Evaluate your courses together with your students: Now is the time to plan a MIDWAY EVALUATION in your courses!

5 steps to turn inspiration into action: 

  

Organize evaluation  

 

Analyse the feedback  

 

Turn the feedback into feedforward by writing action ideas 

 

Choose and organize 

 

Try out: carry out an action plan 

 

 

… (And start the circle once again) 

                                                  

Now is the time to plan a MIDWAY EVALUATION in your courses! 

  

  

Midway evaluation. WHAT is this about? 

A midway evaluation is an organized way in which students and teachers share thoughts about what works well and what can be done to improve a course. The teacher then transfers some of the reflections into changes for the rest of the course sessions. 

It is one of many ways to improve the teaching and learning in your courses while they are taking place. 

  

WHY bother?  

We need as teachers to check periodically if our good intentions for developing deep student learning (and not surface learning) are shared and experienced as constructive challenges and actual learning by our students.  

  

HOW? 

Here are a few examples of midway evaluation methods: 

  

1.  The quick written one: Ask each student to divide a sheet of paper into  

a “plus” part: “Write what is working well in this course (and helps you to keep on track in order to get the intended learning results)”  

and a “minus” part: “Write what could be improved AND how to achieve better outcomes.  

  

2. The quick oral midway evaluation: Arrange all students in a circle or horseshoe formation.  Ask each student to share what is working well and what could be changed to improve learning outcomes.  

  

3. The longer evaluation: The Delphi Method includes individual and shared reflections. Remind yourself of how we trained for using this method.  

(1 page, Word Online) Click

 

4. Use of questionnaire: Choose a few relevant questions and make your own questionnaire. Inspiration may be found in this example, which we looked at in our introductory course: 

Example of a Student Questionnaire that Demands Reflections

(3 pages, Word Online) Click

 

 

More examples:  

1. https://teaching.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/sample_midterm_evals.pdf 

2. https://mcgraw.princeton.edu/student-questionnaire 

  

5. Six-step framework for discussion. For groups with maximum 10 participants: Quote from the text: If you have a group larger than 10, you can split them into smaller sub-groups, run the exercise, and discuss the exercise as a whole at the end. 

http://toolbox.hyperisland.com/project-mid-way-evaluation 

  

  

WHEN do I do what? 

  

Before the start of the course: Plan a midway evaluation as part of one of the sessions in the middle of the course (or a little earlier). Decide which method you will try out. 

  

At the start of the course: Explain to your students why a midway evaluation is planned (just after you have gone through the intended learning outcomes of this specific course):  

We need to check in the middle of the course that the ways in use of teaching and learning work as planned, or we need to make adjustments to do better 

  

Midterm (or a little before): Carry out your chosen method. 

  

After the class session: Whichever method you choose to use, this reality check has to be followed by reflections by you to interpret, what your students have said.  

You should not take all responses at face value.  

E. G. when students say that a topic is hard to understand, is it because: 

- they have not tried hard enough,  

- they actually have got the point that this topic is challenging (and should be)  

- you have not organized and taught learning activities well enough yet??? 

  

You have the privilege to reflect on this, and decide your new actions. 

Therefore, tell your students in the end of the midway evaluation session: “I have listened carefully to everything, you have said. I will go home and reflect, and then I will return and present my conclusions and (maybe) some corrections to our course plan and teaching and learning activities”. 

  

Sum up 

It is recommended to do a midway evaluation because  

·      Results may then be used for revision of the rest of the course. 

·      Your reflections (noted down in “My Professional Evaluation notes”) are a step on the way of developing yourself and become a better teacher. 

 

Here is an overview of all pages in this blog: 

Click here to jump to anywhere in this blog: Keep ON going  - Teach better by use of evaluation and action plans  A warm welcome to all teachers at highshool, college and university-levels Click   Evaluate your own courses + Inspirational active learning methods handouts Click Take small steps every day Click Planning of deeper learning Click Focus on the theoretical framework: "You need a framework …” Click   Evaluate your courses together with your students   5 steps to turn inspiration into action & plan a MIDWAY EVALUATION in your courses Click Inspiration for how to develop better homework results Click Inspiration for your next steps: What to learn from your students Click   Evaluate together with a colleague/colleagues , … and train your colleagues Click Inspiration for your next steps Click Sources and references Click   (Furthermore, LNKS to 30 inspirational documents are to be found in these blog posts)