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
GEOG30181
Climate Change and Carbon Cycling
Gareth Clay
% of evaluations
completed:
Positive points from
the evaluations:
63% (12/19)
Overall a bit of a mixed bag this year but positive areas included above
average scores for “well organised”, “intellectually stimulating”,
“enthusiasm” and “excellent teaching”.
There were a number of positive comments about the course with
student generally enjoying the challenging nature of the material and the
revision sessions at the start of the classes
Criticisms raised:
Specific comments included:
 “Clearly interested in topic to great extent and portrays that in
his teaching. Always willing to help.”
 “I liked having coursework that was different to the usual essay”
 “Highly intellectually stimulating”
 “There is little, if anything, that needs to be improved!”
Of the suggestions for improvement they broke down into the following:
1. Coursework assignment support
A few respondents highlighted they would have liked more support with
the emissions coursework
“Little more guidance for the coursework as it is in a format which most
of us had not come across before”
2. Format of slides in lecture
“Power point lectures could also have more structure and more headings
so we know which part of the lecture we are at and so it flows better”
“I find it really hard to learn when the majority of the writing is on the
slides and is simply extended by the lecturer.”
But another suggestion was “more explanation written on lectures”
3. Seminars
“Some of the seminars seemed pointless as they were not needed in the
exam or for coursework”
4. Reading list
“Maybe to re-update the reading list as some of the material overlapped
on certain weeks. Also, maybe highlight 2 or 3 papers on the reading list
which haven't been described in detail in the lecture, however are useful
for that week’s lecture, as I was never certain which papers best related
to that week’s topic”
5. Use of mobile technology for those without smartphones
“the programme works on less than half the phones so most people can't
really join in.”
How you will
address the
evaluations:
Coursework assignment report
Whilst some students seemed to enjoy the coursework, noting its
difference to traditional essays, a few points were raised regarding the
guidance. The coursework is supported by a guidance documents,
FAQs, coursework surgery, plus students are welcome to drop by my
consultation hours if they have further questions. Although students
may find the assignment challenging, this is a third year course and
develops skills (e.g. concise writing) that is need in future careers.
Format of slides
A number of comments related to the delivery of lectures and I will take
a number of these on board for next year (e.g. slide headings). But
overall students seemed to enjoy “the relaxed style of lecturing” which
had a “good balance between information on [the] slides and information
spoken”
Seminars
The role of the seminars/practicals was explained on a number of
occasions. Whilst some students would rather everything is related to an
assessed piece of work, they serve an important purpose in skills
development and reinforcing key concepts from the lectures. I will cover
this again next year. Some students “found the Thursday practicals
useful”
Reading list
Each week the reading list has a series of journal articles, book chapter
or reports that are related to that weeks’ material. Each list has a set of
key texts and further texts highlighting which are required reading. I will
ensure next year that this is clearer on the lists.
There is overlap between weeks in the reading lists however this does
not need to be updated. Several topics span multiple sessions but the
reading is still pertinent.
Mobile technology
I was unaware that the programme didn’t work on all phones so will
investigate this for next year, and have clickers on standby if needed.
Whilst the interactive element is the hook, the quizzes equally work as a
personal revision tool without the technology
PLEASE RETURN FORM BY EMAIL TO: daniel.chung@manchester.ac.uk