Barry Dahl dot com

Just received my stack of reports from the student evaluations of online courses for the summer term. Just thought I’d share a few of the comments. My emphases added below.

The more happy campers:

• I really enjoyed this course! LSC Online courses are very impressive! They are so well organized and easy to use! I get better feedback than in my University on campus courses!! You are all great and thank you [name deleted] for a wonderful semester!
• This course was more interesting than I thought.
• This was probably the best and most addicting online class I have taken.
• [Name deleted] has been one of the best online instructors I’ve ever had! I have completed a few from another institution, and this has been the best experience with online learning thus far!
• I really enjoyed this course and it has really stretched my mind and made me realize there is so much more to the universe than anyone can fathom. Thanks!!
• I have taken most of my science classes online with [name deleted] and without exception they have been good experiences and I’ve felt that I learned A LOT!  The labs and learning objectives that must be completed really a great teaching tools.  I always recommend his classes.  Again even though his class is online, I felt I have learned more than in regular classes!
• I really enjoyed this class.  I took the same class at Lake Superior College in class and didn’t pass.  I felt like this class was easier for me to learn the material than it was in class.
• [Name deleted] is one of those very rare teachers who really loves his students and his work.  He’s kind, fair, but isn’t a pushover, either.  Most online instructors (I’ve taken 15 online classes) don’t put forth a fraction of the effort [as he] does into teaching an online course.  I walk away having learned so much.  Thank you.
• I’ve taken all my post high school education online.  I’m going into my senior year, and this class was great.  I learned a great deal about the subject and was treated with respect.  He was very organized and responded to any concern or question without making me feel like I was bothering him.  I was very pleased with this class, and I do not usually give this high of scores.
• I dreaded taking this course!  By the end of this course, I fell in love with it and am toying with making it my minor!  It was so practical and real and applicable in comparison with the University’s similar course! LSC Online courses are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!! Thanks for a fabulous semester!!!

The less happy:

• The only thing that I found frustrating is that when the material had become available for the week, I would print it out and then find out that there were some changes that were made to the material without notifying thestudents about the changes.  Also, I think the material should have been available on Wednesday instead of Thursday.
• There was no clear rubric for the class.  Feedback on assignments was unheard of.
• For being a course titled “Fundamentals,” he graded harder than my AP1 instructor, it shouldn’t have been so strict as it was a general course for the majority of the student body, until this semester I had a 4.0 and getting a B in this class is something baffling to me and irritating.  The advance courses to courses taken at a university out of state, I found my experience with this course frustrating in the grading department.
• This course was nothing more than reading the text book and taking a test, then writing 4 short papers.  There was no point in logging on more than once a week to take the test or turn in the paper.  I learned a boring, repetitive history of [deleted] that I could’ve learned reading the book at home and not paying for credits.
• I work full time and take other classes.  This class was very time consuming for a three credit lecture course, which, even in an eight week summer term, should only be 6 hours of work each week. That’s 2 hours, three times a week.  Not 3 hours every day.  That said, I enjoyed her teaching style and would definitely take more classes with her.  Though, I won’t be taking any more online or summer classes.
• I found this class hard to follow along with, it seemed like a jumbled mess, but it was still good.
• Too much time elapsed between completion of an assignment and receiving grades and feedback, way too much time.

As you might have guessed, sometimes the same instructor has a comment in the happy list as well as the sad list. Don’t you just love these evals?

Filed under: Higher Ed, Online learning |