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ALL online courses at Lane are supposed to have a student evaluation component. While there may be some similarities, this specific student evaluation you are reading now is NOT a standardized list of questions that is used in every class, but is created by me and unique to this HST209 class.
I am genuinely interested in creating the best online experience that I can, and I am certain there are ways I might be able to improve this course. With that in mind, I would appreciate your honest, thoughtful responses to the following questions.
(even though you are logged into Moodle with your L# and PIN) is this Questionnaire Activity, specifically set to anonymous mode, which I have done.
of Thursday of Finals Week at 5pm, I will add 1% to your final class grade for the term. I hope you take advantage of this opportunity. Every question below requires some sort of answer.
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1. Rate the following:
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| | Strongly Agree | Agree | Disagree | Strongly Disagree |
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| I felt this course was well organized. |  | 1.4 |
| The required reading and assignments contributed to my learning. | | 1.6 |
| I put enough time and energy into this course to meet or exceed the course requirements. | | 1.8 |
| The instructor's feedback was clear and useful. | | 1.7 |
| The instructor provided timely feedback. | | 1.5 |
| The instructor treated students with respect. | | 1.6 |
| The instructor provided opportunities for students to learn from each other. | | 1.4 |
| The instructor was available and helpful. | | 1.4 |
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2. Rate the following:
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| | Highly Effective | Effective | Ineffective | Very Ineffective |
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| Overall I would rate the effectiveness of the instructor as: | | 1.5 |
| Overall I would rate the effectiveness of the course as: | | 1.6 |
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3. On average, how many hours a week did you spend on the course?
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4. On average, how many times a week did you log onto your course?
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5. Including this course, how many total courses (online and in the classroom) did you take at LCC this term?
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6. How did you learn about this course?
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7. Consider the relevance of this class to your degree program and/or life in general, overall quality of product and delivery, value for your tuition dollar, etc.
(Select NA if you have not taken any other courses for comparison.)
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| | Well Above Average | Above Average | Average | Below Average | Well Below Average |
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| How does this course compare to all other courses you have taken at LCC (including online, hybrid, traditional, and telecourse classes)? | | 2.2 | 0 |
| How does this online course compare relative to other online courses you have taken at LCC? | | 2.1 | 0 |
| How does this online course compare relative to other online courses you have taken at any institution? | | 2.2 | 4 |
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8. Would you recommend this course to other students?
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9. Do you have or regularly use any of the following?
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| iPod or other MP3 player | | 1.4 |
| cell phone | | 1.1 |
| laptop computer | | 1.2 |
| your own website | | 1.9 |
| a Twitter account | | 1.8 |
| a Facebook/MySpace (or other social networking) account | | 1.1 |
| a Flickr/Picassa/Photobucket (or other picture sharing) account | | 1.9 |
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10. Rate the value that each of the following parts of the course was to you.
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| | Very Worthwhile | Worthwhile | Not Very Worthwhile | Worthless |
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| How Interesting It Was/What I Learned | | 1.4 |
| It Allowed Me To Earn Credits In A Convenient Manner | | 1.7 |
| I Like The Online Venue For Communicating With My Instructor And Classmates | | 1.7 |
| The James McPherson "Battle Cry of Freedom" textbook | | 1.6 |
| The Geoffrey Ward "The Civil War" textbook | | 1.9 |
| The Ken Burns Civil War series (which most of you saw in an online streaming format) | | 1.7 |
| The Battle Cry QA Assignment (our last major assignment, 6 chapters, longer questions & answers) | | 1.7 |
| The Battle Cry QA Wiki and Database (group project, 11 chapters, 33 questions) | | 1.8 |
| The McPherson Assignment (book reviews, 300 word paper) | | 1.7 |
| The Ken Burns Forum ("Making History" web video clip, articles critiquing his Civil War video series) | | 1.9 |
| Civil War Photography (video clip, website with manipulated photos) | | 1.8 |
| Creative License (Episode 1, Union Major Sullivan Ballou's letter, and historical truth) | | 1.6 |
| Student Introduction Forum (Should I continue to do this, do you do this in all of your online classes?) | | 1.8 |
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11. I went to an education conference where this advice was shared by an instructor teaching an online class at another college. I am considering implementing this suggestion in my future online classes.
All students were required to join in on a live telephone conference call once each week, at either 7am or 7pm (sometime outside of the traditional workday schedule). The instructor and students would talk, asking and answering any questions on the class material for between 20 and 45 minutes. The instructor who presented this idea at the conference claimed (and showed data) that student success rates doubled for classes that required these conference calls, compared to those classes that did not require them. As an instructor, I am certainly interested in helping increase my students' chances of success.
