Teaching & Learning Feedback

The Center for Instructional Excellence (CIE) offers a number of confidential services on teaching and learning that are designed to make effective use of your time in achieving your goals and your students’ academic success. These services bring pedagogical experts alongside faculty and instructors, using evidence-supported reflective practices to examine teaching strategies and foster student-centered learning environments. This may include gathering student perceptions, conducting observations, and other strategies that are shared in individual consultations.

It all begins with you sharing your situation in this short, confidential Qualtrics survey about your instructional goals, courses, and timeframe (at least two weeks’ notice is needed). CIE will contact you within 48 hours after you complete the Qualtrics.

Gather student perceptions

There are two key points in a semester to gather student perceptions of courses: early and end-of-semester. We can help you do either or both. These services provide information on what your students are thinking about your course and what suggestions they have for improvement.

Early student perception feedback allows you to do two things that are supported by research: 1) make changes to the course early in the semester/session that may help current students better achieve course learning outcomes, and 2) have informed conversations about their learning with students. There are several options for early student feedback:

1. Midterm evaluations through Instructional Data Processing (IDP, a division of CIE) during Week 6 of a semester. This survey uses PWL’s Course Evaluation software, which is also used for end-of-semester course evaluations. You need to schedule midterm evaluations no later than Week 2 by working with your department coordinator. All surveys within a department will use the same questions for midterm evaluations and be conducted during the same five-day period. Further information on the PWL Course Evaluation software and guidelines on midterm evaluations are available on the Course Evaluation – Faculty section of the IDP’s website. We can also help you analyze the results.
2. Mid-semester student surveys that instructors administer to students. CIE can provide recommended questions for an anonymous survey that you administer via Qualtrics or in Brightspace. We can also help you analyze the results.
3. Mid-semester Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID) during which CIE staff attends your face-to-face class meeting to collect feedback through an evidence-based consensus building process. The SGID takes place between weeks 5-7 of the semester, and takes about 20 minutes of class time when most students are present (and the instructional team is not). We follow-up with you to review a short debrief of the qualitative results. SGIDs are intended to support modifications to the course to better help students. If you do not have control over the course structure, environment or assignments, mid-semester surveys may better suit your needs.

End of semester course evaluations are required by the Office of the Provost for undergraduate courses with seven (7) or more students but may be requested for any course with department approval. For details, see the IDP website. CIE can assist you in analyzing the data and student comments generated by these evaluations in order to make informed decisions about teaching and learning strategies.

Observing learning environments

Inviting a CIE consultant into your classroom will provide a non-evaluative perspective on some aspects of the course or the teaching and learning environment. Prior to the observation, you will be asked what aspect of your teaching/course you would like to receive feedback on, and the observation will be tailored accordingly. In a follow-up conversation, the observer will share information on what was observed and offer suggestions or additional resources that align with the instructor’s goals/desired feedback.

Individual consultations

Whatever service you choose will involve brief individual consultations before and after the service (onsite or remote). CIE consultants are also available for general one-on-one conversations about teaching and learning. Would you like to discuss teaching concerns such as: engaging learners, designing assignments, difficult classroom situations, making sense of mid-semester feedback or end-of-semester evaluations? You can meet with us to talk about a broad variety of teaching topics.

Please reach out to CIE now by completing this short, confidential Qualtrics survey about your instructional goals, courses, and timeframe.