Hearing Students' Voices Midstream

Concurrent Session 6

Session Materials

Brief Abstract

Are you open to student feedback?  Recent rapid changes in online learning make it imperative to collect valuable student feedback in order to determine which new tools and pedagogies to keep and which to eliminate.  We'll share simple methods to collect feedback to improve future course design and delivery.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Stephanie Edel-Malizia, Penn State

Dr. Stephanie Edel-Malizia is currently an Instructional Designer for Penn State University, with over 20 years of experience as a leader in instructional technology spanning the k-20 realm. She completed her Doctorate of Education at Delta State University with the dissertation Design and Implementation of Faculty Development for Student Required Internet Use. As a faculty member at Delta State, Dr. Malizia worked as an Instructional Designer and Instructor. Stephanie has ten years of experience as a Pennsylvania Department of Education certified Instructional Technology Specialist, working eight of those years as the Director of Instructional Media and Technology Services for a regional Educational Service Agency. She is also certified as a Superintendent of Schools and a 2013 graduate of the Institute for Educational Leadership Fellows program. Stephanie has taught graduate courses in instructional technology and pedagogy for Penn State DuBois, St. Bonaventure University, East Stroudsburg University, and Clarion University. Her conference presentations include the European Conference on E-Learning, Online Learning Consortium, Educause, The Teaching Professor Technology Conference and the International Society for Technology in Education.

Co-presenter: Heidi Watson-Held, Pennsylvania State University - Main Campus

Heidi Held, D.Ed., is an Instructional Designer here in eLDIG in the Smeal College of Business s at The Pennsylvania State University. She completed her D.Ed. in Administration and Leadership - Higher Education from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2012. She received her M.Ed. in Adult Education from Pennsylvania State University in 2004. Heidi also teaches part-time for Purdue University. Heidi enjoys designing courses, creating video shorts, and working on assessments. Heidi's research interests include (1) benchmarking needs of adult students obtaining a Bachelor's degree; (2) student civic engagement; and, (3) understanding the use and effect of prior learning assessment. Heidi has worked for the Pennsylvania State University for over 14 years in program design, development, and delivery in a variety of capacities. When Heidi is not working at Smeal, she is painting, taking care of her family, or writing both fiction and non-fiction.

Extended Abstract

During our session we will  introduce the idea of collecting mid semester feedback from students and how it may be one of the most important tasks for higher education during these unprecedented times.  Students are eager to share their thoughts and expectations on how they want their learning experience to be as we move forward.  Are we ready to listen?

The pandemic made it crucial for universities to be flexible and nimble enough to find and implement new ways to continue to educate students.  Many changes have been made in the way instruction takes place.  Some of these changes are temporary but many will remain. 

To avoid missing the effect of recent instructional changes on students, this session will provide best practices for how to implement mid semester feedback in order to improve current and future course offerings.

We will share valuable insights on conducting mid semester feedback from two Penn State University academic colleges: the Spring 2021 semester pilot implementation for collecting mid semester feedback for Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences Digital Education credit courses, and ongoing mid semester feedback collection for Penn State Smeal College of Business.

During this session participants will explore the following:

  • What is mid semester feedback?

  • What is the value of collecting mid semester feedback?

  • Who can collect mid semester feedback?

  • What data should be collected? 

  • What tools can be used?

  • How can we be transparent in implementing feedback?

During this session the speakers will first Introduce the current need for mid semester feedback through a quick Q&A, asking participants to share their experience in collecting and acting on course feedback from students. This Q&A will evolve into discussing our take on why mid semester feedback is more important now than ever. Throughout this presentation, we will challenge participants to think about their own use of mid semester feedback including who can collect feedback, why mid semester timing is important, what information to collect, what tools to use and finally, how to act on the information collected.  We will provide guidance on how to work through each of these phases of implementing mid semester feedback.

What is mid semester feedback?

Mid Semester feedback is a process where information is collected from students about their real time reactions to a specific course they are currently enrolled in.  Feedback is collected when students are approximately halfway through completing the course and it is utilized as a basis for course improvement.

What is the value of mid semester feedback?

