I have a discussion group on WebCT that allows my students to give me feedback on how the class is going, how I'm doing, etc. The comments that I get are predictable: "You should give us your overheads" or (when I give them the overheads) "Your overheads are too long/short/rotated/inconvenient somehow." Also: "There's too much reading in this class"; "Tell us what will be on the exam"; "Make the exams all multiple choice"; "Eliminate the multiple choice part of the exams"; "Why did you ask us to buy this particular book when the readings from it are optional?"
One of my "nontraditional" students asked me about these comments yesterday. "Don't you get angry with these people?"
Why, yes! Thanks for asking!
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
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I've long been fascinated by the group evaluation process; I think it might well moderate the oddities of individual evaluations. But apparently making these evaluations public doesn't really moderate the tone much at all....
In Brazil when I studied there, student evaluations were not done anonymously on paper, or in electronic writing on WebCT, but in a group discussion with the professor there, so that s/he could talk back! The first time I saw this start to happen, I was amazed, didn't expect the students to be either honest or civilized, or the professor to be able to stand it. However: students were civilized and rational, and didn't back down in the face of flimsy justifications by the professor; the professor, in the meantime, wasn't freaked out and didn't buckle to ridiculous comments by students.
Now I do this in some of my classes, and it works better than other evaluation techniques I've tried because it makes having a decent class more of a collaborative effort...lo
It's never possible to please the crowd, is it?
Best one I ever got was "Would be better with donuts"
Ugh. So sorry!
Best comment I ever got on how to improve the course was, "don't wear that big green sweater".
Can't stand student evals. I was really sick last semester and had surgery -- out for 2 weeks and visible stitches on my neck when I returned. YET, students still criticized outrageously that this particular part of the course was not as interesting... talk about living in a bubble...
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