Survey: What do students want in a credit course?

Conversational English Survey Results:

Given that this was our institution's first foray into language teaching online, we made the experience as efficient as we could under the circumstances. But we were curious as to how the students felt about the process and what ways our online teaching experience could be improved. Thus, I wrote a series of questions on the topic and pushed it to students during breaktime on Zoom.

Background: I used Google Classroom to push material to the students at the start of class and homework assignments during and at the end of class.

Primary instruction and conversation took place on private Zoom sessions at the start and end of a class period. During sessions, I frequently used the in-built Whiteboard, my own Powerpoint files that they saw using screen share, and 3rd party apps like Google Docs, Drawing, StoryboardThat, Youtube, and Kahoot. The students had to interact with the 3rd party programs to complete assignments and projects. Since students were grouped together at all times, I used Zoom's breakout room feature to divide the class so they may collaborate with each other in small groups by my choosing or automatically. I even used this feature to create teams for in-class games.

Classes went for 2 hours with a 10 minute break every 50 minutes of instruction. Hey, teachers need a break, too.

Analysis

1. Shorter online classes: 63

   • OK, I can understand this one. Class does run a bit long, and it's a far different setup compared to the 1-hour a day classes they had to take in High School. I doubt universities will change the class lengths or break them into 1-hour blocks 2x a week. However, if a college were to assign freedom of schedule to students, then it might be worth considering whether to keep the 2-hour format or not.

2. More games in class: 53

   • We have 2 hours with them, so might as well make those two hours more interesting. Some of the textbook content lends itself well to games. This is certainly an avenue worth pursuing. Kahoot was pretty popular for making quizzes more entertaining. Students who won my quizzes received prizes I mailed to them or bonus points.

   • Perhaps making the class more enjoyable should be a worthwhile goal. Based on other student's complaints about their asynchronous classes, I certainly agree.

   • Fewer games in class: 7. I bet it was the students who never won a game. Stop losing! The game! - Terrell Owens.

3. Less homework: 47

   • What student wants more homework? 8 of the votes went to More homework, which is clearly not a majority.

   • Can I give less homework or fewer assignments? As a teacher, I say no. Going forward, I can put more emphasis on in-class assignments thereby giving more free time to students. There are some interesting studies on the efficacy of homework like this one mentioned in Forbes.

4. More student talk time: 35

   • During class time I called on each student to answer questions. Sometimes I called on students multiple times to speak. I had roughly 23 students on average across the 6 classes, which gave me only a small amount of time for student talk. Going forward, I might drop a few book assignments to favor more student-student interactions, but oftentimes in the Zoom breakout rooms, they're not speaking English. Makes me wonder about their motivations for making this choice....

5. Less student talk time: 19

   • It's a conversation class, students! You're supposed to talk!

6. Fewer in-class assignments: 27

   • I didn't even give that many assignments. Maybe this time, I'll give more time for them. Perhaps we teachers did not give enough time, or they didn't like them in general. A poll doesn't always give the opportunity for that level of detail.

7. More outside apps: 33

   • Considering the bugs and other issues, I assumed that students did not like them and would vote against them. Color me surprised. Sure it was not as popular as shorter classes, but the percentage of students who voted for outside apps was greater than those that voted against it.

   • It seemed to me that turning quizzes into competitive Kahoot events was a good idea. I might change over some of my early semester quizzes into games and other things like that.

8. Fewer textbook lessons: 18. More textbook lessons: 17

   • Well, which is it? Do you want more or less?

   • This is the educational equivalent of a catch-22. We tell students to buy the textbook, but if we use it they don't like it. If we don't use it, they felt like they wasted their money because we didn't use it in class. Do they want me to go over 2 pages each chapter then jump to the quiz and game? How am I supposed to make a decent review game from 2 pages of material?

   • If a teacher uses the textbook more, some students will become unhappy. If a teacher uses the textbook less, some students will become unhappy but they might be happier if the content appears in a game? I don't know how to play this one.

Going Forward

Looking at the survey, it seems students are interested in more dynamic, engaging class material, which the textbook kind of lacks. I haven't tried their video presentations, though this upcoming semester I might filter those in. While I can't do anything about the length of the class, if other students are similarly vocal on the issue, it might induce the administration to consider more flexible class times. I'm thankful to my students for being willing to share helpful if not contradictory advice, as we were worried that they were a bit 'surveyed out'.