The value of mid semester feedback is in being able to use students' experiences in the current course as a basis for course improvement and ongoing quality control.  Feedback provides first hand accounts of learning experiences from students, and can be considered in conjunction with how successfully students are achieving course goals and learning objectives as shown through course assessments.

Mid semester feedback is different from instructor evaluations collected at the end of the semester.  End of semester feedback or course evaluations are typically used as a form of data collection for the purpose of faculty tenure review.  Typically, end of semester evaluations use a process which uses a standardized data collection tool.  In comparison, mid semester feedback provides the opportunity for instructors to create customized questions specific to their course.  With mid semester feedback, faculty have the potential for using what they learn to improve the outcome of the final course evaluation.

Mid semester feedback can be used for both immediate and future course improvement.  End of semester evaluations provide no opportunity for change in the current course or to improve understanding and outcomes for students. 

Through student feedback, educators are finding what changes work well enough that students want to continue with new options as we return to a pre-pandemic educational environment.  Though these instructional changes were born through urgent need, we are finding that there are new approaches that work just as well or even better than the traditional instructional methods.

Who can collect mid semester feedback?

Anyone who has a vested interest in improving the quality of a course can collect mid semester feedback.  Instructors, instructional designers, and administrators can easily craft or select questions that will help improve instruction as well as course design. Instructors can collect feedback that is most meaningful in their specific teaching context.  Designers can collect information about course content, assignments and assessments.  Program managers and administrators can work with the data collected  to improve degree completion and to refine course elements required for accreditation processes. 

What information should be collected for mid semester feedback?

Part of the beauty of mid semester feedback is that the questions can be customized to fit the purpose.  While the overall aim is course improvement, there may be specific course elements that instructors, designers or administrators want to target.  Start by determining what it is that you want to know.  We will walk presentation participants through an exercise in crafting questions for a mid semester survey. After a lively discussion about what information can be collected we will 

  • Conduct a brief guided exercise on drafting a goal and drafting questions 

  • Facilitate use of Google Docs to collect and share information across small groups

  • Focus discussion on what we can do with the data, and how we can use it to take action in continuous quality improvement.

What tools can be used for mid semester feedback?

During this session participants will share experiences with some of the many different tools that can be used to collect mid semester feedback from students.  We will also discuss how to select the right tool.

How can we be transparent in implementing feedback?

The participants in this session will  discuss the use of the outcomes from the feedback  and how to best  share changes with their students. along We will encourage  being transparent with students about what actions are taken as a result of the feedback collected.We will discuss students' needs for transparency in knowing their feedback was valued.

Examples 

We will share examples of conducting mid semester feedback including detailed information and steps you can replicate to implement mid semester feedback in your courses. 

Example 1: Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences Digital Education credit courses Spring 2021 pilot implementation

During the SP21 semester we implemented the process of collecting mid semester feedback using the following timeline and major milestones.  We will share detailed information you can replicate to implement mid semester feedback for your courses.

    Timeline for to implementation during a 15 week semester:

  • Weeks 1 & 2 -  Begin planning for implementing mid semester feedback

  • Week 3 

    • Socialize the concept of mid semester feedback

    • Determine the information to be collected and draft the survey

  • Week 4

    • Provide the survey to faculty for review

    • Determine the tool and format

  • Week 5 - Provide faculty development opportunity

  • Weeks 6 & 7  - Post the mid semester feedback form in courses and collect responses 

  • Weeks 8 to 10  - Data review and implementation 

  • Week 10 and beyond - Course revision for current and future semesters

Example 2: Penn State Smeal College of Business Online Courses

As an ongoing practice, each semester we collect mid semester feedback from each new course development.  Collecting feedback helps to determine which new tools, pedagogies, instructional methods and assessment options are most effective in promoting successful learning, and allows for the faculty to pivot to provide continuous quality improvement. We will describe how data is collected, what it is used for, and lessons learned.

Finally, this session will facilitate participant engagement by conducting Q and A and think-pair-share  activities asking participants to share details about their own course feedback collection and/or the potential for implementing mid semester feedback at their own institutions.  We will use polling and additional planned audience contribution activities designed to enable all participants to learn from each other.