Student Survey, Introductory Physical Geology Courses

From the Department of Mathematics & Physical Sciences, Muskegon Community College

Purpose

It is essentially a course evaluation form, meant to provide student evaluations of their learning experience. Similar forms are used for all courses taught at Muskegon Community College. The first part of the form provides demographic information that is used as part of the overall College assessment of our general education program, and for institutional research. The rest of the form provides student self-assessment of their learning environment, as well as their evaluation of how well they met the general objectives of the course.

Implementation

This survey is given to all students who complete the course, usually during the last week of the semester. It can be administered in paper form, but the preferred method is to provide it via Class Climate as an online survey. Students receive an email inviting them to complete the survey, the URL link to the survey, and a unique password that assures they can complete the survey only once.

Use of the Data

The data is tabulated automatically and a report is issued to both the instructor and the department chair. The survey results are used to gauge student satisfaction, course effectiveness, and instructor strengths and weaknesses. The data are used to plan changes in course structure and design where necessary; the goal is improved student learning.

Effectiveness

The ease of using the electronic format of the survey has greatly improved the quality of the data we receive. It is a big improvement over our old student opinion surveys, which did not include student assessments of specific course objectives. On the other hand, since this instrument has only been in use for a short time, the data set is rather small at this point, and so has limited use.

Instrument

Download the MCC Intro Geology Student Survey (Microsoft Word 59kB Feb20 09)