CHE142 Mid-Course Questionnaire
Dear CHE142 Student,
Congratulations! After several weeks of hard work, you have
achieved many learning goals of the course and acquired new skill sets for your
future career. Before we begin the second half of the semester, please take a moment
to reflect on how you feel the course is going. Your feedback will allow me to
customize the course content and adjust my instructions to meet your learning
needs. Thank you.
Your CHE142 Instructor Tanya
Tan
Please use the back of
the page if you need additional space.
1.
The topics that I have understood the best are:
2. The topics that I need
further information or clarification are:
3. In terms of how the course
materials are organized on Blackboard site, the aspects that I find the most
helpful are:
4. In terms of how the course
materials are organized on Blackboard site, the improvements that I would like
to see are:
5.
The best aspects that I find in this course are:
6.
I feel some aspects that could have been strengthened, such as:
7.
The best aspects of the instructor’s teaching are:
8.
The instructor will be more helpful if she/he can:
9.
Additional comments for the course and/or the instructor:
(Optional)
If you would like an individual follow-up from your instructor, you may write
down your name below. (Otherwise, this questionnaire is completely
anonymous.) Your instructor will contact you in 3-5 business days. Note this
is optional. _______________________________
|
Rationale
Formatting
The questionnaire is
properly and professionally formatted:
·
12 pt. font with a standard font style Times New
Roman that is consistently used in all other course materials
·
Standard margins with adequate amount of white
space offering high readability and sufficient non-white space for information
delivery
·
Pages numbered with descriptive header and last
edited date[1]
·
All entries are numbered with sufficient lined
room for comments. Instruction is clear that students can use the back of the
page when additional space is needed.
Directions
Both
written and verbal directions will be given. The directions are written in
plain language, and revised to achieve the best clarity[2]. A first-person point of
view is used in the questionnaire. The questionnaire thus holds a more
personal, subjective, and natural tone of voice. It also allows the participant
to directly recall their experience, personal thoughts, emotions and opinions in
a natural way. The direction is comprehensive in a way that clearly
communicates the purpose of the evaluation to the students (“Your feedback will
allow me to customize the course content and adjust my instructions to meet
your learning needs.”). It also acknowledges student’s learning and promotes reflective
thinking. At the end of the questionnaire, students are given options to leave
their names if they require individual follow-up. By doing so, instructors can
reach out to solve more individual concerns that are not suitable to be addressed
as a class.
Questions and Statements
The
questionnaire organizes questions in the following categories:
o
Student’s mastery level of course content:
Question 1-2
o
LMS course site organization: Question 3-4
o
Student’s satisfaction: Question 5-6
o
Instructor’s Teaching: Question 7-8
o
Additional Comments: Question 9
Although the name of the category isn’t explicitly written as a
subheading, it is apparent that all questions appear in pairs that inquire both
positive and negative side of the same aspect. These categories of high concern
provide me critical evidence to consider before the second half of the semester.
Students can readily see the relevance of the questions, and are able to answer
the questions. Questions are phrased in rather plain and clear language instead
of obsolete terms.
The purpose of this formative questionnaire is to spot check on
learner’s progress and ask for individual student’s ideas, suggestions, and
observations instead of numerical ratings. The class sizes range from 15-20
students which allows me to read every single word that the student has to say.
If in the future, a formative questionnaire is collected from much larger class
size, I will incorporate a proper evaluation scales for timely statistical
analysis, and only provide 1-2 comment boxes for additional descriptive
non-numerical comments.
Response fields
As stated before, purpose of this
formative questionnaire is to collect non-numerical information from the
learner, check individual learner’s progress and understanding in a small-class
setting. Comment areas are provided instead of numerical rating scale. Before
implementing the questionnaire, I will also make the point clear that the more specific
their comments are, the more accurately I can determine the next steps to take.
Verbal and written directions also encourage students to use the back of the
page as additional space. Analysis of the results of questionnaire require increasing
time and effort. Bias and misinterpretation could occur.
Purpose
Skillful
teaching is what helps students learn (Brookfield, 2006). Effective
instruction is what helps students to learn in a more effective way that brings
in changes in knowledge, skill set and mind set. To achieve instructional
effectiveness, both instructors and students need to develop a clear
understanding of learning outcomes and frequently examine progress. The first
two questions (topics that students understand the best, and topics students
need further clarification) focus on this characteristic of instructional
effectiveness. They reveal how learners feel about knowledge acquisition. Consecutive
instructions become directional to help students achieve the unaccomplished
learning outcomes.
As
a blended course, usability and ease of navigation are important evaluands,
especially when a learning management system is new to learners (e.g. freshmen students).
Failure to locate information drastically hinders learning. Hence, question 3
and 4 are designed to survey student’s user experience of the Blackboard site. In
the first two weeks, I often ask students whether they feel comfortable to obtain
information from Blackboard site. I also demonstrate how materials are
organized online. In the midpoint of the semester, I am also interested in how
comfortable students are with the online portion of the course.
