Concrete Steps: Form Good Evaluation Questions & Create Online Surveys Katharine Mason Jack Green Musselman

The BeTA Project objectives Objective # 1 Disseminate a “visible knowledge mapping” strategy for developing institutional consensus about “good practices in teaching and learning”

Objective #2 Engaging students in their role as evaluators –Authentication issues –Citizenship issues –Response rates

Increasing Response Rates What do you do at your institutions?

Steps we have taken for + RR From Website to “Push” Reminders Posters Focus Groups The Magic Bullet –(the thing that boosts response rates more than anything)

Faculty Members Stress Importance Remind the students Tell how they use it SHOW how they use it

Objective # 3 Develop a new, web-based survey tool that makes administration of a multi- tiered evaluation process possible

Objective # 4 Give administrators tools and information to encourage the formative use of course evaluations, while still providing information that can be used for personnel decisions

acknowledgement The BeTA Project (BEtter Teaching through Assessment) is sponsored in part by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education

Mapping Exercise On a blank sheet of paper make a large circle taking about a quarter of the page In the circle describe a powerful learning experience….

Mapping-- Learner Describe an educational experience where you were the learner and you felt that you learned a lot about something (you went away from the experience feeling that you would remember and be able to use what you learned)

Add detail Who was there? What were the circumstances? When was this? Where were you (and others)? Why was this powerful for you? -write any detail that helps to understand what was going on and why you integrated learning

Mapping-- Instructor Describe an educational experience where you were the instructor and you felt that the students/learners learned a lot about something (they went away from the experience feeling that they would remember and be able to use what they learned)

Themes from the Literature 7 principles of good practice Student retention (Tinto, Astin, P&T) Teaching and Learning –Collaborative/cooperative –Hands-on –active

Katharine Mason- Research Coordinator