Course Learning Evaluations

Teaching Observations Reports:

The student evaluations of the courses I have taught so far are attached below.

- Course Evaluation Reports -Fall 2018

- Course Evaluation Reports -Spring 2019

- Course Evaluation Reports -Fall 2019

- Course Evaluation Reports -Spring 2020

- Course Evaluation Reports -Fall 2020

- Course Evaluation Reports -Spring 2021

- Course Evaluation Reports -Fall 2021

- Course Evaluation Reports -Spring 2022

- Course Evaluation Reports -Fall 2022 *

- Course Evaluation Reports -Spring 2023

*The course evaluation reports were missing for the MSW courses because less than five students participated in the course evaluation and no reports were generated in the course evaluation system due to the small number of participants. 

Rating of the Course Evaluation

The table below shows the student rating for each semester from Fall 2018 to Spring 2- 023. The average score of the past five years (ten semesters) for course learning outcome is 6.33/7, and for student contributions to learning is 6.21/7. The average score for course content and delivery is 6.21/7, and for course instruction is 6.60/7. Taking all the aspects together, the average student rating for the faculty during the past five years is 6.34/7. 

*The rating for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 might be influenced by the switch from face-to-face to online teaching due to the COVID pandemic.  

Summary and Reflection on the Students' Feedback

In general, most comments from students on my instruction are positive and encouraging. Based on students' feedback, I identified things that helped with students' learning and areas to improve.

Strengths

-Introduce class objectives and content for the day

"Dr. Shi projects the objectives for the day. She has a nice simple slide template, and the bullet points/fonts are clear. " - HBSE I, Fall 2018

"This instructor is great at trying to make everyone comfortable with a thorough outline of course work with expectations being set realistic."- Intro Research, Spring 2019

At the beginning of the class, I included one slide to show the students the learning objectives or expected learning outcome and the key content to cover during the day. I hope this can help students grasp the key knowledge and skills they need to obtain through class lectures and activities. It seems that students like to see the outline first.

- Course content is well-structured with multiple activities

"This course is VERY well organized. We know when things are due, we know the components of each assignment, and we even know what we will be talking about in the upcoming class. The PowerPoints are very succinct and have good info. Professor Shi is just amazing." - HBSE I, Fall 2018

"There have been many fun activities that have helped the content become more understandable. Professor Shi made sure that expectations were clear and created an environment in which our class could communicate openly, even when it came to very difficult subjects. The different ways of teaching. She was really open to our ideas and tried her best to actually implement the changes." - HBSE I, Fall 2018

"Dr. Shi's passion for research is contagious-- she gets students excited about a subject that can get pretty dry. She breaks down complicated concepts and makes them very easy to understand." "Prof Shi makes the course content bit-size and easy to understand. Group work and quizzes also helped me stay accountable for the content."; "It is hard to make a research class exciting, possibly more activities like the m&m one would help us to visualize the types of sampling "Intro Research, Spring 2019.

"Professor Shi is a great discussion leader, and her lesson plans are organized well." -Theories of Aging, Fall 2019

"I love how active the teacher encourages us to be as far as discussions, our opinions, and any feedback on the topics and the class. Although research is a complex subject, I think the way the content is divided is fine for learning. The teacher is also really nice and approachable which makes the course a lot better." - Intro Research, Spring 2023

I tried to make the content, assignments, and due dates well-structured and clearly posted on Canvas and Syllabus. I broke them into small pieces for the complicated concepts and designed some interesting activities for each part to help students understand.

- Good Instruction for Assignments

"The instructor is clear and thorough. She set up mini-assignments for a large project that my peers and I agree has helped a lot. We all would have procrastinated as long as possible. Her aid has helped me better refine my time management skills, and given me an opportunity to learn more about how to do research." - HBSE I, Fall 2018

"She always starts her classes with what assignments are next. Even though the subject being taught is confusing, the instructor breaks it down enough to help us understand it."- Intro Research, Spring 2019.

"Her feedback on papers is very helpful, and I feel I have learned a great deal from her." -Intro Research, Spring 2020

To help students start working on assignments early, I reminded them of the assignments to be due soon at the beginning of the class. Also, I went through the assignments' instructions at least two weeks before the assignments are due and answer their questions so they can start the assignments early. For the significant assignments or final projects, I often broke them into small parts and helped students work on them step by step. It also helps me give students feedback timely and ensure that they are on the right track of the assignments.

