A Survey Tool for Assessing Student Expectations Early in a Semester

Abstract

Quality learning is fostered when faculty members are aware of and address student expectations for course learning activities and assessments. However, faculty often have difficulty identifying and addressing student expectations given variations in students’ backgrounds, experiences, and beliefs about education. Prior research has described significant discrepancies between student and faculty expectations that result from cultural backgrounds (1), technological expertise (2), and ‘teaching dimensions’ as described by Trudeau and Barnes (4). Such studies illustrate the need for tools to identify and index student expectations, which can be used to facilitate a dialogue between instructor and students. Here we present the results of our work to develop, refine, and deploy such a tool.