I always encourage student's feedback and appreciate any constructive criticism. I take criticism as an opportunity to improve further. For example, the first offering of the UG course ZEIT3506: System Engineering/Management in 2019 had some negative feedback on both the course content and teaching practice. We didn't have much content, context and marking guidelines to control large class sizes, particularly during student presentations. These were the steps I have taken to improve my teaching practice in 2020 accordingly:
- Introducing a blended course delivery method for the ZEIT3506, while I have used multiple online technologies as well as traditional teaching and consultations.
- Adding a few new technologies, such as MindTap, Leganto reading, Reflective Journal, Online Engagement Forum, a community of learning and inquiry.
These improvements in my teaching practices resulted in increasing myExperience score in 2020 (the mean score in 2019 was 4.59, while in 2020 it was 5.09). Few excerpts of students' comments in 2020 were,
Student’s Feedback (Excerpt):
- Ripon seemed very knowledgeable in all areas.
- He is very passionate about teaching systems engineering and is very willing to help students.
- I like Ripon, as a teacher he was very caring and helpful, his verbal communication was very clear
- Professional and provided very good feedback when required.
- Interpersonal skills were high, was receptive to student concerns, was always prepared to offer a further explanation to anything that was not clear. Coordinated the course beautifully.
- Availability – webinars – collecting students questions and providing clear explanations, instructions and hints
- His responses to the forum and he took the trouble to explain every example very well. He provided more information and guidance than Prof. Newton's videos did. He is an excellent lecturer.
- Ripon was incredibly diligent about replying to students' questions and he did so in detail. He was open to addressing the small problems in the course material and was responsive to students' feedback.
- Ripon was very active, helpful, and replied to questions frequently.