Amanda & Jean,
You are right on target. Adjusting your teaching based on students' learning styles is important. Remember that the students may even have dual learnings styles so the more information you provide to students in a variety of ways, the better.
Thanks to you both for you input.
Jean- Great answer! I completely agree with trying to change the learning styles according to the student's needs!
Amanda Doherty
Melissa,
Student evaluations provide viable information to help edit the course or activities so that they are more effective the next time taught. Students are typically honest and provide detailed information. However, it is important to get feedback from others such as your peers.
Nice job.
Jean,
It is a great system when you ask students what should I "start" doing, "stop" doing, and "continue" doing? This "start, stop, continue" activity is an effective way to gather information from the students and change the way you interact with the students in the classroom (whether face-to-face or online).
Knowing that students learn in a variety of ways and being able to adapt your teaching to deliver content in a variety of ways is also effective in the when teaching.
Nice job.
I believe that student evaluations would be the most comprehensive type of feedback. It allows you to see how you are coming across to the students and allows you to make changes if need be for next time around. The students are your audience and it's important to hear their thoughts, opinions, etc.
I get the most feedback from my students through surveys, I think it helps a lot from improving my teaching methods, grading strategies and even how I conduct my lecture sessions. I also get good feeback from reviewing the course at the end of the term to find out which assignments students seemed to struggle and how I may be able to clarify things to make things go smoother for the students.
I really like your idea of asking the students about what I should stop or continue doing.
Just knowing that could allow even more time for another subject that might be more complex and that needs more time for explanation.
Plus, it helps to know if how you are presenting the information is getting across the way you intended.
I try to present material in at least 2 different ways, most of the time 3 ways. This way I'm hitting the majority of learning styles. But if I were able to cut down the time explaining I could cover the material more in depth. Obviously, if the class was still divided in their learning styles the modification would be less than if everyone had a more centralized style.
Tara,
Using a variety of methods to get feedback provides more feedback. This is a good thing. Also, students may provide different feedback than your peers and it's good to get a variety of people to review different aspects of the course.
The kicker is. . .you have to use the feedback! Review/update the course. It's a continuous cycle.
Eleni,
Your input is on target. Meaningful feedback does come from students. It is essential to gather that feedback and make necessary changes to the course, syllabus, etc.
I agree with you that student feedback helps the instructor become a better teacher.
Nice job.
I believe that interviews may be significant in closing the loop. Also, I understanding there are multiple methods to use in working towards any exit evalaution.
I think evaluations are a great way for the student and instructor to see the progress from both ends. If a student sees that they improved, they will be happy and respect the intructor more for thier hard work. It will also help the instructor see that the work they put into thier job has been a success.
Valerie,
Correct! You do learn about your students through student evaluations. However, make sure you are assessing them throughout the course (formative) because if you are just doing summative (at the end) assessments of your students, then you learn about them as they are heading "out the door" at the end of the course.
Each set of students in each course are different. Thanks for you input.
The most meningful and comprehensive feedback would come from my students. I place a great deal of value on what they thought of the course, its design etc. I believe feedback from students gives me a glimpse into how they experienced the course.
I prefer anonymous feedback,I feel students are more forthright when its anonymous.
The key to student feedback is how you utilize the information. I usually group mine into categories, look for patterns in student comments.
I believe feedback from the students has made me a better instuctor, has improved my course content as well as meet my department's expectations for the course.
I agree...the student evals are one of the most important...that way we learn how the student styles of learning are...if we don't get through to them, then we are not teaching them properly.
Robert,
The lack of visual cues is important to understand. Effective questioning is key to understanding/measuring what the students understand.
Thanks!
Mary,
You are correct in that an overall evaluation is what instructors should be looking for in their online course. The more variations in feedback the more information you'll gather as you review and edit your course, activities, etc.
Nice job.
I like the idea of question tools because as I watch my students progress, I don't have a visual to gauge them, so having question tool at certain points will help to make sure the material is understood, or if a revision may be needed.
I don't believe that there is any single method that would close the loop. The multiple levels of feedback may change from cohort group of students to cohort group of students or from course to course or program to program.
As long as students, faculty, advisory board, administrative staff and all stakeholders are included; comprehensive feedback like this should provide a good overall evaluation of outcomes, programs and coursework.
Dian,
You are correct - the final project should "put it all together." Studnets many times can repeat information they have memorized, but to apply what they have learned is very different.
Students should be encouraged or requireed to respond to their peers to develop good communicatioin and collaboration. There are also rubrics to help students understand what is an acceptable response, etc.
Nice job!
The final section "Creating Multiple Evaluations" in module 4 shares why feedback should be comprehensive overall to close the loop. One of the things I’ve found helpful is a final project that asks the students a series of questions that I think could be categorized as an “interview†process. In that paper, I ask students to share 3 things they found most important in their learning, why they will remember those/or chose them, how they will be able to apply them in their current or future work, etc. Along the way in the course material, I also include a couple of what I call “teach-backs†– where I ask students to use a forum to teach back to their classmates what they learned from that particular module, chapter reading, week’s studies that they felt was most important. I ask them to be Socratic in their reply posts to 2 other students, and create a question to further their critical thinking development.
