put the organisational effort, like allocating time in their curriculum, into a Shift! session. These teachers tend to have a specific teaching philosophy, are ready to have eye-level discussions with students, and probably have a good level of communication with their students to begin with. Another potential bias is that teachers who work with qualitative methods in their research are more inclined to implement Shift! as feedback format.

This is directly connected to general challenges of improving the process of teaching, from an understanding of teaching as passing on knowledge toward an understanding of teaching as facilitating opportunities for learning. Learning from mutual perspectives in the process will support that transition and allow for including societal changes, such as the emergence of AI, concepts of New Work, and thus New Teaching and Agile Teaching in co-creative ways. Moreover, it impacts the communication culture between different hierarchical levels at Leuphana for all members involved in the process, as the Shift! sessions encourage them to interchange their perspective and also promote reflection and communication about it.

Outlook[edit]

From its beginning, a central aspect of Shift! has been its continuous adaptation and development to facilitate its goals of improving teaching at Leuphana. Its ongoing development tackles many of the aforementioned challenges, including how the format can be introduced to more and a wider array of courses, how feedback can become a more integral part of academia, and how Shift! can contribute to that development.

Become a student Shift! moderator![edit]

Currently, a moderation training course consisting of training, practical moderation and reflection for students takes place at the beginning of each winter semester. You can find more information here: https://www.leuphana.de/lehre/qualitaetsmanagement/evaluation/shift/shift-moderatorinnen.html

Shift! moderation training outline

Links & Further reading[edit]

• Shift!-Homepage: www.leuphana.de/shift.de (Accessed 07.03.2025)
• Weitzel, Julia, Timmann, Anke, Franz-Özdemir, Melanie, Grunert, Cornelia, Reimann, Jürgen, Sachse, Anna-Linda, Salzmann, Sara, Weiss, Petra & Wessel, Karin (2022).
• Dialogische Feedback- und Evaluationsverfahren für die Hochschulentwicklung. In Nora Leben, Katja Reinecke & Ulrike Sonntag (Hrsg.), Hochschullehre als Gemeinschaftsaufgabe. Akteur:innen und Fachkulturen in der lernenden Organisation (S. 107-119). Bielefeld: wbv Publikation. https://doi.org/10.3278/6004857w107
• Brehl, A. & Cramer, I. (2025): Shift! Qualitatives Feedback in der Lehre. Vortrag zur Frühjahrstagung des AK Hochschulen der DeGEval (13.03.2025 Fachgespräch III).

The author of this entry is Antonia Ucher.