Experiences with informal student panel for continuous formative course evaluation

Edvard Pedersen

doi:10.5324/njsteme.v5i1.3928

Abstract

Background: Summative student evaluations of teaching is widely used to evaluatecourse content and instruction. However, this feedback does not benefit the students who are providing the feedback, and may postpone feedback such that the evaluation is not useful in correctingissues in the course. There are several issues with this type of feedback that are tacled in this work:(i) The evaluation is not a help for the current students. (ii) The feedback is often imprecise. (iii)Evaluations focus on the quality of the teaching, rather than the impact of the learning. Previouswork [1, 2] have shown that continuous student involvement can improve the feedback received.The idea in this project is to perform this student panel interaction in an informal setting, continously throughout the semester.Methods: This intervention has been performed for two consecutive semesters in different courses.During the first lecture of the semester, students were recruited to participate in a weekly informalmeeting to discuss the instruction in the course. Weekly meetings were held for one full semester,with each meeting lasting around 45 minutes. Notes were taken on all actionable items, and asummarizing report was written. This intervention has been evaluated through the inspection ofactionable items in the notes, as well as the implemented items.Results: 104/116 actionable items were identified during spring/fall 2020, of which 57/65 were implemented immidiately. Participation in the student panel group was high and stable.

Highlights

One of the most prominent challenges we face as educators, is getting useful feedback on our teaching
In an attempt to provide a more holistic evaluation of courses, we have implemented student panels in two courses. These panels comprised one meeting per week, where a group of volunteer students met with the course staff, and discussed the lectures, assignments, and group work that has been done the last week
An outline of the notes were shared, which included a list of topics (e.g. ”Lectures”, ”Assignment”, ”Group work in last lecture”)

Summary

Introduction

One of the most prominent challenges we face as educators, is getting useful feedback on our teaching. Some enterprising institutions include a questionnaire during the semester These methods of evaluating teaching have several weaknesses: (i) The evaluation is done too late to help the students who are doing the evaluation, (ii) The feedback is often unclear about underlying issues, (iii) the feedback generally does not include sug gestions for improvements, (iv) when interventions are implemented, the same students are not available to evaluate if the interventions helped learning. To alleviate these issues, many lecturers turn to peers, to sit in on a lecture and give feedback. Participation in the student panel group was high and stable

Methods

Results

Conclusion