Please give me your honest thoughts, and feel free to add more ideas to the list, if you'd like. (Your comment length is not limited. The text box below will expand with a scroll bar as you type.) Some students last term stated:
- Those times, or any specific time would not work for their busy schedules.
- Some students would not want to be forced to "use up" their cell phone minutes in this manner.
- Other students said make it optional.
- I can certainly consider times other than 7am and 7pm. Suggestions?
- I could also use the online "text-typing based chat" in Moodle instead.
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| 1 | I can see why specific times would not work for busy students, making this difficult. My personal feeling is that some students have to take online courses because there is no reasonable way for their life to work with a traditional student class schedule. To expect students to commit to a time once a week doesn\'t seem unreasonable on the surface, but for the students who do have a hectic or chaotic life, it might not be very possible. |
| 1 | I think no matter what time you had a conference call there would be so people that would not make it. I personally think it is a great idea. |
| 1 | there could have been more student participation |
| 1 | A weekly conference call would be a wonderful tool to use. My main concern would be that the call would need to be completely organized so that not all students wanted or would talk at once. I would feel that many students would interrupt each other, not intentionally, but especially with cell phones. |
| 1 | I agree that it would be difficult to have everyone be able to phone conference at the same time. I also have used the chat in Moodle and find it slow which can make conversing confusing. I believe that this is an online course, and as such the communication is mainly online. If a student needs to speak to an instruction they should contact them directly. |
| 1 | I do not feel like that would be very beneficial to this class. I enjoyed the way the class waqs swet up. I think that it would be hard to find a time that every student would be available for each individual student. Also, I am not sure that every student would have access to a regular, consistent phone line. I also think that there is a reason why certain students choose to take online classes..some take it for the convenience, while others may take them in hopes that there are less responsibilities. Either way, I like the class just the way it is. |
| 1 | I really enjoyed the class. It was a lot of reading however and very hard to keep up while working full time as well as school full time. But, I guess that's how you learn. :) |
| 1 | I take online courses because I never know what my work schedule might bring. To require me to be present at specific times and dates would be very challenging. I can see the benefit, but it would have been very difficult this term to have participated consistently in the discussions, thus I would be afraid my grade would suffer as a result. A text-typing format over a couple of days would have been more than doable. I would certainly have loved to see what questions my classmates would have had for you. |
| 1 | I think it would be a great tool to help, but should be optional. |
| 1 | I think it would be too hard to make it mandatory for students and may be more useful and helpful if it was optional because there wouldn't be any students there who didn't want to be there. |
| 1 | I think that rather than a phone call I could prefer to use moddles chat as a way to accomplish this same thing |
| 1 | I think that this should optional because some students might want do but some will want do it. |
| 1 | I think that this would be a good idea for this class. I think it would be smart to make it optional though. |
| 1 | I think the idea of talking would be very useful. I am not sure about the required part of the idea, but verbal or face to face contact would be very helpful. There were a lot of things I would liked to have talked about, but were not really important enough to bother you with an email, more like curiosity questions. The format you are considering would make those questions more easily asked. In one of my classes last term I took a class that utilized group discussions with our teacher and guest speakers via live webcam. We all logged in and watched other classmates type questions and watch them being answered in real time, it was very informative. |
| 1 | I think the online moodle chat would work best |
| 1 | I would agree with what the students from last term said.. If anything I would make it optional. It wouldn't work for me, unless it was optional. I go to school from 7-2 everyday, and then work 3 or 4 to 11 sometimes even midnight. Also since I live on my own, I don't not have a home phone, so my cell phone is my main communication device. So the chatroom idea could work. Also making it required, what if that student has no questions or etc for that week. Then they just have to sit there and waste their time. |
| 1 | I would feel that a required phone discussion would be helpful. I felt the assignments and group projects help me with my studies. |
| 1 | I would have to say if you were going to implement this it should definitely be optional and not mandatory. I believe that most students take online courses because it offers flexibility in their schedules. Speaking for myself I have turned in countless amounts of work during the wee hours of the night because I work nights, I can't take courses during the day because otherwise I would get no sleep. I also like the idea of using a moodle chat room instead of the phone. I agree that a more hands on approach would generate better grades, but again it should be optional (and highly stressed) rather than mandatory. |
| 1 | I would not like it as a requirement every week. Perhaps calling half the time or so. I have a very busy schedule, hence the online courses, so one reason I like them is the flexability. I have one course online where I can only do the weekly quiz one day, which is a bit of a pain for me, so a call would be worse. |
| 1 | In the group project my fellow group members met online in the chat room in order to touch base. We may have only chatted for a few minutes but it was nice to "talk" with my fellow students, it made me feel like I was actually part of a class, rather than a lone student working through the course. I believe a live conference, either via phone or chat, would be a great help for the students, though determining the best day/time may be difficult as one of the joys of online classes is being able to adjust schoolwork to my everyday activities, instead of vice versa. |
