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COURSE SURVEY METHODOLOGY PAGE

 
 

Course
Surveys
& Polls

  

ASSESSMENT PHILOSOPHY

Next to planning, assessment is probably the most important issue & tool to consider when building a course. It doesn't matter if it's based upon online conferencing, distance learning, Web courseware, multimedia lecture, computer instruction, or a traditional model, there's no point if you don't know where you or your students are going. Or how you got there. Or why.

The questions you need to ask yourself are:

  1. What are my overall course objectives and their associated learning outcomes?
  2. How will I know if I achieved those objectives?
  3. If I'm building an online course: how will I reliably assess in a distance education context?

OVERVIEW

It's not perfect, but here's what I do:

  • Provide students with ample opportunity for feedback. I run three surveys per semester per course. This isn't for everyone, but it suits my needs well. It takes approximately 10-15 minutes for the students to complete the survey online, and me approx. two hours to compile each survey.
  • Timing is everything - seek input when there's still time in the semester to act upon it, not when the semester is over! Use the final survey to assess your progress from the previous surveys.
  • Don't ask a question if you're not prepared to deal with the feedback.
  • Encourage constructive feedback (positive and negative), discourage the rest.
  • Act upon it! Implement the constructive changes you can immediately, postpone and record what you'll deal with later, and delegate the rest to the appropriate folks.
  • Document the results. Publish them publicly, privately, whatever, but demonstrate to your students that you and your department take their feedback seriously. Share the results with your Program Coordinators, Dean, VP, President, etc.
  • Do whatever it takes to get the support you need to improve the course. Our current administration expects us to take the initiative to draw attention to the matters we need help with. Meaningful data from surveys can only help in the process.

QUESTION CATEGORIES

Thanks to Kathy Wagner, TEC (past Teaching Excellence Coordinator), for giving me some solid advice on revising my methodology. My surveys previously contained a mixed bag of questions, based on other surveys and personal curiosity, and unintentionally focused on one area only: interaction. Kathy helped me deal with my course assessment goals in a structured way, and I've customized the resulting model further. Now, my survey questions are drawn from the following categories:

  1. Content
  2. Presentation / Student Attention
  3. Interaction
  4. Information / Work Overload
  5. Class Management
  6. Course Objectives & Learning Outcomes (mine)
  7. Longitudinal Study (mine)
  8. Written Comments

more to follow...

SAMPLE QUESTIONS

SURVEY RELIABILITY

EXPERIENCE SO FAR

RECOMMENDATIONS

HOW YOU CAN GET STARTED

 

 
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questions? comments? contact Greg at: gbcooper@cambrianc.on.ca
page last modified: 28 Oct 2011
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