Using mid-semester course evaluation as a feedback tool for improving learning and teaching in higher education

Abstract

The way in which mid-semester course evaluations are structured, administered and reported is important for generating rich and high-quality student feedback for the enhancement of learning and teaching. Mid-semester evaluations usually contain open-ended questions that trigger more elaborative feedback about what is going on in a class than that from end-of-semester evaluations with Likert scale-type questions. The anonymity of the process for students and the confidentiality of the process for instructors make the process more reflective for students and less stressful for instructors. This study describes how the mid-semester course evaluation process can be used as a feedback tool for improving the quality of teaching and learning at an institutional level. Through a longitudinal analysis of 341 mid-semester course evaluation reports, positive areas and areas of concern with respect to learning and teaching were identified, and changes in student evaluations over the years were examined meticulously to make an overall evaluation of the quality of learning and teaching at a non-profit Turkish university. This research showed that the value of mid-semester course evaluations can go beyond course-level if we use open-ended questions and are able to gather the reports together to make some comprehensive analysis at university level.

Keywords:

• Mid-semester course evaluation
• student feedback
• improving learning and teaching
• higher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

E. Murat Sozer

E. Murat Sozer is the Director of the Koc University Office of Learning and Teaching (KOLT) and an Associate Professor in Koc University, Mechanical Engineering Department in Istanbul, Turkey. Professor Sozer has published more than 40 articles in the leading journals and conference proceedings, and co-authored one book and three chapters on process modeling.

Zuhal Zeybekoglu

Zuhal Zeybekoglu, PhD, is the Manager of Koc University Office of Learning and Teaching (KOLT). She has extensive experience in educational development in higher education. Her research interest focuses on learning and teaching in higher education.

Mustafa Kaya

Mustafa Kaya is a Ph.D. student in Medical Education. His main research interests are ethnography and psycholinguistics.