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Mid-Course Surveys: Ask Students How Your Course Is Working

By Amy Lane
February 27, 2020

Posted in: Best Practices / Faculty / Instructional Design / News / Teaching Online

Diverse group of students holding signs that say "survey".
Mid-course surveys capture formative feedback from students.

Mid-Course Surveys

Do your students have suggestions that could be incorporated into your course to make it a better experience for current and future students? Rather than waiting until the end of the course for feedback, instructors can ask for formative feedback from students midway through the course.

Although it may be hard to ask for feedback, the fact that you are asking shows how much you care about your students. The mid-course feedback is a way for instructors and students to share and respond to formative feedback, which can improve a course that is in progress and have a positive impact on learning now and in the future.

How to Design Questions

It is easy to create and set up a mid-course survey in Canvas. The survey should be anonymous (Canvas has a setting for anonymous responses) and can be as short as three short-answer questions.

To motivate students to provide feedback, it is important to emphasize in the survey’s instructions that student feedback is valuable and will be used to improve current and future learning experiences. If you would like to ask students for formative feedback, please contact your instructional designer for help in setting up a survey in your course.

Examples of formative feedback survey questions:

  1. What is one significant insight you have gained thus far in this course?
  2. What is one question about this course’s subjects that you still have?
  3. Please give your instructor one or two specific, practical suggestions of how they could help you improve your learning in this course.

Benefits of Conducting Mid-Course Surveys

There are several benefits to asking students for feedback in a mid-course survey:

  • By asking open-ended questions during the course, instructors can show that they are interested and open to students’ feedback, which can help motivate students.
  • The survey gathers the overall student perspective and gives the instructor time to respond to constructive feedback that can be implemented in the last half of the course.
  • The instructor can serve as a good role model for students by constructively responding to both positive and negative feedback.
  • Some students will be more receptive to formative feedback because they will see that the instructor is open to feedback as well.
  • Responding to feedback acknowledges the students that provided feedback and manages student expectations for the remainder of the course.
  • Instructors demonstrate that student feedback is valued with their willingness to incorporate recommended changes into the course and explain procedures or policies that may be confusing to students.

Tips for Follow-Up

After you ask students to complete the mid-course survey, it is important to respond to the formative feedback that you receive from students; we suggest that instructors respond by the end of the next week. Carefully consider what students say and look for themes that you can categorize their suggestions into for follow-up, such as the following:

  • Items you can change during the semester and when you will make the changes
  • Suggestions that need to wait until the next time the course is revised because of the impact on the remaining instruction in the course
  • The aspects that you either cannot or will not change because of instructional reasons (e.g., assessments)

Talk to your instructional designer about creating a mid-course survey today!

Resources

Faculty Spotlight: Rich Freese Interview

By Eric Peloza

Posted in: Best Practices / Faculty / Teaching Online / Tips

Course revisions are an exciting time in the life cycle of a course. Faculty reflect upon the past offerings and look for ways to improve the student experience. I recently talked with Dr. Rich Freese (DMA) about how he approaches the revision process. Rich facilitates courses for our UW Independent Learning program and I’ve worked with him on a course revision (U660206 – Legendary Performers) that won the 2018 ADEIL College-level course award. For this issue of IDigest, we talk about Rich’s secret sauce for cooking up award-winning course revisions.

Read more »

ID Team News Bulletin: Winter 2019

By Kristin Kowal
December 2, 2019

Posted in: News

In this news bulletin, read a thank you message from the director of our team about the Canvas migration and learn about our new way of connecting with you – live streaming!