- Positive attitude towards teaching and helping students to learn

"Dr. Shi is very kind and patient. She will go above and beyond to make sure you understand the information if needed." - Intro Research, Spring 2020

"She is encouraging, understanding, and well-rounded. She does her best to address any questions or confusions throughout the course" - Applied Research, Fall 2020

"Dr. Shi and the way she cares about her students are the biggest strength of the course. She is willing to meet weekends to help research groups succeed. She goes above and beyond her expectations as a professor. This course gave me a better understanding of research and how important it is." -Data Analysis, Spring 2022

"Really strong teaching, she knows what she is talking about. Always keeping us thinking and getting better at research even if we want to do micro work. The class is structured very well so that we are guided through our research project in a way that makes sense and moves in chronological order. The professor is very knowledgeable about the course and is great at providing constructive and encouraging feedback." - Applied Research, Fall 2022

"The instructor is positive and actually cares about the success of her students. She listened to our concerns and did her best to address them." - Intro Research, Spring 2023

Areas to Improve

-  Reduce the amount/length of lecturing, and provide more examples in lecture; more interactive activities to keep the class engaged; More in-class working time for group projects.

"Less lecturing, more examples, and implications to practice." "More hands-on activities" - Social Work Practice with Communities and Organizations, Fall 2018

"Less lecturing and letting us have more time in class to work on group stuff" - Social Work Practice with Communities and Organizations, Fall 2019

"Less time spent on going over assigned readings with PowerPoint"; "The course could be improved by doing more in-class activities, and not as much lecture."-Theories of Aging, Fall 2019

"Less lecture and more group activities."; "More activities to keep the class engaged" - Intro Research, Spring 2020

"Maybe adding short videos or having more class activities." - Intro Research, Spring 2023

I found this feedback in the evaluation of several courses, and I think it is an area to improve with a higher priority. I intend to cover all the key content in the textbook, and I am still struggling with the balance between lectures and activities. Sometimes I did not have enough time for class activities because I lectured more. I was concerned that students did not read through the assigned reading to enable them to work effectively on the class activities. Now, I need to find strategies to hold students accountable for class preparation, such as quizzes, surveys, peer sharing, or student lecturing/presentation. Also, I can use more problem-solving based activities to help students learn more actively, even study it in class. It can also help to develop students' critical thinking and problem-solving skills by doing more team-based learning activities in real-world cases.

- Make the PPT slides more concise; Give time for students to take notes and reflect.

"I would say design more concise presentations that allow for easier notetaking. Spend longer on the slides, even though they are posted, because it is easier for some people to learn by seeing the notes on the screen, hearing the teacher talking about them, AND being able to write them down all at once." -  HBSE I, Fall 2019

This is also linked with my intention to cover all content. Previously, I had a strange assumption that putting all the important content on the slides will help to input the knowledge into the students' brains. However, I found that the opposite is true. When I have more content in the slides, students actually had fewer interests to read, think, or take notes. In the future, when revising the teaching materials, I would make my PPT slides more concise. Also, I will talk more and give students time to think and reflect on new knowledge.

- Better control of the class discussion and keep the time

"I think the class sometimes took over the discussion, and I felt like Dr. Shi did not get to say everything she wanted to. I think the class could be improved by a more structured discussion." - HBSE Fall 2019

"Some people in the class would go on tangents at times, and it was hard to keep the class on the topic." "Better management of time is probably one of the biggest things. Online classes are difficult to stay engaged with anyway, and to sit for 2.5 hours is long." - Theories of Aging, Fall 2020

This is another crucial area for me to improve. I encourage students' to discuss and share their opinions/experiences in class. However, sometimes I was hesitant to interrupt their sharing, which might take more class time than I planned for. Sometimes, I have to go over the class time to finish what I need to cover. In the future, I need to improve my control of the class discussion and sharing, for instance, set a time limit for the debate on a topic, interrupt with a respectful tone or assign a student as the timekeeper for their group sharing, and lead the discussion when it is necessary. I also need to improve my time management and make sure that I finish the class on time. If I do not cover all, I can always go through the remaining content next class and use it as a review for the previous class.

- Better arrangement for group activities and assignment

"Break out rooms need to be monitored" "There needs to be some way that students are held accountable. The same goes for group work and group assignments" - HBSE, Fall 2020

"Closer monitoring of group work to ensure everyone is doing equal work. Grading individually for group work. More clear feedback on assignments. More explanations of why we receive the grades we do."  - Theories of Aging, Spring 2023

I need to monitor more effectively the process of in-class group activities and group assignments. In my face-to-face or online class, I found that students had side talking and did not focus on the topic during their group work time. For the face-to-face classes, I can go around the groups and listen to their discussion. For the online class, I also tried to join different break-out rooms. However, it is hard to go over all the groups for the large classes. I recently attended a workshop from the WCTL and learned to use Google Slides to monitor each group's progress when they are in the breakout rooms. If I notice a group with no written content on its group slide, I can join their breakout room to check up more purposefully. Another issue I noticed with the group assignments is that some group members complained about other group members' less contribution. For big group projects, I usually set up ways to improve group collaboration such as the group working agreement, self-assigning groups, incorporating self-evaluation and peer-evaluation into the final grade. I would also encourage them to think more creatively about possible work divide based on expertise. However, I did not do this for small group assignments (data analysis lab pairs or article review pairs). I might try to set up some simple ways to hold students accountable for in-class group activities and small group assignments.   

Course Evaluation Reports (2018 -2023)