The CLTR offers services to faculty members to support pedagogical growth and development.
Instructional Consultations
Members of the CLTR staff are available to consult with individual faculty on a range of topics. All consultations are confidential, and example topics are listed below. Please contact cltr@colgate.edu to schedule a consultation.
- Syllabus and course design
- Teaching strategies
- Assessment and grading practices
- Technology in teaching
- Student evaluations
- Student learning support
Mid-semester Feedback Process
Collecting mid-semester feedback can be a great way for faculty to gain insight into how a course is unfolding, and to better understand how students are learning. The Center for Learning, Teaching and Research can facilitate a non-evaluative midterm focus group for you as a neutral third party, collecting anonymous feedback and reporting it back to you. This mid-semester feedback process, is based on the widely implemented Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID), and has been empirically tied to higher student satisfaction in a course. In about 30-40 minutes of class time, students are encouraged to generate constructive feedback using open ended questions in small groups and then in a full class discussion. Discussions and analyzed feedback are kept confidential between the instructor and the CLTR facilitator.
There are numerous benefits to the mid-semester feedback process: enhancing the positive experiences of students in your class by helping all students feel heard, receiving constructive suggestions at mid-semester that can allow time for faculty to implement changes, improving faculty and student communication, and examining your teaching through the student lens to support reflective practice. Given the consolidation of these feedback sessions at midterm, the CLTR only has the capacity to facilitate 15-20 each semester. We encourage faculty to schedule these sessions early, and to limit their requests to a single course they are teaching. Expand the section below to learn more about the feedback process and to schedule a session.
General Overview
The CLTR’s mid-semester feedback process is based on the widely implemented Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID). The SGID follows a multi-step process using three prompts that focus on learning in the course. Students are encouraged to elaborate and provide examples for each idea shared in response to the prompts. The first prompt asks students, “What aspects of this course and/or the instruction would you identify as most helpful to your learning?” The second prompt asks students to offer suggested changes, “What modifications to this course do you believe would help you to learn more effectively?” And self-reflective prompt asks students, “If you were to help yourself learn and perform more effectively, what would you suggest doing?” This last prompt helps frame the previous suggested changes by exposing the extent to which students share responsibility for the learning process.
Students engage with these prompts during the facilitated feedback process (outlined below) that typically requires approximately 30-40 minutes of class time to complete:
- The process begins with the facilitator providing a brief overview of the SGID including comments on the process, rules and value.
- Students individually record responses to the aforementioned prompts.
- Students are placed into small groups and discuss their impressions / perspectives and come to a consensus on what they collectively believe captures the most significant strengths and suggested changes for the course.
- Guided discussion and survey of the entire class. In this step, the facilitator seeks to determine the extent of agreement among groups for the most significant strengths and suggested changes. The facilitator also seeks clarification of ambiguous comments through elaborations and examples.
After the conclusion of the in-class session, the facilitator prepares a summary / analysis of the collected data, shares this information with the faculty member, and discusses a plan to address the findings with students in the course. The following articles offer information about the value of collecting mid-semester feedback:
- "The Impact of a Learner-Centered, Mid-Semester Course Evaluation on Students" by Carol A. Hurney, Nancy L. Harris, Samantha C. Bates Prins, & S. E. Kruck
- "Gathering Mid-semester Feedback: Three Variations to Improve Instruction" by Patricia R. Payette and Marie Kendall Brown
Classroom Visits
CLTR staff are available to conduct classroom visits (as a non-participating observer) for faculty members interested in observational feedback about instructional approaches and classroom interactions. This service is completely confidential and is not part of the departmental/program peer-evaluation of teaching.