Question
5 and 6 are where students address their feelings. They are more of a general
inquiry of student’s satisfaction. Effective instruction requires meaningful
student-student, student-faculty and student-content interaction. Students’
satisfactions level is critical information to assess instruction effectiveness.
Question
7 and 8 evaluate instructor’s teaching strategies and quality of presentation.
The five main competency area for instructors include: professional
foundations, planning and preparation, instructional methods and strategies,
assessment and evaluation, and management (The International Board of Standards for Training, 2003). For online and
blended course instructors, online teaching competencies emphasize on technical
skills and skills needed to facilitate online discussion. Online instructor's
competencies involve[3] (Spector, 2001)
·
Allowing learners time for reflection
- Keeping discussions alive and on a productive path
- Archiving and organizing discussions to be used in subsequent lessons
- Animating discussions and displaying cultural sensitivity
Patti (2004) summarized additional
online instructor's competencies. These are also relevant to blended course
instructors.
- Administrative - to assure smooth course operation and reduce overload
- Designing - to assure adequate eLearning outcomes and satisfaction
- Facilitation - to provide social benefits and enhance learning
- Evaluation - to assure that learners know how they are evaluated; and help learners meet the course objectives
- Technical - assure overcome barriers due to technical components
When
implementing the questionnaire, I will lead the students to carefully recall their
feelings to presentations, designed activities, and assessment. As a formative
questionnaire, question 7 and 8 are phrased rather general to let the students
express what they like and dislike. In all five main areas for instructor
competency (The International Board of Standards for Training, 2003), students are both
participants and observers who can often pinpoint what has been done properly,
and what hasn’t. For example, it is difficult for the instructor to find a
misalignment between assessment and instruction when everything appears to be “natural”
to us. As a novice learner, they may come in with no prior knowledge in a
certain field – all they know is what has been taught. This makes their
responses valuable input.
Implementation and Review of Results
The
original version of the questionnaire was implemented in the classroom two
weeks ago. I chose the class that I have the least materials to teach, and gave
students 20 minutes to complete the questionnaire. I announced the purpose of
the questionnaire and explained directions (such as specific comments, things
and experience to reflect on). I also made the point clear that they do not
have to answer all the questions; however, anything that they would like to say
will be thoughtfully examined and greatly appreciated. I also informed the students
when they could expect hearing back from me regarding the results of the
questionnaire. A volunteer was chosen from the students to administrate the
entire process when I stayed outside of the classroom.
65
complete questionnaires from four sections were collected. Within each section,
similar results were grouped and responded together. My response is created in
a personal and friendly tone that articulates the following:
·
Acknowledgement of student’s progress
·
Appreciation of suggestions and comments
·
Changes that I decide to make
·
Changes that I am not able to implement, why and
what alternate solution is
The next week, I
let the students vote how they would like to know my answers, either
communicated verbally, or posting the questionnaire and my answer on the wall
so everyone can look at, or posting a summary on Blackboard that they can view
online afterwards. The vote was quickly administrated by a volunteer. All the
students are more comfortable with an open wall of questionnaire and responses.
I kept onymous questionnaire not published (students can choose to leave their
name on the questionnaire if they require individual follow-up), and then
offered sufficient time for students to read the questionnaire and my feedback.
It appeared to be a favored approach as I already grouped the similar
questionnaire results. Confidentiality issue was one of my concerns, so I let
the students decide how they would like to know the results.
Learners often
report a feeling of impostership – they lack the intelligence and talent to
succeed. A way to deal with this impostership is to make this phenomenon public
(Brookfield, 2006). By publishing the questionnaire results, it is potentially
useful to let imposter-feeling students know that they are not alone. There are
common difficult topics that many of the students struggle with. I let them
know specific studying advice, and what I plan to do to help them overcome the
barriers. Three out of sixty-five students wrote their names on the
questionnaire requesting a confidential follow-up. I emailed them and scheduled
meeting time within the time that I promised.
I am also
planning on sharing the questionnaire results, my interpretation and responses to
my mentor. I would also seek advice and sharing of his teaching experience in
the previous years. In the future, I will conduct a pilot test with students and
revise questions accordingly before large scale implementation.
References
Brookfield, S. (2006). The skillful teacher: on
technique, trust and responsiveness in the classroom, 2nd Edition. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Shank,
P. (2004). Competencies for Online
Instructor. Retrieved from http://m.kettering.edu/sites/default/files/resource-file-download/CompetenciesOnlineInstructors.pdf
Spector,
J. M. (2001). Competencies for online teaching. ERIC Digest, 1-11.
The
International Board of Standards for Training, P. a. (2003). Instructor
Competencies. Retrieved from http://www.ibstpi.org
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