Teaching Reflection / Midterm Evaluation (Week 8)

Here's the summary of the W200 mid-term evaluation. Students did a survey and showed their preference and opinions regarding the course and their instructor.

Class
Like/Meaningful	Dislike/Pointless
·     Digital story *4 - challenging, but learned different technology tools ·     Hands on activities & TIPs *4 (learned new tech. resources & how to use them) ·     Case analysis project *2 – how to look for different resources to solve problems in future classroom ·     Class prep *2 ·     Group/Class discussion*2 ·     Google *2 (thinking about using it in future classroom) ·     Spice You Up activity *2 ·     Teacher website & e-porfolio ·     Diigo (started to use for different classes) ·     Webquest	·     Digital story *3 – time consuming, should have more instruction on how to make a video in class ·     Lecture/PPT *3 – too much information; rather do hands on activities ·     Too many assignments due at once *3 ·     Class prep *2 – spend lots of time, but not talked a lot about it in class; spend too much time talking about CP in class ·     GoAnimate *2 – not suitable for higher grade level students ·     Inspiration – not meaningful ·     Teacher website – pointless ·     Class is too long ·     Class discussion ·     TIPs – helpful for understanding course content, but not useful
Instructor
Strength	Weakness/Students’ needs
·     Helpful to solve problems *5 ·     Explain clearly what to do and where to find resources *4 ·     Funny *3 ·     Keep students engaged *3 – ask questions ·     Make sure students understand *2 ·     Knowledge - go through information in depth *2 ·     Connection with students *2 ·     Nice/friendly/approachable/positive ·     Give individualized feedback ·     Give time for questions	·     Give more time for the TIPs in class *3 ·     Unclear about the due date and submission *2 ·     Communication – hard to understand my comments ·     Talk louder

Link to Evaluation Response PDF file

After looking at my evaluation results, in general, I think there's still a lot to be improved in my teaching. In terms of the course structure, content, and assignments, I don't think I can do much adjustment to satisfy every student. Looking at the results, it's obviously some students like a specific topic the most, yet some other students might dislike the same topic the most. Lots of other AIs told me it's not possible to make everyone happy, but I think what I can do is to try my best to at least explain clearly to student why we include such content and tasks for what purpose. I think it would actually be a good opportunity to take this as an example for students to think about what they would do in their future classroom if their students have wide range of interests or preference on their learning. A lot of students actually gave comments that they did learn a lot from this course. One student even started using Diigo as a public library for several other classes. I guess probably I told them almost every week that how Diigo helps me as a teacher and learner. I'm really glad that lots of students have really learned something from this class and this would definitely help me grow my confidence and motivation in teaching.

In terms of my teaching, I greatly appreciate that my students could really tell me "the truth" whether they understand what I was talking about and how they feel about they way I teach. I've tried hard to build a good relationship with my students and give them the image and impression that they can be very comfortable to ask any questions or talk to me about any issues they have. At the beginning of the class, I realize that a lot of my students in this class do not have proficient technology skills and some of them were even worried about they were not skillful enough to complete their projects. Although I spent a lot of time in class teaching them solving their technology problems when they were doing activities, I think it definitely worth the time doing that cause students would be more confident and motivated in their learning.

I think it's a good sign that students think I'm helpful to solve their problems. However, I am thinking probably I should change my strategy a bit and give them less detail guidance while helping them solve their problems. The reason is that they kind of get used to getting any kinds of help from me. Since we have already gone through half of the course, I feel the skill of looking for solutions is more important for them to learn. In order to let them be an independent problem solver, what I would do is to provide them different resources or telling them the right direct to go, and then let them explore different ways to solve their problems instead of giving step by step instruction. But of course if I know a student who really needs lots of help, I would still give a full guidance and explanation.

Regarding the time distribution for lecture and activities, I was aware that students need more time to do tasks in class, and I did leave more time for them to do hands on activities. However, it seemed they still need even more time. I think I sometime really spent too much time giving examples and having class discussion, but it is the way for me to make sure they really do understand the concepts I want them to learn. From the evaluation results, some students said that they learned the most from the class discussion and the examples from other students, whereas some other students think it's boring and unnecessary to spend time on discussion. This is a real dilemma. Probably I need to talk to other experienced AIs and figure out the best way to solve this problem.