Course Evaluation Report

Spring 2011: Microbiol - BIOL-313-A

Rachel Polando
This course is for your:
Major Minor GE/Core Elective
24 1 0 0
Your current class standing is:
First
Year
Sophomore Junior Senior Graduate Other
1 11 10 3 0 0
Did you look forward to taking this class?
Yes Somewhat Indifferent
Not
Much
Not at
all
15 7 3 0 0
How would you rate your involvement as a student in this course? (e.g., class attendance, class
participation, keeping up with assignments)
High
Medium
High
Medium
Medium
Low
Low
14 7 4 0 0
How much time did you dedicate (outside of scheduled class time) to this course per week? (in hours)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
0 1 5 2 4 3 2 1 1 4 0 0 1 1 0 0 0
Averages this term by
Course &
Professor
Course Professor Dept. School
The instructor showed enthusiasm for the course.
3.80 3.80 3.81 3.69 3.69
The instructor created a welcoming and respectful
learning environment.
3.60 3.60 3.70 3.65 3.61
The instructor created a stimulating learning
environment.
3.28 3.28 3.30 3.29 3.32
The instructor was responsive to questions and
course related difficulties.
3.88 3.88 3.89 3.69 3.55
The instructor provided adequate explanation of the
experiments and provided adequate demonstration
where applicable.
The grading was fair and appropriate.
3.20 3.20 3.41 3.28 3.47
The instructor provided timely feedback on course
work.
3.76 3.76 3.84 3.56 3.37
The instructor encouraged me to seek solutions on
my own and to think for myself.
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The instructor was well prepared for class and made
good use of class time.
3.44 3.44 3.54 3.64 3.50
The instructor was regularly available to help
students outside of class.
3.68 3.68 3.78 3.71 3.55
What is your overall rating for this instructor?
3.52 3.52 3.62 3.53 3.48
Lab objectives and requirements were clear.
The instructor made relevant connections between
the skills introduced and practiced in the lab setting
and conceptual material introduced in lecture.
The course syllabus, objectives, and assignments
were clear.
3.68 3.68 3.73 3.70 3.55
Evaluation and grading were clear and fair.
The grading criteria were clear.
3.60 3.60 3.65 3.48 3.47
The lab syllabus and objectives were clear.
The course assignments and instructional strategies
were related to the course objectives.
3.76 3.76 3.81 3.72 3.62
The course improved my knowledge or skill in the
subject area.
3.76 3.76 3.73 3.55 3.46
What is your overall rating for this course?
3.64 3.64 3.62 3.55 3.43
The skills introduced and practiced in this lab
enhanced my understanding of the conceptual
material introduced in the lecture.
What aspects of the teaching or content of this course
were especially effective?
I absolutely love, love, LOVED Microbiology... it could partially be because that's my passion but it's also
because Dr. Polando made it so interesting. Whenever a topic was a little more difficult to understand, she
would try and put it into layman's terms so that everyone could understand.
1.
she was willing to help all of us to succeed no matter what she had to do on her part. 2.
I enjoyed the lab section the most, and being able to learn new skills that are actually used in the real world. 3.
4.
The lab and more hand-on experiences were the most effective for me. 5.
Slideshows 6.
Having the power point slides to look at during class and then study from afterwards. 7.
Labs helped to show what was being taught in the lecture section. 8.
the answering of questions quickly and the availability of the instructor 9.
None 10.
I really like that you allow us to ask as many questions as we want during lecture as well as on the notecards if
people don't want to ask in class.
11.
The notecards that are turned in at the end of class. It gives the students an opportunity to ask questions. 12.
Taking the reading quizzes before we actually learn them in class helped remembered topics. 13.
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The way she explained thing in class was good. It made the material seem a lot easier than it was, and
subsequently made it easier to learn.
14.
None lab was essentially a study hall with zero guidance. The instructor and the assistant both sat at the front
of the class on their computers
15.
Keeping the powerpoints hidden before class helps with attentiveness in class 16.
The content that was discussed was very interesting and relevant to real life topics. 17.
N/A 18.
the lecture format 19.
Her enthusiasm was contagious. Her unique ways of putting things and funny comments made the class fun
and easy to remember.
20.
The powerpoints really helped me to review for all of the exams! 21.
Going over powerpoints in class 22.
The professor was eager to help us and seemed excited about the course material. She would help in any way
that she could in class or outside of class.
23.
Powerpoints 24.
The enthusiastic lectures, photographs of microorganisms in action, and real-life examples were especially
effective at driving in the course material.
25.
What changes could be made to improve the teaching or
the content of this course?
Way too many assigned quizzes. 1.
none 2.
I got bored in lecture because I felt like it was the same thing everyday. 3.
