Feedback

I recently had the pleasure of plunging through hundreds of student surveys full of comments, hand crafted hearts, and multiple choice responses. It's that time of year when we ask our students about their learning experience in our classrooms. Well, did you read anything interesting this year? I learned a great deal, not only about our students perceptions of their experience but also about their instructors. The variety of surveys were as vast as the Grand Canyon is wide. I attempted to analyze the feedback through tally marks and hand written notes so that I could share a bit of information with each teacher. A few teachers utilized Google Docs to create surveys that streamlined the data into graphs and charts along with comments. I must say the use of technology expedited the analysis of the data gathered and made it user friendly.

This experience has left me exhausted, yet feeling positive about what we do well and where we need to improve. I am hopeful that in the future our teachers can work collaboratively on developing surveys that provide consistency in gathering feedback on instruction, departments, and courses. There are a multitude of questions we could ask to get us started on this process and many of the current surveys have questions that could be utilized with a wider audience. How will the surveys look? What will the surveys include? Who will be involved in developing surveys? How should the surveys be administered? What feedback do we really need or want and why? How do we plan to use the feedback from surveys? It may sound like a daunting task at first; however, any organization that believes in growth will embrace the opportunity!

Good luck wading through your feedback and please share any suggestions. I am all ears!