Teaching in Higher Ed

Course evaluation reflections

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I've been inspired by Doug McKee (past guest on the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast and co-host of the Teach Better podcast) on a number of occasions.

In this case, I've been inspired by his courage to share his course evals online and reflect on what worked, what didn't, and what changes he will make in each course he teaches.

His recent post describes how he extracts value from course evaluations. I will follow a similar process below.

Fall 2014 course evaluations

At our university, we don't typically get our course evaluations back until well into the next semester. I received mine on February 20, 2015, which is sooner than they've been in past years, but still not soon enough for me to have made any significant adjustments to this semester's courses.

Those of us with tenure only have half of our courses evaluated each semester, creating a bit of a gap in the feedback process. Still, there are lessons to be gleaned each time I review the evaluations.

Quantitative results

In both classes that were evaluated (Introduction to Business and Sales and Sales Management), the evaluations were rated higher than the national average. This feedback is typically not very valuable to me, since having my institution's data to compare myself to might be a better data set to use.

However, there are some detailed questions toward the end of the quantitative section that tend to help me put things in perspective. The items that typically help me remember who is was who was providing me feedback include:

  • What grade are you anticipating in the course?
  • How much effort did you put into the course?
  • The workload for this course was _____ (heavier, about the same, lighter than) other courses you took this semester.

Sometimes, there will be one or two students who anticipate earning a D or an F in the course. In those instances, there are also anomalies on the quantitative results such as one person that marks that I didn't have a command of the English language, or that I treated people unfairly, based on their gender. I haven't ever been marked down for not speaking English well, or treating people unfairly, except in those cases where one or two students anticipate not earning a passing grade.

I realize it is correlation, not causation, that I'm describing here. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that perhaps in those cases, it has less to do with me needing to work on my ability to speak English and more to do with me needing to keep a pretty thick skin during the course evaluation process for those students with more of an external locus of control who aren't likely to pass the class.

Introduction to Business quantitative results

outcomes

communication

interaction

outcomes

effort

Sales and Sales Management quantitative results

m-organizationm-communicationm-interactionm-courseoutcomeseffort

 

Qualitative results

I find the qualitative data on course evaluations to be far more beneficial for me. I often wonder if a simple net promoter score might be able to take the place of all the other quantitative data.

Of course, I recognize that I don't have access to any institutional data. I just see my raw scores and the national mean. It seems like a whole lot of time and expense that goes into data that isn't very actionable in my case. However, perhaps it is more beneficial for my institution than I realize.

Our quantitative data essentially gets to the question of what worked and what didn't, though it isn't phrased in those exact works. Here are the results from my fall classes.

Introduction to Business (n=29)

What worked:
  • Pencasts (n=6)
  • Everything (n=5)
  • EdTech tools (n=4)
  • Interactive teaching style (n=4)
  • Business plan project (n=3)

I am not including those comments that only came up once or twice.

One of the most humorous comments to me was when one student said what helped her learn was “Dr. B's calmness.” Wow. That's not something I get every day. Enthusiasm? Yes. But, calmness? That's a first.

What didn't work:
  • Everything worked (n=9)
  • Case studies (n=4)

I am skipping the two other comments that only came up once, though if you're interested, one student didn't like that I had them use Zotero and another didn't like that I had reading assignments in the course. Can you imagine that? A professor who assigns reading?

What I think is interesting about the case studies is that there were a number of comments on those items about them not being graded. Therefore, the students indicated that they didn't take them as seriously and didn't learn as much from them. I feel a bit stuck in my thinking between Ken Bain's advice to have there be opportunities for feedback before any grade gets assigned to something… and the accountability that comes from a stricter grading process.

I do look over all the students' cases in the class and there are points associated with them. However, the vast majority of the time, the students walk out with the full points and they don't feel the pressure to perform well.

Sales and Sales Management (n=16)

What worked?
  • Role plays (n=3)
  • Real-world scenarios/experiences (n=9)
  • Sales challenge #3 (where they visit a company and do a final role play with a business professional they've never met) (n=7)
  • Increased confidence (n=3)
  • Relationship with the professor (n=3)

I skipped those comments that only came up once or twice.

What didn't work?

There weren't any items that came up more than once. However, I do plan on making changes as to the accountability on the blogging assignments when I teach this course in the future. I've started using a Google doc form to track submissions and my first trial run was a success.

Next steps

I've taught both of these courses many times (Intro to Business 30+ classes and Sales and Sales Management 10+ classes). I write new exams each semester, in an attempt to lower the opportunities to cheat. I also bring in fresh examples of what's happening in the business world each class session.

There are many affirmations in the assessments above that encourage me in my teaching. I commit to making the following changes next time I teach these courses:

  • Use a Google doc form to track blog submissions, as described above, and do not waiver in the slightest on the due dates/times.
  • Consider being more stringent in my grading of the cases and perhaps having the students be required to complete them as a group before they come to class on the day they are being discusses.
  • This one isn't related to the evaluations, but I also want to start showing students a TurnItIn.com originality report before they submit their first assignment. It can be just one more way I can minimize the potential for academic dishonesty.

