Anonymous Student Evaluations Research Articles

Making Agreements With Friends: Using an Analogy to Teach Informal Agreements and Bargaining in International Relations Courses

The activity Making Agreements with Friends was developed to help students understand the complex concepts of informal agreements and bargaining. Specifically, this activity sheds light on the reputation costs and strategies (iteration, issue linkage, and coercion) that countries rely on to foster cooperation. To do so, the activity leverages a relatable analogy, in which students are tasked with deciding which of their friends they should (and should not) lend money to at a pub. This approach is valuable because although students do not have firsthand knowledge about creating informal international agreements, they have extensive experience with informal interpersonal agreements. That is, the logic and strategies students use to decide who they can trust in an informal interpersonal agreement are similar to the logic and strategies countries use when making informal international agreements. Anonymous student evaluations and results from a pre-and-posttest on the material provide evidence that this activity is a fun, engaging, and effective way to teach these concepts to undergraduate students.

Engaging Guest Speakers and Recognizing Their Valuable Contributions to Public Health Classrooms: Process Evaluation of a Pilot Program to Provide Thank You Gift Cards to Guest Speakers

Guest speakers introduce students to diverse perspectives, share relevant experiences that reinforce course content, and demonstrate how skills and knowledge that students are learning can be applied in public health practice. Providing a monetary thank you gift is one way to recognize the valuable contributions of community-based guest speakers to students’ learning. We describe the implementation and evaluation of a departmental pilot program to offer gift cards to guest speakers. During the 2022 to 2023 academic year, instructors could request a $100 gift card for one guest speaker outside of the university community per course per semester. We evaluated the program to assess the process for distributing gift cards, instructors’ reasons for inviting guest speakers, and students’ perceptions of guest speakers’ contributions to their learning. Data were collected through tracking spreadsheets, an online survey to instructors, and anonymous student course evaluations. Thirty gift cards ($2525 covered by the department) were distributed. Evaluation findings indicate that the program is a feasible way to engage diverse perspectives in the classroom and share applied examples and professional development with students. Specific recommendations that we implemented in the continuation of this program include allowing flexibility in the number and denomination of gift cards, streamlining the process for requesting and distributing gift cards, and providing communications to facilitate consistent and clear information sharing. The Guest Speaker Thank You Gift Program complements and extends the diversity, equity, and inclusion work of the department by supporting the expansion of perspectives shared in classroom and directly acknowledging guest speakers’ contributions.

Improving eating disorder education using flipped classroom method

Evidence demonstrating that new nurses lack clinical judgment skills prompted a teaching-learning project in an associate degree of nursing (ADN) program. A needs assessment revealed the necessity of increased knowledge related to caring for patients with eating disorders. Constructivism guided the project, which aimed to provide students with an understanding of the three most common eating disorders, including patient care considerations. Teaching-learning occurred through flipped classroom method (FCM) involving textbook readings, a prerecorded lecture, and an unfolding case study. The author utilized standardized test results, pre- post-test results, and anonymous student evaluations to appraise learner understanding and approval. The project demonstrated that FCM increases student knowledge and satisfaction and is an effective teaching strategy for ADN programs. Recommendations include routine FCM training for nurse educators, regular use of FCM in undergraduate nurse education courses, and further research to determine the best strategies to break down barriers to FCM utilization.

Field-based local stream research in undergraduate classes: an inquiry-based approach

ABSTRACT Experiential learning is recognized as a high-impact educational practice. Fieldwork is an important component of the geographic tradition. When implemented using an inquiry-based approach, fieldwork can be a highly effective form of experiential education. However, many geography instructors are dissuaded from implementing inquiry-based fieldwork because of logistical challenges. Here, a modular, semester-long fieldwork design is presented, involving inquiry-based research on local streams. This framework has been successfully implemented twice in undergraduate classes. A total of 37 undergraduate students did physical habitat assessments and water-quality monitoring on urban streams in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA. Quantitative and qualitative anonymous student evaluations and student work products provide preliminary support for the approach’s effectiveness in enhancing student learning. The practical advantages of the presented fieldwork design are that it is less costly in time and money than fully field-based courses, it breaks up a large class into more manageable group sizes, and it alleviates some of the common concerns about accessibility, equity, and risk management. While still needing to be systematically assessed, the pedagogical benefits potentially include development of critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, interpersonal, and affective skills.

