The week before the final week of the course, students are requested to submit an online evaluation about all aspects of the course. These include rating the faculty, the course content, the library, the tutoring service and the multimedia content. Course evaluations are one part of the rating system for the faculty.
My institution takes several steps to ensure that student expectations are being met. First of all, all students are treated with respect and are allowed the opportunity to voice their concerns to the instructor and advisors. The selected path the student decides to enroll in largely depends on their selected career path. As such, the courses students take help to prepare the student for their future careers. For example, the courses I teach in Medical Coding, help to prepare students for careers in Medical Coding. The student learns the process of coding medical claims and how to utilize different resources to assist in achieving accurate coding. As part of learning and understanding the various skills needed in order to be successful in course, the student is provided with a course syllabus that contains the various activities and graded assignments as well as necessary policies for the student to understand in order to be successful in the course. On the first day of class, the syllabus and course objectives are discussed in addition to best practices in order to encourage success within course.
The school personnel do several things.
1). Orientation -- They get the chance to met key personnel and a detailed tour of the campus and expectations are reinforced from the initial enrollment.
2). If a student misses class, they are contacted, or contact attempted, by the instructor and by their admission representative. E-mails also are sent. Determinations are attempted to find out the reasons for the absence(s).
3). Student surverys are completed for each term.
4). There are exit interviews on several levels. Academics -- how they liked the program; Career Services -- was one prepared for the job market; and Financial Services -- understanding their financial obligations for their education.
My school has focus groups to listen to students complaints, praises, and needs
Speaking of career assistance, in addition to surveys, exit interviews and evaluations, we also survey the employers of former students to ensure that our institution delivered the knowledge/skills students need to succeed in the workplace.
Students are given evaluations and we are shown them. I take them with a grain of salt knowing that some of my students would just prefer me to do a song and dance rather than actually require them to learn the material thoroughly
The school has a standard syllabus, which the instructor has the option to make necesary changes. The instructor also needs to come up a week-by-week course plan. The Syllabus highlights the activities, what students expect to learn each week, and how the final grade is decided.
Towards the end of the class, a course evaluation will be conducted so that the school and instructor to get valuable feedback from students for their satisfaction and suggestions for improvement.
As an instructor, you are are in a better position with trust, respect, and interactions with students to get the first hand feedback.
How do you address the issue of unmet expectations with the students, Charles? How do you address the issue with staff and faculty?
Jerry, how often do the survey entries lead you to a conversation with students? If you have identified a core group of thoughtful students, have you considered creating an advisory panel of students that would meet regularly to give you feedback?
Our institution does student evaluations at the end of each session, has exit interviews with every student. We also have a great career assistance team
We have surveys that the students fill out each mod. to assess if we are meeting their expectations.
I agree Ami, They are an excellent method to learn more about student reactions, expectations and desired alterations. I want to know how well I have presented the material. Do they understand what to do with it and how they apply the information practally.
At the end of each mod the students are asked to give input to see if there expectations are being met...
Just before the end of each term, students are given a survey asking their opinion of the course. The survey also includes questions regarding the books that are used, and the instructors. During in-service, instructors get a copy of the surveys that have been taken so that we know where we can improve.
I agree, surveys are a great way to get feedback from the students to use in self improvement as an Educator or Administrator. We as the institution must ensure that we are using this information to make changes to meet student expectations ensuring satisfaction. I often hear students say they are not getting all they were told when the came to enroll in different programs. This then leads to students wanting to drop out of the program.
We too have student surveys that are given and evaluated each quarter. These surveys reflect the effectiveness of the instructor, the course, and the school itself. As a program director, I am in a unique position where I can actually talk to the students on a more individual basis and get their feedback in a more confidential setting. This information, providing it is accurate, is invaluable. I can use this to identify issues that may involve presentaion of material or even if the objectives rquired by accrediting bodies are being met. Most importantly, it helps solidify my relationship with the students which provides them with a sense of voice..ie they do have a voice and are being listened to.
Loren, what I meant was that the score that I recieved on the student evaluation was an averaged score, for overall performance. I would like to see the complete document, to see if there was any really low or a lower svcore that might give me some information to improve my teaching. I think that is what I meant. I seem to have lost the thread, so I'm going on what I wrote on the forum. I removed the reply that was a short one, Loren. I found this one. I remembered what I had said, I think! Sorry if this was confusing.
Richard, why do you think that it's important to see the scoring for each item?
Allowing students to participate in advisory board meetings is a different twist. How often do they take advantage of this opportunity? Have they had an impact on the curriculum?
At my institution, we also do student surveys and evaluations concerning their learning experiemce. This is an accepted way of retaining students. What concerns me is that the faculty, who receive feedback on student's evaluation of the instuctor, sometimes does not see the entire document that is provided to the student. We only are given an average of all the data that went into the evaluation. I would prefer to see each item that was scored. As far as exit interviews, I cannot recall ever having the results of those interviews shared with faculty. I feel that until that is done, the process of retention is not complete. It is frustrating to hear about retention, but I would rather know how the institution is doing to retain students, on a global basis.
