The past two semesters I have had a professor that does mid-semester evaluations. This is not something I had seen before, but I think it is an important tool that more teachers should seek to add. The intent is to allow the professor to identify where their methods are and are not connecting well with students. This may be more or less effective depending on how experienced a professor is. Someone who has been teaching for twenty years is probably less likely to alter their style.
That being said, I think it can at least create more awareness with professors because not all classes will respond to the same methods of teaching. Waiting until the end of semester evaluations before a professor can understand where they fell short does little to help the current group of students because they will move on – and will likely avoid bidding on that professor’s classes in the future.
It can be hard to accommodate for all types of learners, but if one group is being left behind because a professor does not provide PowerPoints or some other tool that could benefit student, they should be aware they are indeed falling short. Law can be hard sometimes and not all students are comfortable addressing their concerns face-to-face so providing an anonymous assessment mid-semester could really improve their learning abilities.
This actually makes a lot of sense. Why do an evaluation at the end of the semester when it is no longer useful to that student when a mid-semester evaluation could change up the way a professor does thing. I had never considered this but I am fully behind it.
ReplyDeleteI had a Professor do a mid-semester evaluation for the first time this semester. Honestly, I really liked the idea. It's a great way to check it, especially with larger classes. This way you can see if your methods are actually working, rather than getting to exam grading and finding out that half the class completely missed the point of the course.
ReplyDelete