Canvas Migration Complete

Gone are the days where we interchangeably use the terms D2L and Brightspace for our LMS! Canvas is our new home, and our faculty and Instructional Design Team worked together to make this a reality. To give you an idea of how much content we migrated as faculty-designer teams, here are a few numbers:

Migration Facts: 412 courses migrated; 212 faculty partners in Migration; 2,224 discussions migrated; 3,697 assignments migrated

It was no small feat! Our director, Ryan Anderson, wanted to give a personal thank-you to all of the faculty involved:

Ryan Anderson
Ryan Anderson, Senior Director of Instructional Design and Academic Technologies

Higher education both locally and nationally is undergoing tectonic change, and as we all know, stress is often times the companion to such change. One significant change for those who teach online is the need to switch to a new learning management system. After spending close to two years on this transition, I’m happy to say that all of the courses we run in partnership with various campuses are now live in Canvas. Our Instructional Design Team here at the Extended Campus underwent an incredible amount of planning and work to make this transition happen as smoothly as possible. Even with this effort, we know that you all, the faculty, took on additional tasks of reviewing the migrated courses and also learning a new learning management system. In short, accept our sincerest thanks and appreciation for what you did and continue to do to meet the needs of students. We now look forward to continuing down the journey together of bringing great curriculum to students!

Live Streaming

In November, the Instructional Design Team and Media Team partnered to offer our first-ever live stream for faculty! In this live stream, instructional designers led a live Q&A and informational session for Associate of Arts and Sciences (AAS) faculty about developing assessments.

Instructional Designers Laura Giffin and Kristine Pierick hosting the live stream.
Instructional Designers Laura Giffin and Kristine Pierick field questions from faculty during the live stream.

We loved the interactivity of this format so much that more live stream sessions will be offered this coming year. The next topic will be Creating Active Learning Opportunities with Media on January 30, 2020, from 12:00–1:30 pm CST. Edit: This live stream has been rescheduled. You can still expect an email with details on the live stream at a later date.

You can attend this stream to learn more about how you can insert more activities and opportunities for feedback right into your presentations. If you have ever said, “I have a very active lecture in my class on campus, but how do I do that online?” this live stream will help. If you are developing or revising a course soon, this will be a great session to attend! Stay tuned—you will receive an email later with details, including how to sign up!

Faculty Spotlight: Terry McGovern Interview

By Eric Peloza

Posted in: Competency-based Education (CBE) / Faculty / Projects / Teaching Online

In recent years, High-Impact Practices (HIPs) have gained popularity in online education, and it’s easy to see why. Strategies from HIPs encourage student engagement and motivation by going beyond the typical assignment types of essays and multiple-choice quizzes to foster authentic assessments such as portfolios, internships, capstones, and project-based learning. The UW–Parkside Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) focuses on project-based learning and is a great example of how HIPs can be used in Competency-Based Education (CBE) to great success.

I sat down with Terry McGovern, DBA, DM, who facilitates several BSBA projects, which includes the BSBA Capstone. We discussed how High-Impact Practices are used in the BSBA program, his insight a faculty member, and personal experiences he had with students. If you are unfamiliar with the BSBA project-based learning, just consider projects as courses. If you want more detail, you can learn more in Eileen Horn’s blog post Developing and Working in Project-based CBE!

The BSBA program aligns with HIPs by focusing on the value of projects, real-world situations, and high levels of feedback. These assignments are authentic and complex, and Terry finds a lot of value in “hands-on activities that reflect what students would see in the working world.” They can approach and work though tasks or problems in a natural manner and work together, all while receiving feedback on multiple occasions instead of only receiving it once which is common in the traditional education model.

The Value of Feedback and Reflection

In competency-based education, students can improve their assignments after they receive feedback and then resubmit it. This also strengthens the connection between students and faculty because they interact with the faculty multiple times through feedback. Terry finds this aspect of working in CBE very meaningful because “the faculty member doesn’t just walk away from it after one grade; I can work with student until they demonstrate mastery.” Another benefit of this model is that students may feel less intimidated by an assignment, especially if they are having trouble with it. Terry said that “if someone turns in a project and it needs a lot of work, choose not to overwhelm them and do it piece meal. I can say, ‘Let’s work on this, and then let’s focus on this next,’ which reduces the chances of students feeling overwhelmed.” Because assignments are broken into smaller pieces, it gives students the ability to gain confidence throughout the process of obtaining mastery.

