Re: intro

 
> I find that students are almost completely incapable of giving useful
> feedback.  Oh sure, they can complain about loud air conditioning or
> out-of-order materials, but when it comes to "I didn't understand
> section XXX because I didn't grasp the explanation of YYY and was
> lost from then on", they only end up writing "I liked ZZZ, and didn't
> like XXX."


Anyway, if I get a comment in the form your mentioned above I go after the
student and tell them that type of feedback doesn't help. When I'm teaching a
full length course I force my students to write weekly reviews and make it
worth 10% of their grade (this isn't useful for trainers). I tell the students
to write what they found good, bad, what they didn't understand, what they'd
like to know more about, et cetera.  Also, I insist they write about each
class--this forces the students to go back to their notes. The review should
not be longer than a page--in fact usually 1/2 page is enough. 

I've always hated the fact that the course evaluations come at the end of the 
semester--not in the semester when it could make a difference.

Perl's motto of "There is more than one way to do it" makes it 
difficult to teach a guiding theory that can lead students to answers. 
Therefore I encourage feedback from the students.   


> It's bloody frustrating trying to improve courses based on most
> student feedback.


Sometimes. But I find also that the students are paying too much money not to 
have input.  If it is useless, I'll tell them and explain why.


(raig

Displaced Bostonian