Teaching Tip: Mid-Semester Teaching Surveys
Do you wonder how your students are responding to your course this semester?
Consider administering a formative assessment to gather mid-semester feedback that you can use to improve your teaching while your course is underway. Formative assessment can help you recognize when your students are struggling and enable you to address problems in the middle of the semester.
Many instructors choose to create and administer their own surveys, student self-assessments, or feedback forms. These questionnaires can be completed in class or through HuskyCT. The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), in conjunction with OIRE, also offers you the option to have a mid-semester survey sent directly to your students. See more about the surveys here, where you may choose the appropriate survey for your course. Unlike end-of-semester student evaluations of teaching, mid-semester surveys are optional, and the results are completely confidential. You can use these formative assessments privately, or you may decide to share them with your department head or teaching mentor, along with the resulting course modifications, and include them in your teaching portfolio.
Results of these surveys can provide you with valuable opportunities for reflection and course improvement, and studies show that when students know that you intend to use the results to improve your course immediately, response rates are typically high and the students’ critiques are carefully thought-out.
Please request yours here no later than March 20, 2020. Email suzanne.lafleur@uconn.edu if you would like to learn more about formative assessment or arrange for teaching consultations or classroom observations.
For more information, contact: Suzanne LaFleur at suzanne.lafleur@uconn.edu