STUDENT FEEDBACK ON LECTURE EFFECTIVENESS
BIO312-FALL 2005 – DR. ANJA ROSSINNI – UW-LA CROSSE [Excerpt from Teaching Portfolio]
Question 1: Which lecture series did you understand best?
1. Skeletal system (organization: anatomy then physiology)
2. Integumentary system (organization: function then anatomy as it relates to each function)
3. Nervous system: fundamentals (organization: molecular level to cellular level)
Responses:
Vast majority felt that skeletal system unit was the clearest.
Reasons?
 Familiar with material
 Preferred organization
 PowerPoint slides contained more information in form of text
Action:
 Will try to stick with an “anatomy then physiology” structure in lectures but create assignments
that require students to reorganize material to emphasize interrelatedness of form and function
and connections between the various levels of organismal structural hierarchy.
 Will return to more “informative slides”
NOTE: I had a hard time making this decision because my students spend all lecture
furiously writing everything on the slides rather than listening to the discussion, picking
out the essence of the lecture, and writing that down.
Question 2: What aspects of lecture help you understand material?
Responses:
1. Hand-drawn diagrams
2. Examples that relate material to “real life”
3. Handouts and study guides provided
Action:
 Need to spend more time incorporating hand-drawn diagrams into lecture. Using a tablet PC will
allow me to do so directly on a PowerPoint slide.
 Incorporate more examples and active learning exercises that reinforce critical evaluation of
material discussed in lectures.
 Continue to provide study guides. Should I change the amount of detail?
Question 3: How can I change lecture or handouts to improve understanding?
Responses:
1. More “sum-up” or “big picture” discussions
2. SLOW DOWN
3. More orientation about how all the topics relate
Action:
 Need to slow down or provide students with a means of keeping up with pace of lectures.
a) Will use tablet PC to physically write on PowerPoint slides and I will create more handdrawn diagrams. This will slow down the pace of my oral presentation.
b) Begin each lecture with a brief summary of material discussed in previous lectures as it
specifically relates to the current lecture topic. Indicate these connections on a visible
outline of the day’s lecture (perhaps on the board).
c) Include ALL text from PowerPoint slides in provided lecture notes.
NOTE: This was a difficult decision to make. Lecture notes must provide sufficient
information to allow students to pay attention in lecture without deemphasizing the
importance of coming to lecture. I prefer not providing actual PowerPoint slides
because I want to encourage students to go back to their textbook and find figures that
relate to and summarize lecture topics.
Improvements for Next Semester
I will be teaching this course again in Spring 2006 and plan to implement the following
improvements:
A. Continue to provide the detailed lecture notes, but group them into units covering each
B.
C.
D.
E.
organ system. The packet of lecture notes for each unit will begin with a brief outline to
orient students through the series of lectures pertaining to that particular organ system.
Research and incorporate more in-class writing assignments and in-class exercises
students can complete to demonstrate body function.
Design an in-class exercise that prompts students to think about how an organism survives
in its environment. Based on this exercise, have the class as a whole construct the
organizing framework for all the material that will be covered in the semester. This
framework will be presented as a “mind map” on a piece of paper. At the end of each unit, I
will ask students to form groups and incorporate the organ system covered in that unit into
the mind map. By the end of the semester, they will have a physical summary of how the
organ systems discussed in the semester are linked to one another and how they contribute
to overall body function.
In addition to the mind map, at the end of each unit I will have students complete worksheets
which will emphasize the application of the four principles of organization and body function.
At first these worksheets will be detailed and completed in groups during lecture. As
students gain experience applying the principles, I will make the worksheets less explicit and
assign them as homework.
These mind maps and worksheets should also serve as a means of assessing student
comprehension and retention of the material.
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