Welcome to the Tuesday Teaching Tip, an easy-to-implement tool that you can use immediately in your classroom teaching.
TUESDAY TEACHING TIP: Collect Midterm Student Feedback
Mid-course student feedback is a formative process of collecting data from students about how your course is going for them and what could be done to improve the learning experience. As the name suggests, the data collection happens in the middle of an academic term and is a good teaching practice. Collecting feedback around the middle of the term allows you to make changes that benefit your students while they are still in your class, and can lead to more positive end-of-term evaluations as well.
This week, we encourage you to seek midterm feedback from your students
Here’s two ways to do it
- Create a quick Google Form to collect feedback about key questions you want to know, or use a heuristic like Stop/Start/Continue (also called Keep/Quit/Start):
- Stop: Describe any practice that occurs during class that detracts from your learning and you would like to stop.
- Start: Describe any practice that would support your learning that you would like me to start using during class.
- Continue: Describe 1-2 practices that take place during class that you would like to see continue.
- Use VoiceThread to collect dynamic, multimodal student feedback where students can choose to respond via audio, video, or text. Create a slide with 2-3 prompts related to the class environment and learning experience. For instance, you might ask:
- What is working well for you in this class to support your learning?
- Is there anything that could be changed to better support your learning in this class?
- I try to create an inclusive environment in which all students have an opportunity to learn and feel capable of contributing. Please let me know how you have felt included in the learning community and/or how you have felt excluded from the learning community.
Whether you select one of the two methods above, or choose another, be sure to address the feedback in class:
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- Report the results back to your students promptly and show appreciation for their thoughtful responses. You can talk about the trends you see. It may be that half the class prefers one pedagogical strategy and the other half prefers something else. This gives you the chance to share with your class why you’re approaching things a certain way. Doing so also reminds your students that you are trying to meet the needs of many learners in your class.
- Let your students know what you will change and why you may not make other changes. This type of "transparent" teaching helps students understand your rationale and how your choices are connected to your learning goals for them.
DID YOU DO IT?
Let us know how it went. We would love to hear your feedback about how you implemented today’s Tuesday Teaching Tip in your classroom. Click here to fill out our 3-question survey. The survey is anonymous, but if you choose to enter your name, you’ll be entered in a drawing at the end of the quarter to win a new book from Faculty Development!
UPCOMING EVENTS
- CAFE: Supporting Students Experiencing Grief & Bereavement on Wednesday, February 4 RSVP
- First Fridays Shut Up & Write on Friday, February 6 RSVP
- Finding Hope in Difficult Times with Dave Feldman and Diane Dreher on Tuesday, February 10 RSVP
- Shut Up & Make it Accessible on Thursday, February 12 RSVP
WANT TO READ A LITTLE MORE?
This week’s Tuesday Teaching Tip was prepared by Caitlin Flynn on behalf of the Faculty Development and the Center for Teaching Excellence.
Missed a teaching tip? Read them all here.
And check out our full calendar of CAFEs and other Faculty Development events.
