Raise your hand if you have a love-hate relationship with student evaluations. As a relatively new graduate student instructor, I do! I usually wait until a few weeks after the end of the semester has passed before reading my student evals. Even after that period of time, I am still nervous to click on the evaluation folder in Canvas and read my students’ impressions of my class. Here is what my teaching evaluations usually consist of: most of the class reports that I am doing a good job and they learned a lot, some of the class has insightful suggestions about how I could improve my learning activities and assignments, and a few students make random comments about my clothes or my personality. After experiencing this a few times, I asked myself, How can I ask my students to give me more targeted feedback about what went well and what I should change?
Enter…the verbal feedback evaluation model! Instead of paper and pencil evaluations, the verbal feedback model uses real-time discussions with students to provide tailored course feedback to instructors. I participated in CETL’s pilot verbal feedback project with PSY120 instructors during the fall 2020 semester.
PSY120 instructors brainstormed questions they were interested in asking students about aspects of the course that were beneficial or detrimental to students’ learning. A CETL staff member visited the course at the end of the semester, led the verbal feedback discussion, and provided written notes afterward.
The questions we asked students included:
- How did the hybrid model work for you in this course?
- Was the online component engaging and helpful for learning course content?
- Would you like more interaction during the Zoom sessions?
- Do you like the breakout room activities as a way to interact with peers?
- Do you feel like the in-class activities were keeping you engaged during class?
Each instructor also included some individual questions, specific to their own courses. I had been reviewing quizzes in class and felt like the quiz reviews weren’t as effective as they should have been, so I chose to ask my students for suggestions on how to improve that activity.
My students gave me this helpful feedback:
Hybrid model
- I enjoyed the hybrid because I didn't feel overwhelmed with just online or just in person.
- I enjoyed the cohort style with the added class over zoom on Fridays. I think this made it as safe as possible while still having it interactive in person as best as possible.
Online component of the course
- I liked that she didn't lecture the whole time online and that she added in polls, videos, and other activities.
Online textbook assignments
- When asked about the Learning Curves (LC) students did like them. However, a few students noted that they didn’t seem evenly spread throughout the course. Two students noted that they thought the LCs were a waste of time or busy work, but two students disagreed in group chat that they were busy work; most students liked the LCs and felt they helped them learn the material.
More interaction in Zoom sessions
- Like not just using polls but actually asking us and having us respond and communicate with each other. Also having our cameras on is nice, but I know not everyone likes it.
- I feel like more interactions between students does help to make a more personalized experience
- Any and all forms of more interactive actions would benefit
- I think more interaction would’ve helped me learn the material better.
Quiz reviews
- It's not necessarily part of the online work, but I didn't like how we did reviews after the quizzes.
- I think the quiz reviews took up a lot of a time and then we would pile the information up in a class. It would be better to break up the information. A way to fix this is maybe only going over questions many people got wrong.
After receiving this feedback, I made a few changes in my course. I reorganized the quiz reviews and decided to review for quizzes beforehand. I also incorporated more interaction in class and over Zoom with Think-Pair-Share activities, breakout rooms, and classroom response systems. My experience with verbal feedback helped me make changes in my course to improve student learning with suggestions that came directly from students. I also think my students shared more of their authentic opinions in real-time than on the standard written evaluations. And, I was able to ask follow-up questions for clarification and ask for more information, unlike the written evaluation where I’m sometimes left guessing.
Here are some of the positive reviews from the other PSY120 instructors:
PSY120 Instructor 1
It [verbal feedback] was much more concise and I felt like students were able to more easily express their opinions about the course without being constricted to the teaching evaluation. It provided greater insight into what students liked and did not like and allowed me to see what I need to change and do more of.
PSY120 Instructor 2
I think the verbal feedback sessions allowed for more detailed description of student perceptions of the course, and what they liked/what they didn't like. The Likert scale of standard evals often does not provide a detailed picture of what could be changed. Here are some of the course adjustments the other instructors made based on verbal feedback:
- Providing more opportunities for students to connect and collaborate with each other through Canvas discussion boards.
- Adding bulletin board discussions to create a cohesive climate in the classroom and online.
- Incorporating more frequent in-class discussions.
- Creating Zoom sessions open to students only to help them form connections.
How useful was the verbal feedback to instructors?
PSY120 instructors found the verbal feedbackto be extremely useful in making student perceptions of the course clear and asking for feedback on specific aspects of the course.They also found it very useful in helping instructors make changes in their courses. The majority of PSY120 instructors would recommend verbal feedback to a colleague. One instructor even suggested using verbal feedback twice during the semester, once mid-semester, and once at the end.
If you’re looking for an effective way to improve your course, try out verbal feedback this semester. You might still wait a while before reading them, but the feedback will be much more useful!