[reminder]Have you received your course evaluations back from last semester yet? What changes are you implementing for the next time you teach those classes?[/reminder]

 

Feedback and grading workflow guest on Mac Power Users

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feedback-workflow

A couple of weeks ago, I was the mini workflow guest for the Mac Power Users podcast, episode 240.

Katie and David were in rare form. It was David's birthday and perhaps nearly the last episode he recorded prior to announcing that he was going solo with his law practice…

I spoke about how to use screencasting to give feedback to students in a way that students report seems more authentic, honest, and helpful.

It's the first 15 minutes of their live show, recorded live on February 7, 2015, episode 240.

Listener Follow Up

I heard from a couple of Mac Power Users, after the episode, which was so rewarding.

David M. from Qatar wrote to say that he purposely doesn't include a track changes document for his students, as he wants to be sure they listen carefully and digest more of the feedback that way.

I hadn't clarified on the episode that I don't do track changes for the purpose of making corrections to the students' papers, either. I use the Word (or other) documents to place written comments or to highlight things.

David described more of his process for me:

Amongst other areas of EFL, I teach a lot of writing classes.

I am always concerned about the level of feedback I give students in their drafts. Too much and I am basically writing it for them and too little and I am not helping them.

I began to do feedback by screen cast using Camtasia and MS Word or PDFPen.

I read the essay before casting and then go through it asking for clarification, correcting errors and pointing out poor vocabulary, grammar, etc. I do type into the Word file but importantly I do not send them back the file with corrections, in fact I do not save my changes.

This forces students to listen, understand and fix their own errors.

I post the videos on Vimeo with a password only the student knows. Vimeo is great because I can track how often the students watch the video (up to 8 times). I do have a paid account and uploading can be a little slow but those negatives are not outweighed by the ease and tracking functions.

Tom S. also wrote to say that he uses screencasting in his business. He finds the feedback gets followed through on much more like his original intent when he uses this form of communication.

Tom wrote:

I am a Sales Vice President for a mid-sized electric manufacturing company in Connecticut.

Over the past year I’ve been using Tapes as a mode to provide feedback to not only my direct reports (regional sales managers) as well as my peers on the executive team at the company.

I do this often with financial reports such as excel documents as well as detailed word documents such as contracts and strategic planning documents.

The feedback that my team has about the process is incredible and I’ve found that the understanding and implementation of the feedback I provide is faster and more in-depth.

Reaching Out

I even got to touch base with Betsy Weber, Chief Evangelist for TechSmith (the makers of SnagIt), who I knew way back in my days in the computer training industry.

She thanked me for the mention of SnagIt on the show and also inquired as to whether or not I had any additional feedback for them.

SnagIt is, and has been for years, a fantastic piece of software. The only minor complaint I had was that it would be nice is there was greater parity between the Mac and PC versions.

Even More Tools

As I mentioned on the live MPU show, I reached out to the Mac Power Users Google Plus community for help on another grading-related workflow.

On the thread, Soram K. from UCLA Medical School reached out to share about other annotating tools he discovered from others in the community that meet his needs and augment the power of SnagIt.

He wrote:

I did find iAnnotate in my own research but do not like to convert the Word file my students send me to PDF. Too many steps!

I am looking at the following as a way that I think will be easier with a desktop screen writing app that will record in Snagit.

Here are some links…

Next Steps

As those of you who know me (or are getting to know me through the podcast and the blog) will predict, I am thrilled to discover these new tools.

However, I am going to force myself to hold off until after the semester ends before doing too much experimenting. It is too easy to go down a rabbit trail and lose time on the most important priorities for now.

I just finished reading the book Essentialism and am even more reminded of the importance of saying no to things. I've added the suggestions to my Evernote list of tools I want to try in the future.

Summer will give me opportunities to play a bit with technology, especially going to read some of the older posts on The Digital Researcher blog.

The struggle is real (group projects)

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The struggle is real

I've been thinking a lot about group projects.

Back in episode 25, Chrissy Spencer introduced us to the CATME team maker and other group project tools. I also recently became aware of Babson's group project survival guide, which offers students many tools to set a solid foundation for their work, not to mention resources for when they run into trouble.

While I've been thinking a lot about what to incorporate, my actions have been limited (read non-existent) in making any changes.

I keep succumbing to the faulty logic that if I introduce just the right set of tools to students, that they won't have as difficult of a time working on group projects. If I can tweak the processes I use just a bit more, I'll identify a magic combination of approaches that will make everything run smoothly.

I've been getting discouraged, thinking that I'm in my tenth year of teaching and when it comes to group projects, it might as well be my first.

