Brian Clegg

In general I do consistently well on student appraisals (& one of the side effects of that is often getting reassigned to papers to rebuild numbers). :)

But student appraisals can & do get influenced by a lot of factors. So extracting useful information is not always easy. And in recent times, there’s simply not the structures to deal with the problems. If my paper budget gets cut, then I have to do more with less, and get a lower appraisal. Everybody knows what the problem is- but we can’t fix it because the budget’s the binding constraint. Fewer and bigger tutorials aren’t good, slower turn around on assignments because of less employed markers etc- become negatives.

Nonetheless, there is one area where I think we are starting to get good information- and that’s from the chat that goes on in the online forums we use.

I often find it a real struggle to extract opinions out of my students. Most physics and engineering students don’t say very much – in tutorials I frequently get barraged by total silence. Of course, there is always the odd vocal student who will make his feelings clear, but these are not necessarily the feelings of the whole class. Tricky.

Anyway, this year I’m working on some sneaky tricks by which (I hope) the students will be giving me feedback and may not even know they’re doing it. All without an appraisal form in sight.

The problem is that questionnaires are often low quality information, respondent fatigue sets in quickly, it’s sensitive to class size, proximity to tests, how well they did in assessments etc. Some students like the examples you use, some students hate them.