SUBMITTED BY:David Bloom, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and DemographyWHAT YOU TRIED:Every two weeks during the fall semester, students sign up to meet with the teaching team (two lead instructors and two graduate teaching fellows) in groups of four to provide real-time feedback on how the course format, content, and delivery is being received by the class. These meetings help students hone the critical skill of providing constructive feedback to colleagues. Students solicit input from their classmates in advance of the meetings and thus serve as rotating representatives of their cohort. Suggestions, which are often adopted, have included incorporating more discussion and current events into the sessions, as well as modifying exam formats, inviting specific guest speakers, and spending more (or less) time on class discussion. This has been a successful real-time mechanism for ensuring that students are getting the most out of the course while growing relevant professional communication skills among them.WHAT YOU WISH YOU’D KNOWN PRIOR:The “quality circle” innovation has taught me that most students have serious and well-founded views with regard to what is, or is not, working well in the classroom and lots of solutions to offer to improve the teaching and learning experience.BENEFITS:The main benefit is faster cycle time - in the sense that we can make real-time adjustments to the course content and its delivery, rather than having to wait until the next time the course is taught. By involving students in the course design, the quality circle innovation also promotes greater student engagements in the course — which presumably translates into deeper learning.