Faculty of Humanities
School of Environment, Education and Development
Please use this form to respond to the course unit evaluation data for your course unit.
The responses to the evaluation data will be made available to students through Programme
Committee meetings and on the student intranet, and will also be used in responding to the
Faculty, should this be required.
Academic Year:
Semester:
Course Unit Code:
Course Unit Title:
Lecturer(s):
2014-15
1
GEOG 10251
Understanding Human Geography
Sarah Marie Hall and Helen Wilson*
% of evaluations
completed:
Positive points from
the evaluations:
54.5%
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Criticisms raised:
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The breadth of the course was identified as one of its main
strengths. One of the most frequent comments was that the
course introduced students to aspects of Human Geography
that they had not engaged at A-Level. A substantive number of
comments suggested that the course had stretched them as a
result.
Powerpoint slides and the organisation of the course were
evaluated positively. Class engagement and enthusiastic
delivery of material were also regularly mentioned.
A number of different topics were mentioned as issues that
were particularly well received. In this regards, the lectures on
‘multiculturalism’ and ‘gender and sexuality’ stood out.
Many comments positively evaluated the use of newspaper
content throughout the course. This was noted as a way of
encouraging the application of lecture material to real world
and contemporary issues, which was then picked up in the
exam.
Some comments highlighted the extensive reading list and the
adoption of a core text as something that facilitated their
learning.
Students named topics that they were less interested in. There
were common references to the inclusion of topics such as
bodies and emotion and the geographies of personal life, which
some students found to be a bit of a leap from A-Level –
although these topics were also discussed as positive aspects of
the course. There were some suggestions that these topics
might come later once students had settled in to the course.
Whilst the breadth of the course was mentioned as a positive,
there were some comments from students who felt that the
course covered too much for one module and that more time
was needed to unpack some of the new and more challenging
material. There were also a number of students who wanted to
see more space given to ‘multiculturalism’ and ‘gender and
sexuality’ as introductory topics.
There was some confusion with section B on the exam, which
required students to respond to two questions on a newspaper
article regarding how each question was weighted.
How you will
 Next year, a proposal for a new ‘Introducing Human Geography’
address the
module in semester 2 should mean that there will be scope to
evaluations:
spend more time on key topics, as UHG will no longer be
required to cover a bit of everything. This will allow us to take
core themes that were well received and spend more time on
them, including ‘Multiculturalism’ and ‘Gender and Sexuality’.
Each of these will be expanded to cover two lectures and will
also allow more room for political and urban geography.
 Some of the content that was flagged as potentially too
challenging for first year will go into the new ‘Geographies of
Everyday Life’ module in Year 2 and the order of the course will
be re-organised. Given the positive feedback, it is felt that it is
important that the course continues to stretch students and to
challenge them with topics not covered at A-Level.
 Given how well the newspaper exercises were received, it has
been recommended that this is included in the proposal for the
new second semester HG course in order to develop continuity
across the two.
 Next year Section B will just have one question to avoid
confusion.
PLEASE RETURN FORM BY EMAIL TO: daniel.chung@manchester.ac.uk