I like bringing in outsiders so the peer review always helps me. It is good to have other people in the field evaluate my courses so we can "close the loop".
Paul
Student feedback is what I think is needed to close the loop. The student feedback lets me know what they want to see and what is working and not working and helps me make any necessary improvements.
A mix of quantitative and qualitative evaluation feedback seems best, for example:
Course Grades - if the distribution of grades is highly skewed longitudinally, the curriculum might warrant further review.
Pretest/Posttest: I really like the idea of establishing benchmark data and then measuring student learning once the course has been used as an intervention.
Structured Interviews/Focus Groups: Student qualitative feedback can elicit helpful information that may otherwise be overlooked in traditional quantitative survey evaluations.
Student Evaluations of the Course: These can be reliable sources of quantitative data, especially if a majority of the enrolled students respond.
Peer Observation/Review of Course Materials: Peer review is always a good thing, as the reviewer can see things from both the instructor/student perspective and share invaluable insights.
:-) Ruby
Comprehensive feedback should be constructed from a variety of sources, such as students, teachers, academic community... A feedback that would allow to close the loop should from different perspectives in order to get an overview of the course. Therefore, it is important to use qualitative and quantitative data.
Terri,
Glad you are taking so much from your students' feedback. Nice job.
Dr. Ruby,
Good point. We can learn so much from a variety of evaluations. Sounds like you use quite a bit of feedback.
Camila,
Closing that look can be best done by all of these various perspectives. Thanks for noting that both qualitative and quantitative are important.
Paul,
I like peer review as well. We are required to do this for promotion and tenure, but even if I wasn't required to do it, I would anyway. Thanks!
Student feedback is the most effective evaluation for me. I am only as good as my students are learners, so if they delivery of the material is not there or the student is not understanding or grasping something new, then closing the loop would be in vain.
Student input to me is most important. If you notice a lot of the students are having issues not comprehending then as an educator you need to look at this.
Tonia,
Sounds like you take what students say seriously. Good job. We have to learn from them and revise the course as needed.
Valaire,
We learn a lot from our students. Once we get that feedback, then we have to do something with it and make sure our course is the best it can be.
Thanks!
Dr. Tena Crews,
In response to your question, which do you think would provide you with the most comprehensive feedback that would allow you to close the loop? I think a course evaluation survey at the end of each course would be helpful with student feedback. Also peer feedback on how my fellow instructors are using course material to achieve learning objectives would help when closing the loop on my online course.
I am not sure that any one method could provide the most comprehensive feedback. Instead, I think a combination of feedback, both quantitative and qualitative, from students and the "institution" provides a 360-view that is the most effective and useful.
I agree that feedback is important to allowing an overview of the course and to see there is need for improvement in the course.
