Christine Marvin, Associate Professor, Special Education and Communication Disorders

“Through my participation, I was amazed and embarrassed to discover that I had course objectives I never taught, I had course objectives I taught but never assessed, I had course objectives I assessed and never taught, and I had material I taught and assessed but never listed as a course objective. By reorganizing the goals of my course, developing rubrics for evaluating student work, and assessing my classroom activities, I now have a focused approach for linking my teaching to my students’ learning.”

Bruce Fischer, Assistant Professor, Construction Management

“As a result of my participation in this project and my interactions with peers, the biggest impact on my teaching has been for me to refocus my thoughts concerning course development. Instead of developing presentation materials first and then creating assessments to see if the students mastered the issues, I now look towards the end of the course and focus on what it is that I want students to learn and then structure the presentations to achieve these goals. As such, instead of blindly hoping to achieve my course goals, I now aim directly at them.”

Dana Fritz, Associate Professor, Art and Art History

“Producing an Inquiry Portfolio gave me a framework in which to refine my course. Although the methods I used seemed at first too scientific for a subjective area like art, the "Hypothesis, Data, Conclusion" structure allowed me to be more objective about my teaching. Participating in the project has helped me to write better curricula and more fairly evaluate student learning. The reflective writing process used in the project was so useful that it inspired me to assign my students to reflect in writing on their drawing process and progress. Among other things, this written component helps me to better understand their perceptions of the course and helps students to see their progress more clearly.”

Stuart Bernstein, Assistant Professor, Construction Systems Technology

“My participation in the project has given me a fundamental understanding of how to determine my course goals and outcomes before developing the actual syllabus. I have been able to develop an excellent design for the course I was working on and, more importantly, I have been inspired to work with my department colleagues to create goals and outcomes for all our courses.”

John Comer, Chair and Professor, Political Science

“I’ve always been somewhat unnerved by the role that student evaluations play in promotion and tenure in our department. In the absence of something else to provide another perspective or another piece of information, in many ways tenure decisions are being made by 18, 19, and 20-year olds. The peer review of teaching project offers a valuable and useful component to supplement the student voice in evaluating teaching.”

Carolyn Pope Edwards, Professor, Psychology

“I am much more systematic in thinking about outcomes and trying to tie the course experiences to them.  I think students find my courses better organized and more unified in main messages.”

Tim Wentz, Interim Department Chair and Associate Professor, Construction Management

“Using the discipline and structure of Peer Review, I was able to identify problems within one of my courses and develop a working strategies for correcting them by working with my peer group. I would strongly encourage any faculty member to explore the impact peer review have in your classroom.”

D’Andra Orey, Assistant Professor, Political Science

“This project has forced me to develop clear-cut goals and objectives that have now been defined in such a way that I can measure them. Along with teaching me how to self-evaluate my teaching, the project has also helped to improve my teaching.”

Kevin Lee, Research Assistant Professor, Physics and Astronomy

“My Peer Review experience encouraged me to finally get rid of having lectures in my classroom.  I don’t think I will ever lecture in a course again.  I spend my preparation time making worksheets and peer instruction materials rather than lectures.  I made the leap to a 100% student-centered pedagogy because of my peer review experiences.  It made me completely aware of how little my students were learning.”

Sloane Signal, Assistant Professor, Advertising

“As a new faculty member with no formal teaching experience, this project has helped me to become much more focused and efficient as an educator. I now feel confident in my capabilities and have a solid base from which to monitor my own progress and my students’ learning.”

Kevin Houser, Associate Professor, Architectural Engineering

“The peer review project provided a formal structure for me to change things in my class that had not been working well -- especially by better connecting class activities and assignments with desired learning outcomes. I was also better able to focus on process-learning. These are things I wanted to work on, and the peer review project was provided a context and motivation to deal with these things.”

Larkin Powell, Assistant Professor, School of Natural Resources

“By participating in the project, I have added lectures, discussions, and activities that are directly tied to course objectives, and I better monitor student groups. In addition, I have created grading rubrics that force me to clarify my expectations – this has allowed my students to understand what is expected of them.”

Leen-Kiat Soh, Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering

“From my participation, I am more aware of things now.  My delivery is less "arbitrary" and less "regimental".  I have always been able to incorporate games and fun stuff into my courses; but the "delivery" of regular lectures might be a bit too dull at times, or lack of motivating factors ... these days, I think I am better at communicating and motivating the students about what I expect and what they should expect out of the courses.”

Mary Gabriel, Lecturer, Family and Consumer Science

“As a result of my participation, I revised the assignments to include more reflective journaling and discussion.  I framed the guiding questions to investigate the challenges, successes, and needs that were emerging as the students interacted with the children in the lab. As a result, the students reflected on their own skill development as well as the skill development of the children they were teaching in the lab.  Students then began asking more questions and we went on from there reflecting on our roles as teachers and researchers.  The journaling provided a written documentation of the process.”

Frauke Hachtmann, Assistant Professor, Advertising

“The feedback that I provide on student work is much more detailed and user-friendly. Students have indicated that they have a better idea of how their grade was calculated/assigned.”

Michael James, Professor, Textile, Clothing, and Design

“My involvement contributed to a greater understanding of students’ needs relative to the evaluation of their course work, prompted me to revise and refine my assessment strategies, and contributed to a subsequent improvement in students’ response in the course setting.”

Patrice McMahon, Assistant Professor, Political Science

Nancy Miller, Associate Professor, Textile, Clothing, and Design

“Peer review of teaching gave me the confidence to try new approaches to teaching the course.  I now ask more of the students in creativity and self directed responses to case studies.”

Marilynn Schnepf, Chair and Professor, Nutrition and Health Sciences

“I am now more concerned with the question "How do I know if students are learning what I want them to learn?"  I use more minute papers in class to gauge student learning through their comments.  I have tried to tie objectives more closely to activities.   I am not sure if student leaning has been impacted yet.  I feel that the course is more coherent and learning activities are more closely tied together.”