It is just fine the way it is. 4.
The power points get very long and maybe a little slower pace. 5.
More Feedback on grading 6.
I think you did an awesome job Professor Polando! I have no changes at all. 7.
Lecture sections more organized with the powerpoints. The material could be more understood if the
powerpoint slides weren't gone through so fast but given time to write down and process. A reminder of when
quizzes were due would help to not forget. Scheduling and the syllubus was a little unclear this semester and
cause some confusion.
8.
do not go so fast through the power points and make it more clear on what is going to be on the test 9.
None 10.
I really enjoyed the class and your teaching style worked really well for me. 11.
Having a study guide for the exams will be quite helpful 12.
None 13.
There were quite a few things I noticed this semester: 1. Dont say "It'll be alright. Its not that hard." "You'll be
fine!" every day.... It was a little degrading because 95% of the time, I WAS fine, just deep in thought. I might
have appeared confused, but rarely was. 2. The grading seemed way too lenient. EVERY single report, paper,
and poster we had due I did the night before and I only missed 4 points I think out of 100. As a senior, I know
what it means to be challenged to produce my best work. While I do think I did good work, I definitely could
have done more. This was the same for many other students. The same went for the tests too - I didnt study
much because I knew the grading would be easy. (Even just lowering the total number of points in the class
would make it more challenging... but since there was 1200 points, it was easy to get an A and not try hard.) 3.
Having a poster and a paper on the exact same thing was unnecessarily redundant. 4. I understand the
importance of having slides with minimal info (so students listen). However, some of the phroases simply dont
make sense or there is improper grammar, making them ineffective for studying/reviewing. 5. The breadth of
information was way too broad. I know that it was probably an introductory course, but we covered something
like 24 chapters?! To me that seems like a lot and I think it would be more effective to study the fundamentals
of microbiology a little more and focus less on specific diseases. Maybe just use a COUPLE or FEW specific
microbes or diseases as examples... save the rest for Med Micro or something.
14.
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Go over models with students, give helpful hints, eliminate oral quizes, have quizes on papers over plates in
the Netter Atlas, something similar to the Practical. have an instructor show up every week, several weeks our
instructor never showed up bc of prior committments. We were left to be taught by a student assistant. The oral
quizes made the class very stressful. When an instructor gives me a question on the model that is upside down
and in a horrible view, I didn't answer the question correctly and was upset at my self his response "you really
needed that one." Didn't sit real well, especially when he doesn't show up every week. He is supposed to teach
the class afterall that is why we pay tuition not to go to a study hall!
15.
perhaps more non-powerpoint based lecturing 16.
The grading isn't always consistant, and the lectures are always the same format 17.
N/A 18.
make lecture available before class so it's easier to follow along 19.
Go through the power points slightly slower so we can take all the notes properly. 20.
I would push class participation more to make sure that everyone understands the material. 21.
Going through the powerpoints slower so it is not rushed 22.
Overall I thought this course was good however I had some major issues. During lecture Professor Lee was
very scatter brained and it was hard to follow her a lot of the time. She would write things on the board in an
unorganized manner and it was very hard to follow and know exactly what was going one. She would often do
steps in her head without explaining them leaving some of the class lost. When she did the examples on the
board she made at least one mistake and would not even notice until a student pointed it out. A lot of the time I
would think something was wrong and did not understand why something was the way it was. I just assumed
that the professor would be right and that I was missing something. I understand making a couple of mistakes
occasionally but she makes mistakes all of the time. Another issue I had was with certain grading aspects. She
would give us instructions to do homework a certain way and then in the next class would announce that she
gave extra credit to students who did the work in a certain way. I found this very unfair because I would just
follow her instructions and then others would get extra credit for doing it another way. I would have been
extremely willing to do it the other way for extra credit if she would have told us about it. An example is when
she gave us an assignment that had a lot of integration. Someone asked if we should do the integration by hand
or by using maple. She said to just do it with maple so that is what I did. The next day when she handed back
homework those who did them by hand got extra credit. I would have done it by hand if she would not have
told us to do it using maple. I found this very unfair. I think she needs to reassess how to handles grading
assignments and what is fair and unfair.
23.
None 24.
There is a lot of content to cover, so making it condensed might be easier for students to focus on it. 25.
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Course Evaluation Report
Spring 2011: Cell Biology - BIOL-365-A
Rachel Polando
This course is for your:
Major Minor GE/Core Elective
9 1 0 2
Your current class standing is:
First
Year
Sophomore Junior Senior Graduate Other
0 3 4 5 0 0
Did you look forward to taking this class?
