PIVOT and the Student Evaluation of FA20 Courses

Tue, 02 Feb 2021 14:02:41 -0500
analytics, online-learning, penniston, pivot, seeq, training

There is a statistically significant, positive relationship between a faculty member completing the Planning Instructional Variety in Online Teaching (PIVOT) training and elevated course-level average values on Student Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ) surveys (p<.001). For Fall 2020, SEEQs increased by about .08 for those who completed the training when compared with classes taught by instructors who did not (4.354 on a scale of 1-5). Courses taught by PIVOT-trained instructors also have increased Bb interactions, which are both indicative of improved engagement, and can also be leveraged for more precise predictive modeling to inform student outreach. DFW rates for PIVOT-instructed courses did not increase when compared with the pre-pandemic baseline.

DoIT’s ’s Instructional Technology team launched the PIVOT initiative during the Spring 2020 semester to support the needs of student, faculty, and staff thrust into fully online learning due to COVID-19. There have been 650 total participants in the PIVOT training, with 144 individuals completing the Live track, and another 283 completing the more extensive PIVOT Plus programming. Past survey evaluation has indicated students are very content with courses taught by PIVOT-trained faculty. The current analysis is based on a sample of 6,768 Blackboard (Bb) courses, beginning Fall 2019 through Fall 2020.

By Tom Penniston