1. Re-envisioning Mid(d)-Term Assessments
Student Educational Affairs Committee
Center for Teaching, Learning, and Research

2. Mid-Term Course Assessments: What’s Great
Voluntary, informal and flexible
Course- and instructor-specific
Means for candid communication
Engages students
Small adjustments can make a big impact!
Background: Adrian Leong came to our meeting last March to bring up this idea, citing its potential to improve student-professor communication and result in an overall better classroom experience. The “what”: pretty much any mechanism for feedback at some point in the middle of the semester. The “why”: Easy and low-stakes, for both professors and students. Can ask questions the professor actually wants to know the answers to, and questions the students actually consider important to answer. Constructive communication and feedback should always be encouraged—this promotes that culture! Sends a good message to students that you care and take their concerns seriously. Invests students in building a better learning environment. Also, small adjustments can greatly improve a student’s learning and overall classroom experience.

3. Spring 2016 Research Schools represented: Reported methods:
Boston College
In-class written survey/questions
Bowdoin
Online survey/questions
UC Berkeley
Moodle
UC Irvine
Piazza
Colby
Short response essay(!)
Cornell*
Harvard
Lafayette
MIT
Notre Dame
Oberlin
Penn
* Reportedly ”60-70%” of courses
Stanford
Yale
Very un-scientific qualitative/anecdotal data. 26 students representing 25 colleges, 14 of which had mention of mid-term course feedback.

4. Irene Bloemraad Sociology UC Berkeley

5. Catherine A. Sanderson Psychology Amherst College

6. Wisdom/Samples Learning and Teaching Center, Carleton College
services/resources/evaluations/
Committee on Teaching, Oberlin College
The Teaching Center, Washington University in St. Louis
teaching/incorporating-midterm-course-evaluations/