Improving course evaluations to improve instruction and complex learning in higher education

Abstract

Recent research has touted the benefits of learner-centered instruction, problembased learning, and a focus on complex learning. Instructors often struggle to put these goals into practice as well as to measure the effectiveness of these new teaching strategies in terms of mastery of course objectives. Enter the course evaluation, often a standardized tool that yields little practical information for an instructor, but is nonetheless utilized in making high-level career decisions, such as tenure and monetary awards to faculty.The present researchers have developed a new instrument to measure teaching and learning quality (TALQ). In a study of 464 students in 12 courses, if students agreed that they experienced academic learning time (ALT) and that their instructors used First Principles of Instruction, then students were nearly 4 times more likely achieve high levels of mastery of course objectives, according to independent instructor assessments.TALQ can measure improvements in use of First Principles in teaching and course design. The feedback from this instrument can assist teachers who wish to implement the recommendation made by Kuh et al. (2006) that universities and colleges should focus their assessment efforts on factors that influence student success.

Changes in Student Motivation During Online Learning

“…In a follow-up study, Frick, Chadha, Watson and Zlatkovska (2010) found that if students agreed that they experienced ALT, then they were about five times more likely to be independently judged at a high level of mastery of course objectives by their instructors. Perhaps more important, they were 10 times more likely to be assessed as low masters of course objectives by their instructors if they did not agree that they experienced ALT.…”

A 'continuous improvement'-based approach for the assessment of student learning

“…For improving the quality of student learning, even though there are a number of surveybased models that consider teacher centric and/or institution centric processes (Chapman and Henderson, 2010;Frick et al, 2010), at the detail level, to the best of our knowledge, application of CI models is relatively sparse. Penn State's IMPROVE model, which is an expansion of Shewhart (1939)/Deming (1986) 'plan-do-check [study]-act' model, demonstrates how to facilitate problem solving, decision making, and process improvement in higher education (Kelly, 2010).…”

Problem-Solving Strategies Among Culinary Arts Students in Community Colleges

“…For instance, instructors could benefit from the access to a teaching model template which supports the design and delivery of problem-solving instruction using selected instructional design theories such as the FPOI (First Principles of Instruction) (Merrill, 2012). Studies done by other researchers (Frick, Chadha, Watson, & Zlatkovska, 2010;Lo & Hew, 2017) have also suggested that the use of the First Principles of Instruction can improve students' motivation and learning when compared with other forms of instruction.…”