Midterm course surveys beneficial, but rare

It’s hardly the end of the semester, but already, a few professors have their students filling out course evaluations.

These professors are giving out these “midterm” evaluations with the rationale that they might be more useful, and more appropriate, at this point in the semester than at the end.

The idea is not new. Pinar Keskinocak, an assistant professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, has taught at Tech for six years, and has given out midterm course evaluations each semester to each of her classes.

“I find it very helpful in terms of seeing how the students are grasping the material, [and] if they’re happy with the assignments,” she said. “It gives me a chance to adjust things if necessary, at least for the remaining half of the semester.”

Trace Hawkins, an instructor in the College of Management, also gave a midterm evaluation. “At the [College of Management], we get judged based on our evaluations at the end of the year, so there’s no reason to be surprised-you might as well find out if you’re doing a poor job halfway,” he said. “Why wait until the end of the semester to find out that you’ve screwed up?”

According to Hawkins, though there’s no formal requirement in his department to conduct midterm surveys, younger faculty with less teaching experience are encouraged to do so.

Maria Schilpzand, another instructor in the College of Management, agreed that midterm course evaluations were beneficial for faculty with less experience.

“The longer you teach, the more you know what the right format is to learn,” she said. “When you first start out, there’s always room for improvement...constructive feedback is definitely helpful.”

However, according to Keskinocak, who teaches ISYE3104 this semester, a midterm evaluation can be beneficial even for an experienced teacher.

“I’m teaching this course for the fourth time,” she said. “Even though I have a good idea of what works and what doesn’t work, I still do it because...each class is a different character.”

This “character,” Keskinocak said, can be influenced by factors such as having prerequisites taught by different professors, for example.

“Every class is different, every semester is different,” Schilpzand said.

Asif Kazani, a fourth-year Industrial Engineering major and a student in Keskinocak’s class, felt strongly that a midterm course evaluation was beneficial.

“I was really astonished when she gave us the [survey],” he said. “Personally, [I thought], this would be one of the professors who would really care about her teaching methods.”

Indeed, most students say professors who give midterm course evaluations are the exception.

Sarah Hancock, a third-year Electrical Engineering major, said one of her professors did an informal survey through a class discussion, but that it was the first time any of her professors had done so.

Despite the informal nature of the survey, Hancock said it was still beneficial. “We talked about his substitute, and how he needs to give us his notes,” she said.

Hancock added that midterm course evaluations made more sense for students than end-of-semester ones.

“Instead of being like, ‘Hey, I failed the class’ you can give positive criticism, so you can help the class and not fail it,” she said.

Kazani said he felt professors, too, would be more inclined to review feedback given in the middle of the semester than at the end.

“At the end of the term it’s like vacation time, and I don’t know if they would bother,” he said. “After midterm...they have to come back to the class.”

Keskinocak agreed. “If you get the evaluation at the end of the semester, maybe if you teach the course again next year, it’s useful,” she said. “But for these students, it’s too late; it doesn’t affect them. Because of that, many of them actually don’t fill out the surveys at the end.”

Each professor had their own method for conducting midterm evaluations. Keskinocak used the same course survey that is available at the end of the semester, though she encouraged her students to write additional comments.

Hawkins and Schilpzand used a simpler and more open-ended survey, consisting of three questions: “What am I doing right?", “What am I doing wrong?", and “What would you like to see more of?”

All three set aside anywhere from 15 minutes to half an hour during class periods, not only to administer the evaluation but also to follow up, discussing the feedback with their students, explaining which aspects of their teaching they could change and which aspects that they couldn’t.

Some student suggestions had to do with the instructor’s teaching style; others focused more on the class itself. For example, Hawkins learned from his evaluations that “I tend to mumble at the end of lecture,” he said.

“One year the students said they would need a bit more practice for the exam, so then I started giving them some guidelines for how they should practice for the exam, and some practice questions with solutions,” Keskinocak said.

Reading through all the surveys took some time as well. For Hawkins, this process took “between four and five hours.”

However, most professors who take the time to do a midterm survey usually follow through. Ashley Harrison, a student in Hawkins’s class, said, “We wanted less lecturing and more case studies or more class involvement,” she said. “Since then, he’s brought in articles.”

Schilpzand’s students wanted more direction as to what was important in each chapter. As a result, Schilpzand said, “For the next exam, I’ll give them an outline of what topics they need to focus on.”

“That’s very easy to accommodate,” she added. “Sometimes they’re things professors just don’t think about.”

However, other students point out that the professors who could benefit the most from a midterm survey are also the ones who won’t bother to do so.

Phu Lam, a fourth-year Industrial Engineering major who is in Keskinocak’s class, said that though the survey was constructive, he would have rather seen it in another class.

"[Keskinocak] is like my best professor this semester,” Lam said, “but I’ve had some awful ones in the past, and a midterm evaluation would have helped so much with those classes.”

As of now, the initiative for midterm course evaluations seems to be limited to individual professors in scattered departments.

In addition, students have mixed opinions about whether the idea should be encouraged by, for example, administration or department chairs.

“I think it’s a good thing, if the teacher uses the evaluation to change their teaching style and if they’re open to recommendations by the students,” said Laura Pate, a third-year Industrial Engineering major.

Ethan Trewhitt, a fourth-year Electrical Engineering major, shared Pate’s cautious view. “Some professors are so set in their ways that it won’t really make a difference,” he said.

However, other students say they wouldn’t mind if more of their professors followed suit.

“It would be excellent if every class did [a midterm survey],” Harrison said. “I don’t see how it can hurt; I think it can only help.”

“It should be a mandatory thing,” Kazani said. “I would definitely go for that."