Jan. 25, 2016
Abbie Stillman
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At the end of every semester, students are given the opportunity to change the way their class is structured.
Faculty Course Questionnaires are given to students to voice their opinions, possibly changing the way the course is taught at a later date or even who teaches it.
“The FCQ’s are made to get information from the students about how the class was, how the instructor was and the effectiveness of their lectures,” explained Dan Dandapani, the dean of the college of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Even though students receive the email and hardcopy surveys, not everyone takes the time to fill them out.
“We give every student the opportunity to complete the survey which is done in the classroom, but it is up to the student to either complete it or not complete it,” Dandapani said.
Robert Block, assistant dean of Engineering and Applied Sciences, said that they will tailor the survey a little bit.
“Part of the survey is standard, and questions the department would like the student to answer,” he said.
“As an instructor, I like to look at the FCQ’s in two different ways: how did the student perceive that I treated them,” Block said. “Also, I look at what happened in that class.”
Block also pays attention to how many forms he hands out compared to how many he gets back.
“In the spring, I had 22 forms handed out and 18 returned and that made me feel really good because I feel like the survey responses, because I had a lot of responses that those were fairly accurate and well represented of the whole class,” Block said.
Block explained that for teacher evaluation, they look at aspects such as how hard the course was, and examine the instructor and their performance.
“One instructor did not receive the best remarks from their students so we are looking into whether it was the instructor or the course or possibly a combination,” he said.
The course received feedback that there were way too many assignments and it was too hard for an undergraduate course.
After examining the material of the course and syllabus, the department came to the same conclusion as the students. They are now trying to come up with a plan to cover all the material without