Teaching the Veil: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in Classical Theory Courses

By documenting the erasure of W.E.B. Du Bois’s scientific contributions to sociology, Aldon Morris’s The Scholar Denied was a catalyst for scholars to rethink how we teach and understand social theory and a call to recognize the racialized origins of our discipline. How can we incorporate these insights into our teaching beyond a token addition of Du Bois to classical theory courses? Drawing on comments from anonymous student evaluations and completed assignments including essay exams, final papers, and end-of-year reflections from one classical theory course, the authors argue that teaching classical theory requires teaching about race, ethnicity, and gender and outline three pedagogical principles. First, we assert that it starts with the syllabus. Second, we demonstrate how incorporating theorists’ biographies situates them in their sociohistorical contexts. Finally, active learning observational assignments reveal how research is a scholarly conversation and demonstrate the enduring importance, and limitations, of classical theories and theorists. Together, these pedagogical tools show how the classical theory canon is racialized. By providing conceptual and logistical tools scholar-teachers can use to incorporate race, ethnicity, and gender in classical theory courses, we highlight how issues of race and gender should not be relegated to substantive courses. Instead, they are central to understanding and teaching the foundations of sociology.

Academic Contrapower Harassment and Student Evaluations: The Gendered Experience of Bullying, Intimidation, and Entitlement

Student evaluations are subjective and oftentimes arbitrary, skewed by stereotypes students have of the professor rather than the actual merit of the instructional style. Yet student evaluations are frequently necessary for promotion and tenure requirements regardless of known gender bias. As such, student evaluations have the potential to foster a culture of academic contrapower harassment (ACPH). A convenience sample of 150 professors and instructors (41.3% male, 56.7%, female, and 2% declined to specify) from two separate liberal arts colleges were surveyed to explore the gendered differences of perceived bullying of professors by students on anonymous student evaluations. Using Pearson’s chi-square test for independence (categorical variables), results support differences in the psychological consequences of student evaluations between male and female faculty but fail to confirm instances of ACPH.

Students' response to a Massage & Meditation medical school course elective.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Objectives: Due to high incidence of medical student and physician burnout, medical education needs to include skills for life-work balance. Patients complain that clinicians depend on technology during clinic visits, and use less touch. To address this educational need, we designed an 18-hour curriculum that combines massage (to reduce anxiety and teach skillful touch) and meditation (for burnout prevention). We explored whether learning basics of massage and meditation could give medical students tools for self-care and skillful touch. Methods: The curriculum was implemented as an elective at the Medical School since 14 years. We collected 181 anonymous student evaluations and conducted pre-post surveys to evaluate the curriculum. We assess mindful bodily awareness (by Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness questionnaire) and conducted thematic analysis of students' comments. Results: Students appeared highly satisfied with the class (4.94 [Range 1-5]) and reported confidence in being able to apply massage and meditation in their personal and professional life. They commented on the importance of skillful touch and gained more confidence in using touch in clinical care. The pre-post survey showed improvements in interoceptive bodily awareness. Students felt that they developed new skills for self-care and stress management, experienced a sense of community among peers, and stated that the class provided necessary teaching complementary to the mandatory medical school curriculum. Conclusions: A course of Meditation and Massage may be a valuable complementary elective to medical school education, supporting self-care and stress management in preparation for a demanding profession, and may improve palpatory examination skills.

Relationship-Centered Advising in a Medical School Learning Community.

Background:Medical schools are required to have formal advising structures; however, there are limited data on how to optimally meet that mandate. Learning communities (LC), with their emphasis on longitudinal relationships, offer a unique scaffold for advising.Program description:The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (JHSOM) LC focuses on curricular and extracurricular longitudinal connections between students and advisors. A core component of the LC is a relationship-centered advising (RCA) model drawing from best practices in physician–patient relationships, life coaching, and social contract theories. The key elements of the model include dyadic and small group advising, while the LC structure allows for faculty development in these domains. Relationship-centered advising approaches the collaborative advising work between students and advisors through explicit valuing of personal experiences, mutual respect, and earned trust. Framing the advising relationship in this way allows it to grow with the student along their medical school journey.Program evaluation & results:Student and faculty satisfaction with this model is high. Data from annual, anonymous student evaluations consistently indicate high degree of trust in and satisfaction from these relationships.Discussion:Relationship-centered advising aims to create a relationally anchored platform on which students can develop their personal and professional identities. This LC-based advising model is adaptable across schools regardless of structure and resources.

