GATHERING MID-TERM FEEDBACK
One way to find out how students are experiencing your class before your end-of-semester course evaluations is to gather feedback from them during the semester. There are two important categories of student feedback: what are they learning and how are they perceiving the class? Another FDC tip-sheet describes ways to collect informal information about actual student learning throughout the semester by using classroom assessment techniques. This tip-sheet describes how to gather early feedback on students’ perceptions of their learning by administering some form of mid-term evaluation. These formative assessments provide targeted information to you about student perspectives of the class that you can use to confirm or change your teaching choices.
Mid-term feedback forms differ from end-of-semester evaluations in two important ways. First, their purpose is to provide some insights for you, the instructor, about student perceptions of their learning in the class, and they are seen only by you. Second, the questions asked on the form are usually more open-ended than formal class evaluations, though you may ask specific questions that you rate with a numerical scale. Some common questions to ask students on mid-term feedback forms are:
- Do you typically know what you are expected to do to prepare for and participate in this class? If not, please explain why not.
- What aspects of this course and your instructor's teaching help you learn best?
- What specific advice would you give to help your instructor improve your learning in this course?
- What steps could you take to improve your own learning in this course?
The last question above is important because it reinforces the idea that your students, too, need to take responsibility for their learning.
You can also ask students how specific aspects of the course are affecting their learning and collect their perceptions on a rating form. For example, you can ask students about particular readings or labs, or how a certain class exercise worked for them. You can generate your own questions or select from some sample questions for different class formats that the FDC can provide.
Some faculty ask students to complete the questionnaire outside of class, or they provide it as a survey on Blackboard or on Google Forms. These approaches save class time, but they may result in a lower response rate. It may be worth a few minutes of class time to get broader participation.
In the digital age, faculty are exploring new ways to collect this information. Some faculty pose questions and have students respond using a classroom response system such as clicker technology or various smartphone apps. Not too long ago a faculty member who writes a blog for the Chronicle of Higher Education described using Google Docs to allow students to answer anonymously and edit their fellow student responses:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/make-your-midterm-evaluations-public-with-google-docs/38680
The final steps in gathering mid-term feedback are to compile the responses and talk with your students about what you learned. Which of their suggestions can you incorporate into the class now? Which ones are not appropriate to incorporate and why? Showing students that you care about and are responsive to their perceived needs can be a powerful motivator for them. And in the process you receive feedback that can help you make mid-term changes to create a more positive class environment for student learning.
