Summary:

Given the intense nature of three week courses, I was very pleased overall with how this course was evaluated. Despite, only 3 of 7 students completing the course evaluations, the reviews are positive and offered constructive feedback. Most evident in this feedback was the positive classroom culture and the rewarding learning experience working in small groups.  

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In examining 3 student evaluations, from one section, January Term 2019, below is a summary of the ten questions applicable to my teaching:

• 100% of students reported being an “active participant in the class.” 100% often.

• 67% of students favorably reported “gaining knowledge and skills in the course.”67% strongly agree, 33% neutral.

• 67% of students agreed the “assignments facilitated learning.”67% strongly agree, 33% agree.

• 67% of students reported agreement they perceived the “grading criteria clear.”33% strongly agree, 33% agree, 33% neutral.

• 100% of students reported very favorably to “opportunities for participate.”100% strongly agree.

• 100% of students reported very favorably to a “positive environment.”  67% strongly agree, 33% agree.

• 67% of students reported favorably to “helpful teaching techniques.” 67% strongly agree, 33% neutral.

• 67% of students reported favorable to “effective communication.” 67% strongly agree, 33% neutral.

• 67% of students reported favorably on “useful feedback.” 67% strongly agree, 33% neutral.

• 67% of students reported excellent or good "overall ratings of this course." 67% excellent, 33% good.

 
Student Comments:

• (office hours) didn't use them because I used my group or peers from the class

• (time spent on class) To prepare myself for this class, I took roughly 3 to 4 hours, as far as buying the right clothes and rehearsing my script for when we all went to BCTV in Brattleboro, VT. It took me maybe forty-forty five minutes each night to complete the assignments for each night.

• I had no absences throughout this J-Term semester.

 

Most positive aspects of this course:

• it helped me learn about the news station and the equipment and also how the show runs and hot to read a script to the audience

• I thought overall, we had a fairly tight nit group who for the most part was on the same page for what we as a group needed to accomplish, as far as turning in the final script to BCTV. So, I really liked the comradery, I thought that it was a really good that we utilized everyones' strengths, so for instance, I was always on camera whether I was a correspondent or an anchor, which everyone including myself thought I was really good at either position. To add onto that, I thought that it was very helpful to rehearse the script from the radio station where WLMC Radio is heard from by our viewers, because it even though we had to change the format a little bit because it was on radio, not tv, it still set the stage for the fact that we would eventually be going live on the air. It gave us sort of a real-life scenario. It was also great that we were able to receive the Finn costume since he is the Landmark College mascot and the mascot that is based off of our broadcasting channel, "Finn-Tastic News."

• The BCTV assignments and broadcasts. They were the core of the course and the overall goal

 

Improvement Suggestions:

• The biggest suggestion that I would make first and foremost to make the course better would be to implement the course pack a lot more than we did. I mean the way that the course was instructed felt sort of like "Yah, you can read the next chapter if you want to and answer the comprehension questions at the end, but don't feel pressured to feel like you have to do read it." Sure reading in a textbook may not exactly be the most fun aspect in this course, but there is still some very useful information to help students taking the course to become better reporters. Another thing I would do to improve the course would be to have students write a research paper or better yet, make a PowerPoint presentation on a famous broadcaster because I know that that was talked about briefly on either the first or second day of class, but we never got around to actually doing it and I thought that that would have been a really great learning opportunity.

•  A little more time working as a group.

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Overall Takeaways from Student Comments:
This is valuable feedback for this 3 week January term course.  I recall having overly ambitions goals before starting this course that needed revision once the class launched. Given the three week timeline and the learning profiles in the class, I made decisions to hone in on the writing and rehearsal for live tv broadcasts and let go of other learning objectives that could not adequately be accomplished.     

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