Unstructured (guided) interviews

An excellent way to gather feedback from students is to organise some unstructured interviews. Also known as a non-directive interview or a guided interview, this is any type of interview in which questions are not pre-arranged beforehand. They're more informal and free-flowing than a standard structured interview. Most importantly, the spontaneous nature of the unstructured interview allows you to change your approach in response to student feedback.

The interviewer also holds less power over the conversation when compared to a traditional interview—the focus being on the value of the stories being shared by the participants. This makes it an appropriate starting point when building genuine empathy is our end goal. Remember, the person conducting the interview doesn't have to be a member of staff. Consider asking a Student Rep to run the interview sessions. In fact, you might find that your students are more comfortable talking to a fellow student.

At this stage, we recommend you do this in small groups (5 to 8 students per group). If you decide to use Zoom to run the interviews, you can use the breakout room feature to keep the groups manageable. Keeping the interview sessions short also makes the process less time-consuming (this is the biggest problem with unstructured interviews compared to other research methods).

Here are some more tips to help you run successful unstructured interviews with your students:

1. Keep it conversational

Take an informal, conversational approach. When people are relaxed. they provide better and more honest feedback. Formality will put your students on guard and can create unneeded tension. Listen deeply instead of thinking or analysing. Take notes so that you can reflect on the comments made by your students later (after the interview has finished).

2. Keep it short

Also, keep your interview sessions short; 10 to 15 minutes should be fine. You can always ask students to submit any additional thoughts and ideas via email after the session.

3. Probe for detail, but do it artfully!

If speaking to an individual student, let their story unfold naturally. When conducting an informal interview, it is best to do it in context (in their space, not yours). For example, you might choose to run these in the student lounge rather than a lecture hall or seminar room when performing interviews. This will allow your students to relax, remember, and reveal how they really feel about their studies. However, if you want to ask them about attending a lecture, it might be a good idea to run the session in a lecture hall to help your students reflect on the experience.

4. Open-ended questions are best

Ask open-ended questions and avoid closed-ended questioning. Doing this will encourage your students to share their thoughts, feelings and opinions. Open-ended conversations go places. Closed-ended questioning leads to dead-ends and eliminates probing. Note: The exception is that closed-ended questions can be used to clarify something you think you heard.

5. Listen with your whole body

Use whole-body listening (Susanne Poulette Truesdale, 1990). Listen with an open heart and mind, and let empathy do its magic. This requires that you use more than just your ears: your brain must think about what is being said; your eyes should look at the speaker; your mouth must be quiet (or better yet closed); your body facing the speaker. Keep your hands and feet still (no fidgeting). Wait for your turn to speak. The most critical part of whole-body listening happens in your brain, which needs to be connected to the speaker.

6. Limit distractions and interruptions

The most obvious being auditory distractions, e.g. loud construction noises nearby. Also, avoid using a space where you are likely to be interrupted by other people, e.g., a shared office.

7. Give them space

This means two things: let the person talk without too much interruption, but also give them enough physical space to be comfortable. Also, be mindful of your body language and don't enter a person's safe space.

8. Validate responses

If you sit in silence, your students might assume that you are thinking and not listening. Guttural sounds—like "uh-huh", "oh", "right, and "okay"—provide positive validation that you are listening. Learn to make utterances like this instead of talking back or paraphrasing all the time.

9. Take notes and clarify what you think you've heard

Takes notes as participants speak (let them know that you'll be doing this, it is not a secret activity!). Ask questions to clarify what you've heard to avoid confusion or the misinterpretation of comments. However, don't over-clarify or put words in a person's mouth. Instead, try, "Let me see if I've got this right..." or something similar.

10. Moderate your interviews carefully

Doing this involves two things: pacing and leading. Pacing is the careful tracking of student responses with "uh-huh's" and other guttural noises. Leading is a deliberate interruption, usually by asking an open-ended question. Learn to balance questioning, responding and listening subtly. Remember, pace to demonstrate that you're listening and lead (question) to control the flow of the interview.

11. Build empathy

Try and get "Oh, wow" and "Oh, no" details from your students. Empathy is the key to whole-body listening. If you're not feeling their pain, then that is probably a sign of low rapport or poor listening skills. Show interest in what they say, ask open-ended questions (have we said that already!). Make sure you do all of this in a respectful way.