Yes Somewhat Indifferent
Not
Much
Not at
all
7 5 0 0 0
How would you rate your involvement as a student in this course? (e.g., class attendance, class
participation, keeping up with assignments)
High
Medium
High
Medium
Medium
Low
Low
9 0 3 0 0
How much time did you dedicate (outside of scheduled class time) to this course per week? (in hours)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
0 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Averages this term by
Course &
Professor
Course Professor Dept. School
The instructor showed enthusiasm for the course.
3.83 3.83 3.81 3.69 3.69
The instructor created a welcoming and respectful
learning environment.
3.92 3.92 3.70 3.65 3.61
The instructor created a stimulating learning
environment.
3.33 3.33 3.30 3.29 3.32
The instructor was responsive to questions and
course related difficulties.
3.92 3.92 3.89 3.69 3.55
The instructor provided adequate explanation of the
experiments and provided adequate demonstration
where applicable.
The grading was fair and appropriate.
3.83 3.83 3.41 3.28 3.47
The instructor provided timely feedback on course
work.
4.00 4.00 3.84 3.56 3.37
The instructor encouraged me to seek solutions on
my own and to think for myself.
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The instructor was well prepared for class and made
good use of class time.
3.75 3.75 3.54 3.64 3.50
The instructor was regularly available to help
students outside of class.
4.00 4.00 3.78 3.71 3.55
What is your overall rating for this instructor?
3.83 3.83 3.62 3.53 3.48
Lab objectives and requirements were clear.
The instructor made relevant connections between
the skills introduced and practiced in the lab setting
and conceptual material introduced in lecture.
The course syllabus, objectives, and assignments
were clear.
3.83 3.83 3.73 3.70 3.55
Evaluation and grading were clear and fair.
The grading criteria were clear.
3.75 3.75 3.65 3.48 3.47
The lab syllabus and objectives were clear.
The course assignments and instructional strategies
were related to the course objectives.
3.92 3.92 3.81 3.72 3.62
The course improved my knowledge or skill in the
subject area.
3.67 3.67 3.73 3.55 3.46
What is your overall rating for this course?
3.58 3.58 3.62 3.55 3.43
The skills introduced and practiced in this lab
enhanced my understanding of the conceptual
material introduced in the lecture.
What aspects of the teaching or content of this course
were especially effective?
The power points were direct and to the point. The journal articles were an interesting approach to graduate
school and how to decipher through research.
1.
Dr. Polando made good use of time and if we fell behind in a lecture, she didn't rush herself to catch back up.
She was readily avaliable outside of class and welcomed all questions and was very helpful when it came to
writing out journal club evaluations. Dr. Polando also created a fair and equal learning enviornment.
2.
I like how she put the lecture notes up online for us to refer to. 3.
It was much more effective when all of the online quiz questions were posted at the same time, rather than
having to do them individually.
4.
The instructor showed greqat enthusiasm for the course 5.
the instructor was always willing to take quesitons 6.
I really appreciated journal club--between the preparatory lectures, written reviews, and your later
explanations, it really improved my understanding of and exposure to that type of article.
7.
Inclusion of various media in lecture 8.
n/a 9.
na 10.
the review sheets 11.
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Powerpoints 12.
What changes could be made to improve the teaching or
the content of this course?
The lectures needed to be timed up better with the readings. Once the lectures fell behind, the required quizs
should have stalled as well.
1.
Sometimes it is hard to take notes in class. It would be helpful to have the powerpoints ahead of time,
especially since some of the slides have models on them. It makes since in class, but when I go back to look at
the slides again, I become confused again because its hard to take notes on a model without having to draw the
whole thing out in the notes and completly miss what you said about it. It might also be helpful to put more
detail on the slides. When I review the slides, sometimes I'm not sure what you mean.
2.
Nothing at this point! 3.
The content in this course was suffiecient and interesting. 4.
I know it would be a lot more grading for you, but could you please make it so that we would only have to do
the first journal club with a partner and do the rest of the journal club papers on our own? the last paper we did
in the class we did on our own, and it was the first 25/25 i received. I like being able to write whatever i want
for the paper and not have to organize a common meeting time between 5 other people and combine the
opinions of five different people. Otherwise, i really did enjoy the course :)
5.
I wish we would have been responsible for learning more details of the material in order to make it more
different from other biology courses I've taken.
6.
I would recommend ping the review at the beginning of each class where you re-teach the last ten minutes
from the previous class. I know it's intended to improve our retention of the material, but that early in the
morning it really just makes us zone out, and in that amount of time we could cover a lot more material in the
semester. Also, the quizzes are a problem. The questions are not worded as carefully as they need to be for that
online format, and using full review instead of partial just makes us second-guess our answers.
7.
More quizes on smaller reading assignments 8.
n/a 9.
na 10.
try making it more interactive and not having it at 8 am 11.
None 12.
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