When creating a Course, the "Steps In This Course" section includes "Business Owner" as an option, like so:
The "Business Owner" is the person that a Step's feedback will be sent to. The moment you add someone as the Business Owner for a particular Step, learners can send private feedback directly to that individual!
Why only one Business Owner?
It's More Direct
It's assumed that one Course-Step combo has one business head/leader interested in its outcome. For example, the person who'd most likely want to hear feedback for all Steps focusing on Anti-Money Laundering would be the head of the Money Fraud Department.
Rather than have person's A through D forward it to each other and eventually to the one who actually needs it, the main individual can get it directly.
There's also zero chance that feedback will "accidentally" disappear before it reaches its destination.
It's More Honest
The Business Owner feature is meant to allow learners to avoid authors entirely.
Learners can tell Business Owners the truth:
directly through internal channels;
without being scrutinized by others;
without the risk of authors reprimanding learners,
without the risk of authors rephrasing feedback to favour their work.
This is what we call the "honesty engine."
To ensure authors aren't twisting the truth about their Step's feedback, you can set one non-author Business Owner of your choosing per Course-Step combination.
What if you want more than one Business Owner?
Shared accountability means no accountability. Having one sole Business Owner makes sure that one person is held accountable and will actually do what they need to do with the feedback received - no "passing the buck" here.
Pro Tip: if you're worried that a particular Business Owner might not manage feedback the way you expect, they may not be the best candidate for that role.
What about the Step's author?
This feature isn't for authors, it's for those who're responsible for results at the end of the line.
If the author happens to also be the one responsible then by all means have them take it on. Otherwise, keep feedback honest by ensuring learners' feedback is fully and completely heard by the individuals who're meant to hear it.