Motivating College Students: Evidence from 20 Years of Anonymous Student Evaluations

The career outcomes of hundreds of college students, mostly biology majors, mentored by U.S. Presidential Awardee (PAESMEM) Steven Oppenheimer, over a 47 year period, at California State University, Northridge, were tracked and recorded. The motivational strategies that putatively helped lead to these career outcomes were gleaned from 20 years of anonymous student evaluations. In addition, evidence is presented that the motivational strategies, in some cases, were a likely cause of student career success and not just correlated with it. The student evaluations suggest that boundless energy, enthusiasm, clarity and organization keep students excited and engaged, helping to motivate them to succeed. Motivation at the pre-college level is also discussed, as by the time students enter college their career choices are often already made. These programs helped win a U.S. Presidential Award, the highest U.S. Award for student mentoring.

Global Technical Communication in 7.5 Weeks Online: Combining Industry and Academic Perspectives

Introduction: With the growing need for intensive and online course formats, it has become increasingly difficult to determine what combinations of knowledge and skills that are important for both academia and industry can best provide students with the grounding for exploring the questions of global technical communication (TC) during their programs. About the case: The 7.5-week online global TC course at Arizona State University is divided into six theme-based units and a unit that focuses on a research/revision project. Situating the case: While over the last 20 years, excellent practical materials for teaching global TC have been published, there is a need for comprehensive course descriptions, particularly for courses in online and intensive formats. Methods/approach: The course was based on an extensive literature review of academic and trade publications. The course's effectiveness was analyzed based on final reflective discussion assignments and anonymous student course evaluations. Results/discussion: The literature review revealed six major themes that define global TC: culture and communication, the frameworks of culture, verbal communication, global content and technology, visual communication, and cross-cultural collaboration and audience work. Each unit addressed one of these themes. The course was well-received, and students started posing critical questions to explore in future courses. Conclusions: In our program, having a dedicated global TC course was very beneficial because it introduced students to concepts that they could further explore in other 7.5-week online courses. In addition, I present recommendations for adopting/adapting the course, as well as its limitations and suggestions for future research.

Self-Assessment of Teaching Skills Among Psychiatric Residents.

Psychiatry residency programs have increasingly emphasized the role of resident-as-teacher; however, little is known about resident self-perceptions of teaching skills. This study reports on psychiatry residents' self-perceived skills in teaching medical students and compares cohort ratings with anonymous medical student evaluations of residents as teachers at our large academic residency program. In May-June 2016, 84 residents in our program were surveyed using an anonymous, web-based survey, and this data was then compared to 3 years of aggregate data from anonymous student evaluations of resident teaching at our institution. Forty-seven (47) residents responded to the survey (56% response rate). Residents reported self-perceived deficits in several specific teaching competencies. Medical students consistently rated residents higher with respect to teaching skills than residents rated themselves, and these data were highly statistically significant. This study underscores the benefits of resident self-assessment in comparison to medical student evaluations of residents as teachers and this information can be used to inform training programs' resident-as-teacher curricula.

Volunteer patients and small groups contribute to abdominal examination's success.