| 1 | Maybe in place of a phone conference, you could consider a study session conducted in a chat room every week at the same time. This would allow for participation for anyone who is having issues understanding anything in the class. Also, it would give another reinforcement for what is being learned weekly. |
| 1 | My honest opinion is that the mandatory times to log in or call in are counter-productive to the online class theory. In my mind, online learning should be self paced. If the student turns in assigments on time weekly, passes all exams and demonstrates they have learned and understood the assignments, I think that should be enough. I work 60+ hours a week, raise 4 daughters (2 teenagers) volunteer coach, martial arts and am finishing my degree. I prefer courses that allow me to work in my own time and not be mandated to log in or call in. |
| 1 | Sounds like a good idea, but I would prefer the moodle chat or a webcast instead of a phone call. |
| 1 | The reason students take online courses is to do the coursework when they want before the deadline. |
| 1 | The times mentioned for live telephone conferences would not work with my schedule, at all. I do think having the option to participate in a weekly phone conference could contribute positively for those students that wish to make use of them. I also think that an online chat would be effective, especially for those that prefer "online." |
| 1 | The times were fine with the forums |
| 1 | While I understand some students\' schedules can be very hectic, I still think it would have been easier to retain the weekly lesson information if our groups could have corresponded by being able to speak to each other and the instructor each week, discussing the materials that had been gone over. I would have really enjoyed being abto experience the "classroom feel" while still being able to work from home. In my opinion, these types of courses (online courses) are already about as convenient as a college course could be. As an instructor,it is not asking very much of us as students, to simply put aside an hour a week to meet with classmates, not to mention how valuable it would be to be able to ask the instructor questions on a much more person to person basis. As far as "using up" minutes,.. Every prepaid or otherwise cell phone I have ever had where the minutes were restricted, still had a time during the evening when the minutes became free or unlimited, to me this is not an acceptable excuse for why this idea wouldn\'t work and be extremely beneficial to the students of this and other courses. It could even give the instructor more insight as to the diversity of the students learning patterns in the course, maybe this information could give different perspective to the instructor, possibly making their job a little easier. I think this is an EXCELLENT idea, and I hope that I will be able to be a part of it in the future. |
| 1 | I think a conference call once a week would be an excellent substituion of the "group" assignments if it was directed to a "specific or outlined discussion" for example, "discussion: Overland Campaign, related events & why, generals, who won? etc. " |
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12. What recommendations would you suggest in order to improve this course?
Did I fail to ask any other relevant question(s) in this survey? What would they be?
Feel free to add anything of relevance to me or this class in this space.
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| 1 | The group assignments were a bit challenging sometimes just because different students work at different rates. When the assignments worked on a first-come first-serve basis, it may have put some at a decided disadvantage. Also, I personally experienced a problem with communication in the wiki assignment because I couldn\'t get group members to commit to certain problem sets or a few students already split up the entirety of the workload leaving others with nothing to contribute. While I think it is okay to still have these style assignments, I think they should be slightly modified and given more rigid structure so students while still working in groups, are ultimately only responsible for their own material. |
| 1 | The only thing I can think of is sometimes your questions are hard to fully understand. |
| 1 | I don't think anything of this course should be changed. |
| 1 | I feel like this course is taught in a manner that expects students to do poorly. Instead of encouragement throughout the course, I felt over-pressured and inadequate, which came directly from the instructor announcements. I didn't like how the forums were set-up, either. I spoke with a few of my classmates, and everyone agreed that the exams are far too difficult. When I was in the testing lab for the midterm exam, even the check-in person explained to me that he failed the exams in this exact course, even though he is an otherwise A student. I spend several hours studying every week, yet still felt lost on the exam. I am very disappointed with this course. It is the first time I have felt compelled to complain about a course and the instructor. |
| 1 | I've only taken a few online courses and this one was the most well put together course and the instructor was accessible. I say accessible because that is hard to find in a good instructor! I think you are a great instructor.... but maybe finding a way around the "tough call" rule. I would like to be graded individually and not in a group with people that may not give as much as I do. |
| 1 | Mr Escobar,
I think your class is the best class I have taken thus far! You are percise with your intstructions, and have always been very helpful and quick to respond to any of my resquests. I have already told a couple of people that this is the best history class I have ever taken, and recommended they take your course. |
