Evaluation of teaching and learning

In order to ensure continual improvement of my teaching, the Department sends out regular surveys to the students. I will present some of the evidence on students' feedback here.

ECO133:

Some of the students wrote the following specific feedback comments:

"The lecturer was very specific and it was very evident she understood the content. The tutorials always prepare me for exams."

"I liked the fact that we did past papers in the lecture."

"I learned a lot by the exercises the lecture did in class. I did not always understand the theory in class but as soon as the lecturer did exercises in class I grasped it better."

"Lecturer got straight to the point and summarised work. Tutor was well prepared and explained homework tutorials."

"The lecturers of 2017 in 100 000 times better than the lecturers of 2016. We understand more and engage more in classes. Her voice is clear and understandable. She was fun, she made Eco133 fun not like in the past."

From the feedback, I also learned that students sometimes perceive my teaching as one-way. One way to change that is to incorporate more exercises for students to do in the lecture. Students also want more opportunities to participate. Since the course was discontinued, I have implemented some of the comments in other courses.

ECO232: Macroeconomics

Unfortunately, the feedback from the students was not captured separately for me and Mr Matsebula. There was specific feedback from the students saying the following:

"Christie's notes and teaching methods were more helpful."

"The good interactive method she used by using day-to-day scenarios in lectures."

"The work was clear and the lecturer was prepared. Also the examples were good and understandable."

The students had two overlapping complaints about the course. The first was to use more videos. I interpret this as a request to introduce more modes of teaching. There were some videos in the course, on the financial crisis and bartering economies, but other videos, possibly at the end of each chapter as a summary can be used. Other modes can be use podcasts or news events to introduce concepts.

The other complaint was switching between lecturers from the first term to the second term. I have raised this within the Department and we could possibly have one lecturer in the future, but to limit teaching loads between lecturers the course was shared.

ECO335: International trade

The chart below shows the feedback from students from 2018's ECO335 course.

ECO739: Mathematical Economics

Overall, the feedback and evaluation of the course are very positive. Especially since the flipped classroom and online teaching have been implemented. Below are some comments from students from 2020 and 2022 as examples.

2020

"It is self-explanatory, one is able to self study this module by using the textbook and lectures slides/videos. It only requires a bit of practice on a regular basis to grasp it fully."

"Lecturer style of teaching was really good because the lecturer also used videos for the module."

"The lectures and assessments enabled one to apply the taught material and also use critical thinking and analytical thinking skills. The administration was good for the module. Moreover, the lecturer was very considerate, flexible and one felt extremely free to ask questions or any help."

"The videos that were provided on each chapter was very informative as it helped me while preparing for the module tests."

"The work covered becomes useful when reading theories and understand calculations in journals etc."

2022

"Very interactive course, that allows for alot of participation which makes the content easier to grasp."

"Lecturer provides great feedback about the work needed to be done. Lecture videos are helpful."

"The lecture gave us group work tutorials, this really helped me a lot to understand the topic and i got to understand how my peers view something."

"Lecturer was patient with each student and explained the theory and application clearly."

ECO740: Economic History

"Was well informed by current discussions taking place regarding the subject. Very informative about Economic history"

"The lecturer uploaded enough materials to cover all aspects of the course. Timely feedback was given."

Areas that need improvement:

"Perhaps it would have been better with sit down classes."

"I think short video relating to certain events can be helpful to bring the point across."