BackgroundPrior to 2007, we taught the abdominal examination in a hospital based group to 40 students, at one hospital. We used volunteer patients, small groups, repetition, and required faculty development sessions. In 2007, our medical school changed its “Introduction to Physical Examination” session so that the entire class was to be taught in a geographically central session. Our hospital was selected to lead the abdominal examination portion of the session.AimOur aim was to answer three questions. First, could we quadruple the recruitment of volunteer patients, and faculty? Second, was it volunteer patients, small groups, repetition, or faculty training that was most valued by the students? Third, would volunteer patients and/or faculty agree to participate a second time?MethodsA total of 43–46 patients and 43–46 faculty were recruited and 43–46 examining rooms were obtained for each of the 5 years of this study. Teachers were required to attend a 1-hour faculty development session. The class of about 170 students was divided into 43–46 groups each year. The teacher demonstrated the abdominal examination and each student practiced the examination on another student. Each student then repeated the full abdominal examination on a volunteer patient.ResultsOver the 5-year time period (2008–2012), the abdominal examination ranked first among all organ systems’ “Introductory Sessions”. The abdominal examination ratings had the best mean score (1.35) on a Likert scale where 1 is excellent and 5 is poor. The students gave the most positive spontaneous comments to having volunteer patients, with small groups coming in as the second most appreciated educational element.ConclusionWe successfully quadrupled the number of faculty, patients, and examining rooms and created a highly rated educational program as measured by anonymous student evaluations, patient and faculty participation, and the medical school’s selecting the abdominal examination methods as an “Advanced Examination” for the Pathways Curriculum.

Student evaluations of teaching: teaching quantitative courses can be hazardous to one's career.

Anonymous student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are used by colleges and universities to measure teaching effectiveness and to make decisions about faculty hiring, firing, re-appointment, promotion, tenure, and merit pay. Although numerous studies have found that SETs correlate with various teaching effectiveness irrelevant factors (TEIFs) such as subject, class size, and grading standards, it has been argued that such correlations are small and do not undermine the validity of SETs as measures of professors’ teaching effectiveness. However, previous research has generally used inappropriate parametric statistics and effect sizes to examine and to evaluate the significance of TEIFs on personnel decisions. Accordingly, we examined the influence of quantitative vs. non-quantitative courses on SET ratings and SET based personnel decisions using 14,872 publicly posted class evaluations where each evaluation represents a summary of SET ratings provided by individual students responding in each class. In total, 325,538 individual student evaluations from a US mid-size university contributed to theses class evaluations. The results demonstrate that class subject (math vs. English) is strongly associated with SET ratings, has a substantial impact on professors being labeled satisfactory vs. unsatisfactory and excellent vs. non-excellent, and the impact varies substantially depending on the criteria used to classify professors as satisfactory vs. unsatisfactory. Professors teaching quantitative courses are far more likely not to receive tenure, promotion, and/or merit pay when their performance is evaluated against common standards.

Designing writing groups to support postgraduate students’ academic writing: A case study from a South African university

This paper reports on a writing group pilot programme implemented at a South African university. Drawing on literature, anonymous student evaluations and facilitator observations, it discusses the use of writing groups for supporting postgraduate academic writing practices. Developed within a broader postgraduate academic writing support programme, the paper discusses a case study of two pilot writing groups: a multidisciplinary long-term group and a disciplinary short-term ‘writing-intensive’ group. The findings indicate that the overall experience of the writing group was a positive one, with each group presenting varied ‘success’ aspects as well as challenges. Insights gleaned may contribute to our understanding of how these groups can be utilised to support postgraduate students and how different kinds of groups can be developed to serve particular student needs. The paper concludes with a discussion of the inclusion of a disciplinary expert, which proved particularly useful in this pilot.

Teaching quality and academic research

This paper studies the relation between teaching quality and research productivity using a detailed database for students in higher education. In order to measure teaching quality, we employ a version of the value-added methodology which uses future performance of students to make inferences about the current teaching quality of their professors. We report a mild but positive and significant relation between publications on top journals and teaching quality. To all practical effects, this finding does not seem to be contaminated by the potential negotiating power of professors with high levels of top publications strategically choosing the best-performing groups. Additionally, we report evidence that the random assignment of students into class groups is reasonably satisfied. Finally, we argue that teaching effectiveness measures based on anonymous student evaluations are suspicious and debatable.

