As we’ve discussed before in this blog, some of us have a love-hate relationship with student evaluations of teaching. One of the things that frustrates me is that they come too late. They might help me make changes for next semester, but what about the students who are currently enrolled?
Enter Mid-Semester Feedback! Now, I have not always done mid-semester feedback. Looking back, I don’t know why as they are greatly beneficial. I started using them after a conversation with a colleague, after reading end-of-semester evaluations, that went something like this:
Me: I wish I knew some of this earlier in the semester. Why didn’t they tell me?
Colleague: Did you ask them?
Me: No....
Colleague: [shrugs, stares at me]
Me: Ah. Yeah, I could do that.
Turns out my colleague did mid-semester feedback and learned a lot about how to change things mid-stream to improve students’ experience and their learning. So, I started doing it and never looked back!
You can find lots of ideas for mid-semester feedback online; I’m going to lay out how I do it, but you can look at the resource list provided at the end of this post for other ideas too. For me, the best mid-semester feedback questions include a mix of general and specific open-ended questions. Likert scales can be used, but open-ended gives you more detailed information to work with (side note: I also recommend this for end-of-semester evaluations because open-ended, specific, course-related questions are the best ways to get actionable data that aren’t just about student satisfaction). Here are some general question examples:
- What has been most helpful for your learning in this class so far? (e.g., describe the time(s) in this class when you were most engaged).
- What has caused you the most difficulty in terms of learning in this class so far?
- What can your instructor do differently to help you improve your learning?
- What can you do differently to improve your learning?
- What suggestion(s) can you make that would enhance your learning experience in this class?
I also like to ask course-specific questions to get a sense of how class activities and assignments are going. The following examples are from a course I taught in 2016. In this course, students completed pre-class “warm-ups” where they applied knowledge from the readings. I wanted to know how this was working for them. I also wanted to know if students felt we were reviewing material enough for them to master it. Along with a few general questions, these are the specific questions I asked:
- Is there a sufficient review of course material, particularly after assignments and quizzes?
- Do you find the warm-ups helpful for keeping up with reading and video assignments? How could warm-ups be improved?
What Did Students Say?
In this course students felt we were reviewing course material enough and reviewing after assignments and quizzes and they liked the quick turn-around on written feedback (win!). Warm-ups had mixed reviews. Some students liked them because they were more on top of readings for the day while others said it repeated the in-class activity (I get that!). I also got some feedback about an on-going assignment where I provided a Word-version template for students. Students commented that they would prefer an excel version of the template (great idea!).
What Did I Do?
Since students said that they liked the feedback and material review I didn’t change anything and just kept doing what I was doing. Since I received feedback indicating the warm-ups weren’t working for everyone, I made two changes. Since they were working for some students I kept the warm-ups but gave them less to do in each warm-up activity. I also added scaffolding by having the warm-ups be simpler applications of the material and focusing on increasing difficulty of application during class to address concerns about repeating the in-class activity. I did provide an excel template for the on-going assignment and posted it online (the following semester I posted both versions and let students choose). These were quick fixes for the rest of the semester. Students noted in the end-of-semester evaluation that they appreciated the changes and that they positively impacted their experience in my classroom and their learning.
Now, I don’t always make changes. At least not on every piece of feedback. I ask specific questions about content or something I’m doing such as course feedback. I look first at those answers to think about needed changes. If only one student is concerned I may not make a change. In the above example about the warm-ups, about half the class gave actionable feedback that led to positive change for every student. That’s also something to consider– which changes will have the broadest impact? Another is what are quick fixes. For example, providing an assignment template in Excel (not just Word) was a quick fix. No other class in previous semesters requested this, but in 2016 and subsequent semesters lots of students used the Excel file.
It’s so great to know, earlier rather than later, ways to improve my teaching. Mid-semester feedback is here to stay in my practice. I hope you consider trying it too!
Resources
DePaul Teaching Commons. Exit Tickets and Midterm Surveys. https://resources.depaul.edu/teaching-commons/teaching-guides/feedback-grading/Pages/exit-tickets-midterm-surveys.aspx
University of Toronto Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation. Appendix A: Examples of Mid-Course Evaluation Questions. https://teaching.utoronto.ca/teaching-support/gathering-formative-feedback/appendix-a/
CETL, UNC. Mid-semester feedback short form (open-ended questions only – don’t forget to add your own specific course-related questions).
CETL, UNC. Mid-semester feedback long form (the long form provides a Likert style form along with open-ended questions.
CETL, UNC. Teaching Evaluation Toolkit.
