Spring 2003

Scholars often think that anything worth saying is worth putting our name on. But some comments work better when they remain unattributed, as I have learned from using the Anonymous Feedback option on my Instructional Toolkit course homepage. True, the comments aren't always 'spot on,' but the system accommodates for that.

Last semester, I found myself lecturing to 180 students, having never before taught more than 20. I made a lot of mistakes, but also learned many lessons, thanks to the students and their use of Anonymous Feedback. For instance, during the first two weeks of class, students appeared to be frustrated. I knew that my lecture delivery was missing the mark but couldn't identify the problem. I tried something new each time, but nothing seemed to remedy the issue. I wondered if teaching just wasn't for me. Fortunately, I received an anonymous comment that read:

"The class has been a lot of fun and extremely interesting so far! I am really enjoying it, but I would like to ask that you please slow down a lot when you are lecturing. The lectures are so interesting, but I feel like I don't get to hear half of what you say because I am trying to quickly write down what you had said before. And I feel like all of the people I have sat around in the last few classes have felt the same way. (I see them moaning a bit and hurrying to write down what they can.) So please slow it down a bit if you can! Thanks so much!"

Though tempted to become defensive, I could address the issue once I understood the students' experience. It wasn't as easy to slow down as I first imagined, but it was a fixable problem.

Not all such feedback is useful, but it's a worthy tradeoff. The comments range from the bizarre ("Orange is not your color!") to the downright offensive. Some students use the Anonymous Feedback option as an opportunity to complain. Often, their communications include no usable feedback but may still possess value. The cathartic effect can have a positive result. Moreover, I hope such mid-semester venting makes it less likely that students will express negative sentiments on my final evaluations.

When employing the Anonymous Feedback option you may want to give your students a lesson in how to use it. Occasionally, for example, I received notes that should not have been anonymous. Sometimes students asked about paper topics. Brief reminders during class usually eliminated those types of misuses.

Let me close with one last demonstration of the usefulness of this tool. After midterms and mid-semester evaluations (Anonymous Feedback notwithstanding, I still believe it is important to collect written feedback from the entire class), I realized that my students struggled with how to take appropriate notes. I started posting my lecture notes on my course homepage. I quickly received the following note: "By posting your notes on the Internet you are allowing people to skip your class. There is no need to read aloud your notes if we already have them." Consequently, I produced instead a rough outline, which proved useful only to those who attended class. Shortly thereafter, I received this affirmation:

"I would like to thank you for putting the outlines on the website because they have been most helpful. They do not provide too much info, where you can blank out on what you are saying, but they also allow you to listen and understand it better in class, instead of writing non-stop and not really knowing what the class was about."

Indeed, that's what I strive for.