More disrobing: midcourse review

One of the most useful things that our new teaching center offers is a midcourse review.  While students have a chance to weigh in on the success of the course at the end of the semester in course evaluations, their suggestions (often quite constructive) can only benefit future students.  A midcourse review by a teaching center staff member or faculty colleague, has the advantage of students being able to suggest adjustments (or reinforce successful strategies) for the course for the remaining part of the semester.

Though it may be awkward and perhaps embarrassing (yes!) to allow someone else into your classroom mid-semester, whether it's for an observation or for a review, I've found that the benefits outweigh the risks.  There are gentle and minimally disruptive ways to conduct such a review that emphasize constructive comments, and I've always found when I do reviews that the students very much appreciate the chance to talk about the structure of the class and quality of instruction (whether or not they feel successful in the course), and that just asking them to be part of the review process gets them more engaged in the class.  There's also the obvious benefit of getting some data that allow you to make adjustments during the rest of the semester.

We introduce three topics when we conduct a review:  what instructional methods are working well, what could be improved, and what students can do (individually and collectively) to enhance their own learning.  We find that this last question causes students to really think about their own role in the class community, and they often publicly promise to do things such as prepare better or show up to class more often and on time.  Having students answer these questions in small groups can prevent outliers from monopolizing the review, and offers more reticent students a chance to weigh in (students present from their groups).  Our reviews end up with a report that is anything from a brief conversation to a formal document (usable in promotion files), and comes along with some tools for making adjustments.

So, a colleague from the teaching center reviewed my course the other day, and I received some helpful ideas for improvement in the next weeks.  I think my students also got the feeling that they were respected, serious members of the class and that I rely on them to take some ownership in their own success.  It's hard to undress your course and instruction in front of others, but I highly recommend it.