As a faculty member, CBE assessment exchange is much more meaningful. The faculty member doesn’t just walk away from it after one grade; you work with the student until they demonstrate mastery.

Because there are so many opportunities to work with students in such a close manner, Terry does recognize the time commitment it can take. With multiple iterations of feedback, faculty need to spend more time on review and grading. That said, Terry doesn’t see this as a larger time commitment, saying that “faculty member’s time allocation is set up to allow them to work much more with students on submissions.” This is also offset because a faculty spends less time on the traditional aspects of education such as lectures because of the self-paced model and the utilization of open educational resources.

The multi-step feedback also process ensures that students are on the correct track and that the capstone project is properly framed. Another key element of HIPs that is used in the capstone project is built-in reflection points where students are given time to consider where they are in the project and what they have learned. Terry said that this helps students think strategically on what they’ve seen before, what a company has tried in the past, and what the company’s best ideas were and why. This reflection time is especially important because it gives students the time to make deeper connections and really identify areas of need in their current situation.

Connecting Education to the Real World

In addition to the standard project load, the BSBA Capstone project allows students to display the accumulation of skills mastered within the program. Terry said that the BSBA Capstone is both flexible and strategic because students have the opportunity to examine a case study from a primary industry or even start an initiative at their current work place! Because of this, most students apply their capstone project directly to their workplace. This motivates students because they can examine an issue at their workplace that they may not otherwise have time for and gives them the ability to show how they can critically assess an issue. Terry encourages students to “take the approach that they are consultant to their company by identifying a problem and tackling it as a consultant would. They can apply different models, research elsewhere in industry for best practices, present options for course of action, and recommend an action.” Students can show what they have learned, along with the value they bring to their workplace. As with previous projects and assignments, the capstone involves a multi-step process. Terry works with students through a series of drafts and feedback to produce a “consulting” report.

Students can take the approach that they are a consultant to their company by identifying a problem and tackling it as a consultant would.

Terry found that the projects used in the BSBA program do a wonderful job of gaining student engagement and fostering motivation because students are able to see a clear connection between their assignments and the working world. One success story Terry gave was when one of his students told him how helpful the BSBA program was during interviews. Because of BSBA, they were able to refer to the projects they completed in an interview as well as talk about important topics like strategic thinking, project management, and resource allocation. In addition to the program as a whole, the capstone is especially powerful tool. Terry spoke of a student who he recently worked with on their capstone project. Through this project, “the student was able to identify, real, large dollar savings for his company, which is the type of initiative that could get someone promoted.” These are great examples of how relevant high-impact projects are because students can demonstrate their mastery of a concept by recalling examples from their studies in the BSBA program.

What are some ways you can incorporate High-Impact Practices into your courses and projects to engage your students and help them grow in their careers?

It’s All in the HIPS

By Kristin Kowal

Posted in: News

Earlier this year, we surveyed instructors on what topics they would like to learn more about. High-Impact Practices (HIPs) received the most votes. This blog post has some general information on HIPs, a link to our webinar on HIPs, and an example of how you can use HIPs to make a small but important change in your course.

What are HIPs?

High-Impact Practices are argued to be beneficial to students when implemented cohesively1. This list of practices has been around since 2008, with the more recent addition of ePortfolios in 2016. These practices are:

  1. First-Year Seminars and Experiences
  2. Common Intellectual Experiences
  3. Learning Communities
  4. Writing-Intensive Courses
  5. Collaborative Assignments and Projects
  6. Undergraduate Research
  7. Diversity/Global Learning
  8. ePortfolios
  9. Service Learning, Community-Based Learning
  10. Internships
  11. Capstone Courses and Projects

The bolded practices are the ones that are most prevalent in our online programs at UW Extended Campus. If you’d like to read more about these High-Impact Practices, you can find a list of High-Impact Practices and descriptions of each in this PDF to learn more!

