Suggestions from students

I have gotten many useful suggestions from the students through the use of the One-Minute Papers.  For example, I did not realize that students were getting frustrated with the amount of repetition in my presentations, until they told me so on One-Minute Paper responses in 1999.  I actively tried in 2000 to eliminate any redundancy possible from the lectures, and did not get very many references to that in comments from students that year.  I also got in 1999 specific suggestions for how to improve the discussion of the stay/reciprocal apparatus, and tried to address those concerns in 2000 (they mainly revolved around the need to “see” what I was discussing better, and so I commissioned some better illustrations for the 2000 discussion). 

I have included a summary of the responses on the One-Minute Papers, as well as the verbatim comments from the Teaching Evaluations for the course in 2000 in the Appendices.  It should be noted that I did not get as many written comments on the course instructor evaluations in 2000 as I have in previous years; I feel this is in part due to the enthusiastic participation of the class in the One-Minute Papers.  I feel the class as a whole took advantage of the opportunity to give me formative feedback via that route, and did not feel great need to make suggestions at the end of the semester.  Including the questions in the notes as a stand-alone page that could be detached and returned to me greatly improved participation in 2000; in 1999 I asked the students to use a spare sheet of scratch paper, and the extra effort to get the paper apparently suppressed responses!

I intend to continue use of the One-Minute Papers next year, and the only change that I will make will be to vary the particular lectures in which I use it.  I feel I have gotten enough feedback about the presentations I have used it for in the last 2 years.

I have gotten several consistent comments from students throughout the years regarding my teaching style.  Increasingly, some students tell me that I seem “unapproachable”.  I am not sure where that comment comes from, but I have been actively trying in the past two years to provide an open door for student questions and requests.  Students also tell me that I tend to “play favorites” in the laboratory, and not circulate enough to all of the groups.  This is also something I am working to avoid now.  Overall, though, comments to me are positive, and let me know that I do appear knowledgeable and very concerned for their education.