The mission of the Jack Welch Management Institute is to transform the lives of our students by giving them the tools to be great leaders, build great teams and win in business.
To measure the effectiveness of our efforts to deliver on this promise the leadership team, faculty, and staff are hyper focused on student feedback in a way that has been traditionally considered customer feedback. Let there be no doubt; at the Jack Welch Management Institute, the student is our customer. We collect student feedback through many channels including surveys, social media monitoring, town hall interactions, conferences and individual interviews. In the ever changing landscape of the online MBA, when we listen to our students there is an opportunity to learn something new and improve their experience every day.
This week, we welcomed members of the JWMI Student Advisory and Alumni Board (SAB) to our offices. This group of incredibly dedicated individuals is committed to building the JWMI community, supporting student success and serving as JWMI brand ambassadors.
The meeting had two goals:
- To update the board on the state of the Institute
- To gather feedback on what was working and what the team needed to address
During our meeting, the leadership team provided insight into all aspects of the University. SAB members saw firsthand the changes made to each course with new content, the efforts to lead the education industry with the use of technology, a new training program for professors, improvements in advising, brand expansion efforts, and how each area contributes to student success and satisfaction.
Throughout the day, the JWMI team sought feedback on every aspect of the school. The exchange was very positive, candid and constructive, reassuring that our efforts are well placed. While we appreciate the positive remarks, the JWMI team is always eager to find improvement areas. For example, we received feedback on consistency in the classroom. SAB members provided feedback on how and where we need to align professors and content and they identified professors to praise and ones to review.
One of our students, Girija Raman offered that several professors held success sessions before each assignment. She went on to explain how helpful this practice is because it includes a review the instructions with the faculty member, areas of emphasis, the grading rubric and expectations. She also shared that not all professors did this and that it was a missed opportunity. This recommendation was an excellent example of a best practice that we can quickly standardize in every course. I walked out of that meeting ready to do just that; I walked out feeling that I had just found gold.
I feel incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to work with such an amazing group of students who are so committed to the Institute that they would take time out of their schedule to travel to meet with the team, and provide candid feedback and make us better every day. It is our ability to, as Jack would say learn from this opportunity and quickly change our practice is what will continue to make our program and student experience transformative.
This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.