We are fast approaching mid-semester and it is a good time to review your course and solicit students’ views of how the course is going from their perspective. A comprehensive guide from Vanderbilt University walks you through the importance of evaluation and some best practices. It is important to remember these three steps:
- Solicit feedback: when soliciting views to make it quick and easy for the students to respond, for highest return give them time in class to complete any form. Try using this Microsoft Forms template based on the start-stop-continue model (also known as stop, keep, start) to get started. Alternatively, you can use this bank of questions to develop your own survey or try the four question model.
- Review the feedback. When you solicit feedback you will inevitably get positive and negative comments and not all constructive. It is important to process the feedback calmly and objectively. As you’re reviewing the feedback, look for patterns among student responses and organize the information in a way that will help you to succinctly share it with students.
- Respond to feedback. The most important part of showing students that their feedback matters is picking some actionable feedback to address as quickly as is reasonable. Make time in class for a conversation and/or consider sending out a video for further details. Let students know which parts of their feedback can and cannot be implemented, and be transparent in sharing the why behind your answers.