Collecting Data & Evidence

In FET, because the goal is improvement in teaching, it is important that the data and evidence collected will have the potential of helping instructors to identify their strengths and weaknesses and point to possible improvements. Hence, the data and evidence collected should contain sufficiently rich information about the teaching and learning processes to provide a basis for changed practice. Besides the three quick feedback methods mentioned above, other methods of data collection are introduced below.

Feedback from students

Teacher-designed feedback form

Most instructors at HKUST will be familiar with the end-of-course Student Feedback Questionnaire or the former course evaluation questionnaire. Instructors can also design their own questionnaires to collect feedback from students about their teaching. Such questionnaires should be customized to collect information specific to the instructor's needs. For those who are interested in using this method, please click here for further information on questionnaire design, data collection and analysis.

Using online survey tools

To collect data online, you can consider using the HKUST Qualtrics, which supports various question types and automatic report generation.

Group feedback from students

Instead of collecting feedback using questionnaires, you can also consider using group feedback such as student focus group meetings. There are plenty of useful references in the university library on focus group. To encourage students' active participation, you might consider having someone else to lead the discussion. Below is a brief introduction of a group feedback method called "Instructional feedback technique (GIFT), which collects students' feedback on the following 3 questions or their variations:

• What works?
• What doesn't work?
• What can be done to improve it?

This is usually conducted during the last 15-20 minutes of a lecture by someone whom the instructor trusts. Students are generally invited to respond to the 3 questions individually, and then compare their answers to those of 2 or 3 students nearby. The person responsible for the data collection should summarize the feedback and pass it to the instructor. Two special features about this technique are:

1. it uses a third party to collect feedback from the students, and
2. it provides students the chance to discuss their views in groups.

For further details of the procedure, please refer to Angelo and Cross (1993).

Other forms of student feedback

In addition to the above sources of student feedback, we should not lose sight of informal feedback from students such as casual conversations, indirect feedback from your TAs and other teaching support staff, and students' behaviors in class (though they can sometimes be misread by instructors), and last but not least their performance in coursework and tests.

Feedback from peers

While students are an important source of feedback, they are by no means and should not be the only one. Your peers play an important and different role in providing feedback on your course materials, class teaching, assignments and students' work. They often have in-depth knowledge of the subject matter you teach, and knowledge and experience in teaching. For more details, please refer to the section on peer review of teaching.

Video-taping of teaching

A video record of your class teaching is another excellent way to help you examine the way you teach in class. Even an audio record of your class teaching, especially if it is a lecture, can provide you with very useful information to evaluate your teaching. The Publishing Technology Unit (PTU) has set up a service, Remote Video Capure (RVC), that allows faculty and instructors at HKUST to create video recording of their class teaching most conveniently. A useful and practical guide by Barbara Gross Davis on how to make use of videotaping to improve your teaching can be found from the UC Berkeley Office of Educational development website . Many people find it helpful to watch the video playback with a knowledgeable and supportive colleague. It can be someone from your department, from CEI or a friend whose opinion you value. While watching the video, using a checklist can help you to examine your teaching more comprehensively (Davis, 1993).