Comments on: Reflections on Software Design F2007

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 22:00:35 +0000

The Olin feedback took longer to process, because there was more of it, and it was the first time I had written this kind of document. So, it was first a 10-page beast, which I finally reduced to a series of bullets and one paragraph of summary each. So, a number of hours (3-6h of work, probably).

The document I produced today, however, took less time. In part, because I knew what I wanted to produce: something concise. So, I went straight to the bullets, and summarized right away. All told, the summary of CMPSC 111 F08 took 30 minutes of class time to collect feedback and discuss, and I spent 1.5 hours distilling it into the document I posted.

Not shared (for no particular reason) is the midterm feedback, which helped me focus my thoughts on what the students had to say in their comments at the end of this semester.

So in truth, this is not horribly intense. If any of my students read the document and respond, I’ll probably have another 30 minutes to an hour of time spent incorporating their thoughts. All told, though, this is seems like a valuable way for me to develop a portfolio of reflections that I can look back on in the future. I’ll let you know in another year or two if they’re useful documents.

(I did revisit the Olin document while writing this one, which was interesting. Clearly, after another semester or two of data, I’ll be able to put together a meta-review and see how I’m doing overall.)

By: Mel

Mel — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 21:11:52 +0000

Thanks for sharing! I’m saving this post and your document in my “when I become a TA or a professor, I must read these things again” folder of things that I’m using to kick myself into thinking about the kind of teaching that I want to do. By doing this, you’re modeling to your students (and us) the notion that a person ought to think about what they’ve done, what they’ve learned, and what they are going to do as a result of it.

Out of curiosity, how long did this entire process take you? I wonder if the time-intensiveness (or unknown time-intensiveness) might be a reason that other profs may not have adopted this sort of thing more widely.

By: Adam '06

Adam '06 — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:46:23 +0000

Wow.

I’m encouraged to see you taking so many concrete steps to get genuine feedback on your course. Reading “Feedback as a Conversation” made it clear to me how strong your motivation to improve your course is. I’m glad to see you breaking out of habitual feedback methods. I’m sure you’ve seen that effort on your part helps break students of their own feedback habits and creates some useful content.

I hope you’ve shared this document with the rest of the faculty.

I’ll make a point to introduce myself to you next time I’m on campus.

Thanks for posting this.