Webinar

Two of our Senior Instructional Designers, Eileen Horn and Kristine Pierick, presented the webinar High-Impact Practices for Online Courses in November. They discuss what HIPs are and why people should care about them. They also cover how HIPs are used in our courses and some implementation tips. If this sounds interesting, you can watch the recording here!

Using HIPs to Make Small Changes

Something the webinar doesn’t cover is the Eight Key Elements that HIPs share2. If you look at the list below, chances are you could find many of these elements in assignments and strategies that you already use in your course!

Eight Key Elements

  1. Performance levels set at appropriately high expectations
  2. Significant investment of time and effort by students over an extended period of time
  3. Interactions with faculty and peers about substantive matters
  4. Experiences with diversity, wherein students are exposed to and must contend with people and circumstances that differ from those with which students are familiar
  5. Frequent, timely, and constructive feedback
  6. Periodic, structured opportunities to reflect and integrate learning
  7. Opportunities to discover relevance of learning through real-world applications
  8. Public demonstration of competence

I share these elements because they can be useful tools for you to use if you are making changes in your course or need some inspiration. For example, you could create a more impactful discussion by asking students to discuss their viewpoints with someone that has a different background from themselves (see Key Element #4) instead of a traditional discussion question.

Is there an assignment you could modify to include one of these eight elements? If so, do you think that would be beneficial to your students? Why or why not?

As an example, let’s take a look at how we could use HIPs to make a small change to a course under revision!

The Case of the Disconnected Discussion

Let’s pretend that Rosie, our student, is taking a course where she has to build a brick wall. She is hard at work on this project throughout this semester. This brick wall can be a stand-in for any project you can imagine (e.g., building a computer program, writing a business proposal, creating a marketing plan, etc). Any of these possible projects share most of the eight key elements of HIPs.

 

Rosie the student is building a brick wall.
Rosie is working on her project.

 

In addition to her course project, Rosie is required to participate in a discussion every week.

Rosie's classmate Boaz tries to start a discussion.
Rosie’s classmate Boaz begins talking to her about the theory of bricklaying. Rosie needs to respond but feels like time is being taken from her project.

In the image, Boaz is placed off to the side in this image to represent that the discussion isn’t directly connected to what we already know motivates the students: the project. While discussions on bricklaying (or another relevant course concept) are valuable, Rosie still might view this discussion as busywork. Rosie’s instructor realizes that this might be a problem and wants to change the discussions to make them more applicable and impactful for the students.

What Would You Do?

Think about how you would change the discussions if you were the instructor of this course. Look at the list of HIPs and the Eight Key Elements for inspiration. Alternatively, you could come up with your idea first and see if it matches any of the HIPs or Eight Key Elements.

A Possible Revision!

Rosie’s instructor decides to place students into small discussion groups to work together find and fix errors in an example of the project. These errors are common mistakes that students make in the project every semester, so the instructor knows there will be an active discussion.

  • The students collaborate (Key Element #3; HIP #5) on the discussion board.
  • This happens well before every project checkpoint (Key Element #5 and #6).
Rosie and Boaz identify problems with a brick will.
Boaz and Rosie find problems with this brick wall and propose how to fix them and how they can avoid making the same errors going forward.

At the end of the semester, the students are happy because they see how what they are learning affects their project, and the instructor is happy because the students are learning and applying important concepts.

If you have any components of your course that feel a bit disconnected, you can use the HIPs and Eight Key Elements resources as a guide to change things for the better. You could also look at this example as strengthening something that is already working well (in this case, adding collaborative practice to a course that has no group work).

Do you have any questions about HIPs or experiences you would like to share? Comment them below!

1High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter, by George D. Kuh (AAC&U, 2008).

2Ensuring Quality & Taking High-Impact Practices to Scale by George D. Kuh and Ken O’Donnell, with Case Studies by Sally Reed. (Washington, DC: AAC&U, 2013).