Recently, I received copies of the students' evaluations for LIS 415. Overall, they were pretty good and I'm glad. There were several good suggestions from students and I agree with them.
I'll probably be teaching the course in the fall and I plan to incorporate more in-class projects, to divide up the at-home assignments (make them shorter but more frequent), and spend more class time going over the assignments. Shorter lectures and more in-class discussion is also on the agenda.
Another goal is to spend more time in the first few classes explaining what is expected, when and why. Students want to know how to plan their time during the semester; that's a totally reasonable request.
A disappointment is that one person was not satisfied with the class. Obviously, I was not able to communicate as well as I would have liked with everyone. I wish he/she had let me know earlier in the semester and perhaps we could have resolved the issue(s). I know that when I was a student, every once in a while I would have a teacher with whom I had absolutely no rapport. I don't want that to happen with my students.
I hope that with less lecturing on my part and more in-class work and discussion, I can keep all channels of communication open and ensure a postitive learning experience for all students and a positive teaching experience for me.
As an ex-student and ex-teacher I can say that sometimes students have to take responsibility for their own learning experience. If a student is struggling and doesn't come forward they really shouldn't compain afterwards. After all, these are adult students. I suspect a discontent who want to blame. After all you can't read minds. Can you?! No of course you can't. If you can then you could blame yourself.
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