Curation on Campus: An Exhibition Curatorial Experiment for Creative Industries Students

Curation on Campus: An Exhibition Curatorial Experiment for Creative Industries Students

Measuring the Silver Composition of Nanocolloids by Inductively Coupled Plasma–Optical Emission Spectroscopy: A Laboratory Experiment for Chemistry and Engineering Students

The increased worldwide exploitation of nanomaterials has reinforced the importance of introducing nanoscale aspects into the undergraduate and graduate curriculum. To meet this need, a novel nano-laboratory module was developed and successfully performed by science and engineering students. The main goal of the experiment was to accurately quantify the total silver composition of a nanocolloid with modern inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) instrumentation in conjunction with two well-established methods that are heavily employed in both research and industrial settings. Specifically, undergraduate and graduate students estimated the total silver composition of Creighton colloidal nanoparticles via the external calibration method (16.3 ± 4.7 mg L-1) and the standard addition method (14.9 ± 4.2 mg L-1) at two emission wavelengths (328.068 and 338.898 nm). The assessment of basic laboratory skills and the class assignments showed that the students successfully mastered the various aspects of sample/standard preparation, the operation of the ICP-OES instrument, and the data analysis. Students’ interest and experience in this laboratory were highly rated in the anonymous student evaluations.

Teaching Introductory Weather and Climate Using Popular Movies

ABSTRACT Addressing the need for an introductory atmospheric science course for nonscience majors, a course was developed that provides a general understanding of atmospheric processes by examining how meteorological events are portrayed in movies. The course also uses films to study the causes of, impacts associated with, and potential adaptations to climate change. Anonymous student course evaluations indicate that students believe incorporating movie clips into lectures helps them learn course material and generates positive student attitudes toward atmospheric science.

Changing Our Scale of Thinking: Value of a Megaregional Planning Course

A perpetual debate exists among planning educators concerning the balance between practice and theory (Seltzer and Ozawa 2002; Baum 1997; Friedmann 1996). What set of topics, readings, and skill sets are needed to respond to what today’s employers expect from entry level planners, and to position students to effectively work with diverse groups and institutional frameworks (Sletto 2010; Guhathakurta 1999; Niebanck 1999)? Just as important is the need for planning education to produce graduates capable of working regionally and globally. Many planning programs draw their strength from strong relationships with allied disciplines like engineering, public policy, architecture, geography, sociology, and law. However, many programs fall short in applying theory and practice to the regional and global scale (Pezzoli and Howe 2001). Over the years, American cities and metropolitan areas have experienced a rise in economic and social inequalities, depletion of natural resources, and heightened economic dependence on the global market. Given these changes, there is a need to change our scale of thinking to strategically and effectively cross geopolitical boundaries, including municipalities, states, and countries (Contant and Leone de Nie 2009). This paper reports on a new course, Planning for Megaregions (PMR), in the School of Architecture Community and Regional Planning Program (CRP) at the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) that presents this larger scale of thinking to students. We focus on our innovative structure used in class to link education, practice, and research. Like planning programs that offer specializations in the integration of land use and transportation (Krizek and Livinson 2005), we focus on the cross-boundary connections between governance, energy, water, social equity, health, housing, land use, and transportation, with an emphasis on freight and rail. Our research reveals that beyond noted planning studios that organized during the early explorations of defining the geographic demarcations of megaregions, the authors found no planning or civil engineering schools that have since incorporated a course geared toward a megaregional analysis level. In this paper, we begin with a historical overview of the term megaregion, and then proceed to the development of studying megaregions at UT-Austin. The paper then gives a description of the innovative tools designed by the instructors to link research to education and practice to education. We conclude with two anonymous student evaluations and two students who intentionally desired to share their thoughts on the course’s success of linking education to practice and research.

A Classroom-Based Distributed Workflow Initiative for the Early Involvement of Undergraduate Students in Scientific Research

Engaging freshman and sophomore students in meaningful scientific research is challenging because of their developing skill set and their necessary time commitments to regular classwork. A project called the Chondrule Analysis Project was initiated to engage first- and second-year students in an initial research experience and also accomplish several scientific objectives. Students take part in a classroom-based, distributed workflow project that aims to produce high-quality data on the physical dimensions of chondrules, mm-sized spherules contained in primitive meteorites called chondrites. Such data are needed to test astrophysical models for processes acting in the early solar system. Student investigators process X-ray microtomography data with resources contained on portable USB flash drives distributed to them. Students are exposed to data collection, data quality evaluation, interpretation, and presentation of their results. Herein, an introduction to the scientific objectives is given along with an evolutionary history of the project. A description of the current implementation of the course is presented, and future directions are discussed. Anonymous student evaluations of the course are used to demonstrate the educational and engaging nature of the project. Finally, we reflect on the possible benefits of such a project for first- and second-year students within STEM disciplines.