Student Ratings

Instructors are evaluated every semester by their students. Since last semester was my first semester teaching online, I was highly nervous about my student ratings. In fact, I have lost sleep quite a few times worrying about what my students thought of me (see the last post).

When you teach an in person class, you get to know your instructor's personality. In an online setting, personality is much harder to convey. My f2f classes at Sierra College are so much fun. We get a lot of work done, but have quite a bit of fun in the process. Just yesterday my students were commenting about how wonderful they thought my class was. Quite a few of them commented about how my class has been a unique experience. They also mentioned how they never quite get to know their classmates in other classes, but in my class everyone feels so connected that they never want to leave (their words, not mine).

In an online class, it is quite difficult to create an environment that is connected on that level. I try different things to connect the class, but I suspect the students feel more connected to me than the other students. If I am afforded the opportunity to teach online again next semester, I will need to think about this a bit more and figure out how to encourage the class to get more connected with each other rather than me.

In my Public Speaking class online, the students LOVED the class. I don't think I received one bad rating. In my other class, I received only one bad rating.....but that's a blog for another time. I am ecstatic about my ratings. I have already changed the things my students didn't like. You can glean a lot from phone conversations, online conversations and emails. I'm glad I made the changes I did, and hope that I will have the opportunity to revise the Public Speaking class again next semester. From what my students told me at our last meeting on Friday, they LOVE the class and really like the interaction with each other and me. They really like how accessible I am - phone calls, emails, online chatting, etc... Of course this makes my schedule quite hectic because sometimes students can only chat late at night, or early in the morning - but it's worth it. I love what I do and can't picture myself doing anything else at this point in my life. I'm excited!!! Can you tell?