Written and designed by the staff of the Center for Teaching and Learning. Reproduce with permission only.
Stop the class ten minutes
before the end of the period and ask your students to take out a sheet of paper
and draw a line horizontally across the middle of the page. Ask them to list,
on the top half of the page, three things they like about the course and the
way it is being taught. On the bottom half, they should list three things they
would like to change and include practical suggestions for making these changes
(note the positive phrasing). When they are finished, remind them not to sign
the papers and ask a student volunteer to collect them for you.
As you read through the first ten or twelve papers, jot down the categories into which their comment fall. This procedure will help you tabulate comments and keep your attention focused on the most important information. Remember, you are looking for trends and should be most concerned with elements that a majority of students comment upon. Don't let a few negative remarks overshadow the good responses you receive. (If only a few students complain about some aspect of the course, but their complaints are particularly bitter, try to discover the source of their displeasure.) After you have analyzed their comments, stop the next class ten minutes early to report the results of the evaluation. Cite elements of the course that they liked and indicate if you are going to expand upon or emphasize those things in the future. Explain what you are going to do about things they wanted to change, or explain why you cannot make the changes they suggest. You don't have to change everything they dislike, but they need to know the reasons why.
Early feedback exercises like this one yield a number of benefits: they sample the things that are uppermost in students' minds when they think about the course, demonstrate that you are interested in improving the course and your teaching, and open the way for them to offer comments and suggestions in the future. Soliciting feedback and responding to it will initiate a healthy dialogue between you and your students about the teaching process.
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Last updated: January 31, 2001