Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Best/Worst of CAEE-201–Analyzing Your Essays

I’ve completed grading the essays on the final assessment and thought you’d like to have some statistics about what you said – and what I learned.  While grading them I kept track of your comments in a variety of categories suggested by what you wrote (see below) to get a sense of what worked and what needs to be improved.

I’ll use these results to try and improve what we do when next we offer CAEE-201 in the spring.

What Worked

Overall you were very positive about CAEE-201.  You liked the variety of speakers, the exposure to what the CAEE majors consist of, and especially the site visits.

The breakdown of the comments overall was

  • 87 Students completed the essay – 3 did not
    • 50 wrote only positive comments
    • 37 wrote both positive and negative comments
    • No one wrote only a negative comment
  • 259 Positive/Best comments
  • 48 Negative/Worst/Needs Improvement comments

 

What Needs Improvement

As you’ll see in looking at the details the biggest area you felt needs improvement is the instructions for the labs (16 comments).  There were 37 “worst” comments addressing some aspect of the labs (please note that there were 25 positive comments as well).  There’s considerable variety in the specifics of what you felt was problematic.

 

Detailed Comment Breakdown

  • The groups of comments are organized alphabetically within “Best” or “Worst”
  • In some cases I included specific issues as well

Category    Count    Group    Issue    Comments   
Best    39    Admin    Variety of topics        
Best    12    Admin    Variety of Labs     Need outside lab access   
Best    11    Admin    Course Organization    Introduction to field; balance   
Best    4    Admin    Variety of Lectures       
Best    2    Admin    Work Required appropriate        
Best    68    Admin Total           

Best    27    Career    Major Choice - Helps       
Best    4    Career    Career Path Clarification    FE & PE   
Best    31    Career Total           

Best    21    Discussion    Discussion        
Best    21    Discussion Total           

Best    10    Labs    Revit Lab        
Best    4    Labs    HVAC Lab       
Best    3    Labs    Excel Skills        
Best    3    Labs    LCA Lab       
Best    2    Labs    Senior Design presentation        
Best    1    Labs    Graduated Difficulty of Labs       
Best    1    Labs    Lab Instructions Good        
Best    1    Labs    Water Budget - Rec Center       
Best    25    Labs Total           

Best    15    Lecture    Lectures (especially variety)        
Best    11    Lecture    Lecturers Expert and Passionate       
Best    1    Lecture    Graduate Studies Panel        
Best    1    Lecture    JEM lecture delivery       
Best    1    Lecture    JEM Opening Google Earth Lecture       
Best    1    Lecture    Mullin Lecture       
Best    30    Lecture Total           

Best    47    Site Visits    Bridge Visit       
Best    32    Site Visits    Rec Center Visit       
Best    1    Site Visits    Site Visits        
Best    80    Site Visits Total           

Best    4    TAs    Helpful TAs        
Best    4    TAs Total           

Worst    1    Admin    Not Interested in all topics       

Worst    1    Admin Total           
Worst    4    Discussion    Discussions        
Worst    4    Discussion Total           

Worst    16    Labs    Lab Instructions Confusing     Want handout like HVAC; Became clear OR Became more difficult   
Worst    9    Labs    TA Explanations inadequate    Want TA Schedule   
Worst    2    Labs    Lab Feedback inadequate    Lack of rubrics   
Worst    2    Labs    Labs boring       
Worst    2    Labs    Labs too repetitive    Too much Excel.   
Worst    1    Labs    Bridge Lab Instructions Confusing       
Worst    1    Labs    Delayed Feedback        
Worst    1    Labs    Due date too soon    Make on Weekend   
Worst    1    Labs    Labs too structured    Want more freeform   
Worst    1    Labs    Labs too varied    No connections   
Worst    1    Labs    OpenOffice Didn't work       
Worst    37    Labs Total           

Worst    2    Students    Discussions not taken seriously       
Worst    1    Students    Student disrespect in lecture    Exchange Student: Arriving late, leaving early   
Worst    3    Students Total           

Worst    3    Time    Time Required - Labs + Discussion       
Worst    3    Time Total           

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