Classroom Challenge

Maximizing Student Response Rate on Course Evaluations

End-of-term student course evaluations are important for a range of reasons, but they only provide useful information if a significant number of students contribute responses. How can you ensure a high rate of return from your students?

Theresa Tinkle, Associate Chair of the U-M English department, recently gathered data from her colleagues that helps answer that question. She polled instructors in her department who regularly get a response rate of at least 80 percent on standardized student ratings to find out what their secrets might be. As it turns out, there's not much of a secret. The best practices she's compiled are relatively simple:

  1. Telling students their feedback is important and can help improve the course in the future.
  2. Asking students to bring laptops to class and saving 15 minutes on the final day of class for them to fill out the ratings.
  3. During the evaluation period, checking the 'dashboard' on CTools to find out how many students have completed the ratings form—and then letting the students know what percentage still need to reply. A simple in-class announcement or email reminder encouraging more students to participate can go a long way. (For guidance about using CTools to collect course evaluations, see this link).

In short, if you let students know that you value their feedback and provide easy ways for them to complete course evaluations, they're very likely to respond. 

For additional ideas and information about student course evaluations, check out our resources on this page. 

Submitted by tbraun on Fri, 04/19/2013 - 12:40pm
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Teaching in the Wake of a Tragedy

Our thoughts and best wishes go out to everyone affected by the tragic events at the Boston Marathon. We are aware that particular teaching challenges can arise in the wake of such shared trauma, and our website includes resources that were developed by CRLT to support instructors facing such challenges. You can click here to find a range of guidelines for discussing difficult topics with students. Especially relevant items include the guidelines for teaching in the aftermath of the September 11th tragedies. Key suggestions on that page for productively discussing such events include:

  • Consider supportive ways to open and close such a discussion
  • Create a framework for the discussion, using specific questions to guide student contributions
  • Allow everyone a chance to talk, but don't force students to participate
  • Where possible, explore links to the content of your course or discipline

Other helpful resources in the wake of the Boston events include this article on student perceptions of more and less helpful faculty responses to public violence and tragedy. The authors, Therese A. Huston and Michele DiPietro, discuss their findings that even a simple, brief recognition of the occurrence--and an acknowledgment that students may be experiencing distress--can make a big difference. Students appreciate their teachers' acknowledging public tragedies, even in courses where the material does not seem relevant to the events. 

As always, CRLT consultants are also available to consult with individual instructors about effective ways to respond to such events. In the face of such shocking violence, we at CRLT feel fortunate to witness the tremendous good accomplished by U-M teachers every day.  Read more »

Submitted by tbraun on Tue, 04/16/2013 - 8:21am
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Classroom Challenge: Testing to Promote Student Learning

At this point in the semester, many courses are building toward major tests.  As a teacher, how can you best design tests to motivate and assess student learning?  How can you be sure that your classroom instruction adequately prepares students for the exam?  How, in short, can you make the most of exam time as a learning opportunity for your students?

The process of designing an exam can offer a great opportunity to ensure that your learning goals, instructional practices, and assessment techniques are all well aligned.  Our website features several resources to help you thoughtfully design exams that reliably measure whether students have learned what you've been trying to teach them--and evaluate those exams fairly.  

For the CRLT Occasional Paper on "Best Practices for Designing and Grading Exams," click here.  For a broader range of resources about testing and grading issues, click here.

Submitted by tbraun on Tue, 02/26/2013 - 2:36pm
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Classroom Challenge: Encouraging Student Participation

Having trouble getting students to speak up in class? This is one of the most common challenges we hear about when consulting with faculty about their teaching. Below are some resources you might find helpful if you're trying to increase student participation in your classes.

This section of the "Solve a Teaching Problem" tool at Carnegie Mellon's Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence offers a range of teaching strategies to encourage student participation. The site invites teachers first to consider why students might be reluctant to join the conversation (Are they unprepared? unaccustomed to contributing in class? uncomfortable sharing certain kinds of ideas with their peers? unsure what you're looking for as an instructor?) and then suggests tailored solutions. 

Here on the CRLT website, we provide a range of resources to support your success in teaching discussion-based classes. See this page of Discussion-Based Teaching Strategies for ideas about how to get good conversations started, develop a classroom environment in which students engage readily, and manage several issues that can arise in a discussion--from dominators to classroom controversy.   Read more »

Submitted by tbraun on Mon, 02/04/2013 - 1:17pm
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Classroom Challenge: Breaking the Ice

With the beginning of the semester just around the corner, many instructors are strategizing about how best to start productive classroom conversations. Students who speak even briefly at the beginning of a class meeting are more likely to participate in discussions going forward, and a well-chosen icebreaker can help everyone join in. As quick, low-stakes, and often fun activities that involve students at the beginning of a session, icebreakers can be a good way to learn about who's in the classroom, reduce anxiety, and begin thinking together about course content.  

CRLT provides examples of icebreakers and guidance for using them in Chapter Three of the GSI Guidebook. We also recently polled our Graduate Teaching Consultants (GTCs) to gather a list of their favorites. Here are some good ideas we received when we asked the GTCs to "tweet" us a particularly effective icebreaker they have used, seen, or heard about: Read more »

Submitted by tbraun on Wed, 01/02/2013 - 1:22pm
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