| 1 | When I elected to take this course, I took it for the credits towardsw my degree (as do many students I assume). What I found was that I was VERY interested in the material being taught and really enjoyed this course. I have never tudied the civil war in any depth. It was most interesting to me to see how the Civil War really did change our country and our lives today. I am very happy I decide on this course. I think the course structure was good.As you can see from my previous statement, I am more in line with independant learning, but overall I think this course was great. |
| 1 | After quizzes are closed, being able to see what we got wrong and right, would help towards later knowings. Didn't really feel prepared for the midterm, and starting to feel that way for the final. Maybe install a study guide. |
| 1 | As far as improving the course I would recommend that you either have the Ward book utilized more or drop it from the required books list. To be honest I've only opened the book once this quarter. I also would recommend that after the deadline for the quizzes are up that students should be able to access the quiz and view the correct answers and what they wrote. |
| 1 | For me, I would retain more information if there were bi-weekly testings which pertained to the mid-term(Moodle-at home ok), i.e. who was the battle of ______ between, who won? what was the importance, etc. The little weekly tests did not pertain to the mid-term at all. The reading, although repetative, should have helped me retain better, but it did not. Overall the class was fine, My schedule just got completely disrupted, and my overworked brain was just too exhausted to retain. |
| 1 | Have a little more group work, I really enjoyed it. |
| 1 | I enjoyed this class |
| 1 | I feel that the study guide focused on our mid term, and it helped me in narrowing down 1000 page I had read. However, I also feel that many of the questions in the mid term were to wide of a range . Example: When asking a true/false question regarding something that Lincoln had said. Lincoln said something in almost every page of the 1000 page readings that we needed to do. To narrow it down to 1 paragraph and remember it was alittle to much. Something that would have helped would have been to put on the study guide "Several questions specifically linked to Lincoln will be asked between pages 110-118" . Just a thought |
| 1 | I feel the assignments provided helped me with my studies. I feel less reading and more assignments would better help me personally retain the matierials. |
| 1 | I honestly am COMPLETELY satisfied with every aspect of this course. I have obtained a wealth of accurate, historical knowledge about the Civil War this term, where before, I had very very minimal understanding of how and why our country had torn itself apart 150 years ago, and what it would take to rebuild it again. I have got all I could have asked for and more from this course this term. I can\'t wait until Spring term. I have enjoyed your instruction and materials very much. I cannot thank you enough for what I learned this term, thank you sir. |
| 1 | i liked the QA forums and how we make/answer questions on our own. I enjoyed reading the text book and looking for the questions others made. |
| 1 | I loved the class and overall I found it absolutely fascinating. I'm glad I took this class and I would recommend the class and more specifically the instructor to anyone. The only thing I missed was writing papers. I would have loved to write even one paper on some of what I've learned this term. Other than that, awesome job Mr. Escobar! I only wish I could take another one of your classes! If the chance to recommend your class presents itself, I'll surely do just that. Thanks for another great term! |
| 1 | I really did not like the video. Ken Burns is a schmuck in my opinion. Or if you had to do the video series, don't include the video with him in it, he appears to be preening to the camera and completely turned me off to him, also the info on how he manipulated certain things contributed to my general dislike of him and the series. |
| 1 | I really liked the group assignments, so I would prefer more of that type of work. I really do like watching the videos thru online streaming. |
| 1 | I think an open discussion forum would help a lot with the finer points not necessarily covered in the text that pop up from time to time. For instance where was Grant during the Battle of the Crater? It seems like it was a big undertaking for so few people to take notice. |
| 1 | I truly enjoyed this class. I really do not feel like anything needs to change or be improved. The class was well paced, accessible and very well planned out. The instructor was readily available and the directions and assignments were given in a timely manner. |
| 1 | I wouldnt do the QA assignments, they are too confusing, and no one really seemed like they were into it. |
| 1 | If the weekly quizzes answers didn't have to be so specific it would make for better grades on them because numerous times I have been really confident in all the answers and have gotten them wrong presumably because I put a full name or Battle of Gettysburg instead of just gettysburg. |
| 1 | less information to cover or make this a 5 credit class |
| 1 | the group projects were my favorite! |
| 1 | This was a fun class though it had a lot of information to remember and I know I didn't get all the battle maneuvers down pat. The mid-term was very hard, after taking the test I didn't feel very prepared though I had re-watched all the videos and gone over the chapters. It would be very helpful to see the results of the weekly quizzes to get an idea of what sections to concentrate on and what information the teacher considers important.
I also found the weekly quizzes to be extremely stressful: how to answer, don't be too detailed, etc. While I understood being concise in only using last names or numbers without labels, some of the other questions seemed best answered with a sentence and from the instructions this wasn't what the teacher wanted. This is my fault for not clarifying earlier in the class, but this is the first time I've taken an online quiz that was formatted in this manner and it was very different and stressful. However, it was more informative and made me learn the information better than the standard multiple-choice format.
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| 1 | To take it in a classroom. It's pretty hard for me to understand the material without having a class or classroom to talk about the topics, and also a instructor to talk to in person. |
| 1 | You did great! |
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