Then I settle myself down a bit and revisit letters and emails from former students. A friend had once advised me to have a folder in my filing cabinet where I keep words of encouragement to serve as fuel for the days in teaching when I find I have little left to give.

When I look at those letters, they remind me that it is the very messiness that I attempt to remove from the process of group projects that enabled these individuals to learn the most.

The struggles students encounter that they so very much want me to save them from will have the most value if I don't step in. My desire to be helpful and supportive has the potential for blocking opportunities for deep learning to occur.

I keep wanting to make things seamless. When my mind realizes the impossibility of that, I lose all motivation to make the ongoing changes I've been considering.

Nevertheless, this semester I plan on using the CATME team charter, instead of the one I've been using. Also, after the students select their groups, there will be a place for teams to post agendas and minutes each week inside our LMS, using the CATME agenda and minutes template.

Then, I'll remain confident that it is going to get messy.

And messiness isn't always such a bad thing…

Cupcake kiss
Cupcake kiss

 

Inviting more ease into your week

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ease

I enjoyed the conversation with Natalie Houston immensely, which aired this past week in episode #034. She reminded us all to find ways to have more of a sense of ease in our lives.

She said:

Productivity, to me, is not about doing more things faster. It is about doing the things that are most important to me and creating the kind of life I want to have…

Here are a couple of opportunities for having more ease in my life that I discovered this week:

Set a timer to better enjoy breaks and conversations with students

Since the conversation with Natalie, I've been setting timers like crazy. While I had used this approach previously, she shed new light on the practice and inspired me to take more regular advantage of the focus on the moment.

I found a Tweet where Natalie coached a colleague who wanted motivation and concentration to:

I met with a few students this week and really felt more connected with the conversations in those times when I remembered to set a timer. There was one time when I neglected to do so, and I both wound up completely throwing off my schedule for the latter part of the afternoon, and wasn't as engaged as in the other “timed” conversations.

Natalie also offers these tips about using a timer while grading.

Install a custom style in Zotero, which enables you to create an annotated bibliography

This one is really more for my doctoral students than for me, though I treasure the opportunities to bring more ease into other people's lives. As a part of their program, they're asked a number of times to develop an annotated bibliography.

We also strongly encourage the use of the citations manager, Zotero. The annotated bibliography assignment hasn't aligned well with using the automated features in Zotero, since until now, I thought it could only “spit out” a list of sources, not something that included annotations.

Thanks to Emory Libraries and Information Technology, I found out I was wrong. Turns out, you can create a custom style in Zotero, or download one from their repository and leave the heavy lifting to others.

[reminder]How are you inviting more ease into your life this week?[/reminder]

Let’s get moving

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We had a little visitor come in to my night class this week.

I haven't seen students move that fast in the ten years I've been teaching.

get moving

Traditional gender roles were played out, perfectly, as the young women raced to the side of the room without a lizard, and the young men ran toward it with glee.

I'm proud to report that I just stood there, completely entertained.

Even though they are an engaged class, this incident brought about a whole new level of energy for the rest of the evening.

I particularly enjoyed how the presenters who went immediately after our lizard friend was evicted from the classroom, were able to incorporate the reptile into an example on Rawls' theory of justice.

There's just something that happens when we all get moving, students and faculty alike. To that end, here are some ideas for getting physical movement happening inside and outside the classroom:

Tape signs on the wall and have students give input via sticky notes

I've written previously about an exercise that uses sticky notes and gets students moving around the classroom.

There's also a PostIt Plus app that will allow you to capture the data, virtually, and then let you sort and move the individual sticky notes on your screen, as needed. As with any good app, there are plenty of sharing options made available.

Have students walk and talk

When I'm reviewing a concept that can sometimes be difficult for students to apply, I often have them take a walk around the building, while they talk to someone else in the class about the topic.

I make it clear that when they return from their walk, that I will be randomly calling on students, so that they feel a bit more pressure to stay on task during their walk.

I also always join with a group for the walk, or go with a student who doesn't have a partner. This always gives me one more opportunity for one-on-one interaction.

Use a FitBit

Fitness trackers are becoming all the rage these days. Those of us who use them know that they have the power to get us making all sorts of seemingly small changes that add up to signifiant change.

We take the stairs, park further away, and run around more with our kids.

The FitBit device tracks steps and flights of stairs. Dave and I both use one, though he likes the FitBit charge that goes on your wrist and I prefer the one you wear on the waist of your pants.

Consider a treadmill desk

When we finished off an extensive consulting project about a year ago, Dave and I decided to reward ourselves with a treadmill desk. He had wanted one for a while and I was ambivalent (but not opposed to spending the money, necessarily).

I didn't think I would use it that much, since I thought it would be too hard to maintain a train of thought.

It wound up being just the opposite experience. I find that I'm able to get into a flow and work longer and stay focused more than when I'm sitting at a desk.

We have a LifeSpan treadmill desk and both absolutely love it.

[reminder]What do you do to get your students (or yourself) moving?[/reminder]