338 ACTIVITY 10: Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Course

WHY:

This activity gives each team an opportunity to assess how effective the course has been in helping each member learn. Hopefully, this evaluation will result in an improved learning environment for everyone. It is important to reflect periodically on learning activities in which you are engaged in order to make sure that they are helping you reach your maximum potential.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

  1. Determine the effectiveness of the daily class organization in helping everyone become a better learner.
  2. Suggest changes which will improve the learning environment.
  3. Understand how your team members best learn.

PERFORMANCE CRITERIA:

  1. Quality of the team's list of strengths, areas for improvement and insights.
  2. Quality of the team's suggested optimal learning model.

RESOURCES:

  1. Course Syllabus
  2. Experience of First Third Semester
  3. Goals and Objectives Sheet
  4. 30 minutes

PLAN:

  1. Choose roles if you have not already done so.

  2. Reflect on the learning environment that this class presents and determine three strengths, three areas for improvement (with concrete suggestions if possible) and three insights. Write these on the back or on a separate sheet. If pertinent, include the team's assessment of the availability of activities on the Web.

  3. Each class has been divided into three sections: Preprocessing (consisting of the quiz or problem- solving activity and team presentation), Processing (consisting of a consulting session and a learning activity) and Postprocessing (End of class processing). Your team should come up with a class organization plan which you feel will improve the learning atmosphere in the class. Assign time durations to the different events in your plan. Your plan can maintain or rearrange the current class organization, add or subtract events, etc. The goal is to make sure that every minute is best used to optimize learning.

  4. Review your Goals and Objectives sheet and assess how far you have come towards reaching your goals or achieving your objectives.

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS:

  1. What areas of disagreement did you have to work through to come up with your strengths, areas for improvement and insights?

  2. How effective have you found the availability of the class activities on the Web?

  3. What did you learn about learning in teams from this activity?

  4. What did you learn about the learning styles of the various group members from this activity?

  5. How well has each team member been able to make progress towards her goals for the course? What could the team do to help each member reach these goals?
Math 338 Activity 10 -- Revised 9/21/98

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