How is your Course Going? Let Learning Innovation Help Solicit Mid-Semester Student Feedback.

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As we approach the midpoint of the Spring 2021 semester, Duke Learning Innovation is offering help for faculty who wish to reflect on successes and identify areas for improvement within their courses.  Small Group Instructional Feedback (SGIF) is a formative, mid-course check-in used for gathering information from students on their learning experience. This process, which is offered at many institutions nationally, is designed to foster dialogue between students and instructors, and to offer students a transparent way to surface their concerns about the course in a thoughtful way.

Note: Due to Covid-19-related logistical constraints, all SGIF sessions need to be conducted in Zoom this semester.  If your course is already meeting in Zoom, we can conduct the session during one of your scheduled meetings.  If your course is not, we can help you schedule a Zoom session for this purpose.

The SGIF process is as follows:

  1. The instructor initiates the SGIF process by completing a request form. Click here to access the form.
  2. A Teaching Consultant from Learning Innovation will arrange a meeting with the instructor in order to provide an overview of the program, cover any questions or concerns, and to schedule the SGIF session, which will last 20-30 minutes.
  3. Teaching Consultants from Learning Innovation will facilitate the SGIF session at the agreed-upon time, ask students to join small groups, reflect, and reach consensus on their answers to the following questions:
    • What’s going well for you in the course so far? 
    • What do you think could be improved in the course? 
    • A custom question for that particular course, based on discussion with the instructor.
  4. The Teaching Consultant will meet with the instructor to review a report summarizing outcomes of the feedback session and to help determine how to best respond to students. 

Mid-semester student feedback is a valuable resource, particularly now, when many course elements have been changed due to the pandemic and are relatively new to students and faculty.

Request Small Group Instructional Feedback by clicking here to complete the request form.

If you have any questions, contact learninginnovation@duke.edu.