The Challenge:
To Improve Classes and Learning Outcomes for Students
Many Penn
State faculty and students are familiar with the end of semester course
evaluation, the Student Rating of Teacher Effectiveness (SRTE). The
results of the SRTE provide feedback to the instructor for improving
their instructional processes, but this feedback arrives too late
to make a difference to those students who have provided it. According
to team leader Matthew Levendusky, "students lament that they
have little input into the design of their courses. They complete
standardized evaluations at the end of each semester, but they have
no mechanism to recommend changes during the semester. To give students
more of a voice, in fall 1998 the Schreyer Institute for Innovation
in Learning and a group of undergraduate students formed several Innovation
and Quality (IQ) Teams." |
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The Solution: Student Innovation and Quality (IQ) Teams
IQ Teams
are a partnership between students and faculty that allows students
to give feedback to faculty while the course is underway, rather than
waiting until the end of the semester. Working in groups of four to
six members, the students take the responsibility for developing the
survey questions, collecting and summarizing the data and sharing
the results with the faculty member. Renata Engel, director of the
Schreyer Institute, adds, "[The] most significant impact has
been the student's reaction to their own learning….Being involved
in an IQ Team has not only affected the way they learn in that particular
course, but has affected the way they approach their other courses."
Mary Beth Oliver, associate professor of Communications, has used
IQ Teams in her classroom and has experienced the difference that
student involvement can make. "I think the thing that makes students
excited about learning more is really having the opportunity to not
just hear about other people and how other people do it, but to actually
do it themselves….Being involved makes it a much more realistic
experience for them. That's what makes them excited."
Renata Engel comments, "Any faculty member who is doing something
innovative in a course can benefit from the participation of an Innovation
and Quality Team." As Mary Beth Oliver attests, "One potential
danger about really working on teaching is that there's a fear that
it's going to be too time intensive, but it's not. It doesn't have
to be…It is so much fun when it works well. When you walk out
of a class and you think, 'Gee. That just went so well.' It just makes
teaching that much more rewarding." |
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Sponsor:
Renata Engel
Leader:
Matt Levendusky
Facilitator:
Amanda Wetzel
Members:
Students in the
Innovation and
Quality Program
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One
thing I've learned..."
