Ways to Reflectively Conclude the Semester – Revisited

Here are some additions to the previous list of recommendations on how to end your semester.

Reflect on your semester (Modified from Arizona State University):

Reflection is not only an important aspect of student learning but also offers an opportunity for faculty to seek insights from past teaching experiences. At the end of the semester, when the memories are still fresh, take a few moments to reflect on each course and write down a few notes about what went well and what you would like to change in order to avoid forgetting important details over the break.

Or, invite a colleague for a coffee to chat about your courses. You can also schedule an appointment with me, or a member of CITL to reflect on your course and start strategizing a plan for the Spring Semester….

What are some steps that need to be done? By what time? Depending on the number of topics, it might be necessary to prioritize.

Collect the Best Possible Feedback from Students (from Columbia University)

Encourage your students to fill out the end of course evaluation surveys and remind them to do so. Let your students know that their feedback matters. Explain to them how you use the information they provide to help improve the course. For free-response comments, ask students to provide specific examples of what would improve the learning experience. Remind them that their responses are confidential and that instructors only receive the data after final grades are submitted.

Ask Students for Permission (From Arizona State University)

Student artifacts are a powerful and helpful resource that can be used as a model for future students or as proof of student learning. To avoid any privacy or copyright concerns, the end-of-the-semester is a good time to ask students for their written permission for sharing those artifacts with outsiders.

Thank your students for taking your class.

Even if they were required to take your class.  They will appreciate hearing you thank them.  And if you want to include providing coffee and donuts (for the smaller classes), this will show them even more appreciation.

Student Reflections 

In a previous blog post, I mentioned having current students write a letter to future students. This is a modification of the idea. Use VoiceThread for this activity. Provide students with prompts that they can discuss in an interactive video such as:

• it most helped my learning of the content when…because…

• it would have helped my learning of the content if…because…

• the assignment that contributed the most to my learning was… because…

• the reading that contributed the most to my learning was… because…

• the kinds of homework or in class activities that contributed most to my learning were…because…

• the approach I took to my own learning that contributed the most for me was…because…

• the biggest obstacle for me in my learning the material was… because…

• a resource I know about that you might consider using is…because…

• I was most willing to take risks with learning new material when… because…

• during the first day, I remember thinking…because…

• what I think I will remember five years from now is…because…

Encourage them to incorporate visuals (photos of prototypes or screenshots) of anything they produced in your course.

You can allow future students to (optionally) review this feedback from students during the following semester or incorporate the feedback with the review of the syllabus. Future students appreciate reading honest information from previous students about what they can expect.

Ways to Reflectively Conclude the Semester

Student reflections can take many forms: an individual five-minute writing activity, a full-class discussion, or somewhere in-between.

(From https://learning.northeastern.edu/reflecting-on-the-last-day-of-class/) Below is a set of possible prompts that you might use or adapt, based on a four-question reflective learning technique that has been shown to increase students’ retention of material (Boucquey, 2014; Dietz-Uhler & Lanter, 2009):

• Can you identify one important concept, research finding, theory, or idea that you learned while taking this class?

• Why do you believe that this concept, research finding, theory, or idea is important?

• How would you apply what you have learned from this class to some aspect of your life.

• What question(s) has the class raised for you? What are you still wondering about?

Other reflective activities include:

Summarize the course content

“Have students create concept maps illustrating major aspects of course content”(From Teaching Psychology, A Step by Step Guide – Bernstein, Chew & Frantz, 2020, p.90).

Review Pre-course responses

If you administered a pretest at the beginning of the course to assess what your students thought they knew about [the course], you might also spend part of the last class session reviewing their responses to that test and discussing how their ideas have changed (Bernstein, Chew & Frantz, 2020, p.91).

Celebrate Students’ Work

In writing-intensive courses, end the semester by celebrating the writing of your students.  Before the last day, assign students to select a piece of their work to read aloud in 2-3 minutes.  On the final day of class, each student reads the selection, and the class responds to each reading with applause. (https://teaching.berkeley.edu/last-day-class).

Letter to Future Students: Write a short letter to future students in the class, letting them know whatever you think is most important about the instructor, the course, the assignments, and the reading. https://www-chronicle-com.proxyiub.uits.iu.edu/blogs/profhacker/improve-your-course-evaluations-by-having-your-class-write-letters-to-future-students

Personalized Feedback Form: Provide a link to a Google form which students complete before they leave.  On the form are questions you ask them about what they liked/disliked about your class, what activities/lectures helped them learn, and anything else they might want to share. This always provides me more rich information than any formal school-wide questionnaire can.  Students usually take their time filling out this survey instead of just checking off boxes in the other formal survey. (Example copy of Google form end of the semester reflection) https://www.fierceeducation.com/best-practices/end-semester-tips-how-to-get-students-to-love-your-course

Pre-Course Survey

One way to improve engagement with your students is to learn more about them. A precourse survey is one way to help develop a connection with your students, and get to know them beyond what is shared in an introduction discussion.

What do you want to know about them?

Diligent student in college with classmates, taking notes of teacher lecture.

A survey can help you conduct a needs assessment about where your students are at in terms of prior knowledge, demographics, mindset, learning preferences, goals, content confidence level, preferred feedback style, and/or access to technology.  Because this takes place “behind the scenes” and is only shared with the instructor, rather than in a public discussion forum, you may be more likely to receive candid responses.

What strategies and skills will students need and/or develop in your course?

These kinds of questions can help students flex metacognitive skills and become more aware of their learning habits. As an instructor, this can help you provide more specific feedback on student work, suggesting similar strategies and stretch goals.

• Reflection on Strategies: Metacognitive reflection questions ask how students get things done. Do you take marginal notes or highlight as you read? What conditions do you need to do your best work?

• Planning Ahead: Beyond what has worked for students in the past, you might ask about strategies they will use specifically in this class. What times each week do you have earmarked to work on this course?

• Setting Goals:You might ask them to review the learning objectives, asking what they will commit to accomplishing. And beyond the learning objectives for the course, are there other skills or competencies they plan to work on in the course? Do they have any suggestions for the instructor about strategies for helping meet those goals?

During the first week of your course

Providing students with an opportunity to quiz themselves not on the course topic but on the course itself–how to get started in the course, how to navigate the course, what the course should help students accomplish, and how the course is structured–can help instructors send fewer emails saying, “It’s in the syllabus!”

Given multiple choice or true/false question types, these kinds of pre-course surveys can be automatically scored. Don’t forget to compose feedback for incorrect responses and allow multiple attempts!

What tools are available?

IU supports the Qualtrics survey tool and Canvas includes a dashboard feature that allows instructors to create a type of quiz called ‘ungraded’ that can be used as a survey. In Canvas, once the survey, or ‘ungraded quiz,’ is published online, students can login to their Canvas course page and participate. IU also has access to Google Forms and Microsoft Teams (Microsoft Forms are Available in the Channel and Chat features) for quick survey and quiz creation.

If you’d like support implementing a pre-course survey or questionnaire in your online class, or in any other aspects of teaching and learning, please contact me at your earliest convenience with your availability.