What I learned from the Student Reviews

Student evaluations are a bit scary to read at first, but in the end, yield some very helpful insights.

Some of the things I learned this week as I read my student reviews:

Even though we introduced blogs and wikis to the class, and for many this was a first -time event, students do not want any class time spent on technology. Possible solution: do a half-day or one-day seminar each quarter on tech tools for seminary students. This would cover blogs, wikis, social bookmarking (del.icio.us and flickr), RSS, and podcasting (and maybe video). If the students had these skills coming in, we could have moved further into the content.

Students want very clear directions in the course. I did not adequately explain where we were going with the wiki and other tasks in the course, as I wanted to see how they were progressing before becoming explicit about all of my expectations. Students didn't find this helpful. They wanted the whole picture at the start. I will work to be explicit, more clear about expectations, and move the course to more of a fixed format.

Students wanted help with integration -- the lectures described Jesus and social transformation, the books covered culture, and their research looked at a significant social problems on a world scale. Their blog was where much of the integration occurred, but they wanted more corporate interaction, beyond their group. I will need to shift class-time to be more integrative of the course resources.

Students needed more of the core concepts of the course before they could adequately perform as Internet researchers. I wanted them to get into the research and so start scouring the Internet from the beginning, coming up with ten sources of data in their chosen topic on a weekly basis. In the end, they didn't find this helpful, they needed more conceptual tools. I will push aspects of the internet research back in the course so that they could grasp the basics first (in this case, Jesus and social transformation).

Students really liked the individual blogs, the group blogs, and the wiki (towards the end). Lots of scared looks the first two weeks, :^0 , but after that point, the students settled into the rhythm of the work. The students became a learning community with their project team (of 2-5 others). They read each other's blogs, they sometimes ate meals together, they struggled over what should be on the wiki. They said they learned about diversity and how to overcome their own biases through their group. For many students, the weekly online process was the most challenging and rewarding aspect of class. I will keep this weekly pattern of interaction but tweak it a bit based on the feedback. But I couldn't have been more pleased with this 24-7 learning community.

Students said repeatedly they were happy that their wiki would live on into the future, serving churches worldwide.

It was a good quarter -- the students were great...

Technorati Tags: Fuller Theological Seminary, education

Comments

[Steve Sudeth]

I loved the class Ryan and I think your thoughts on what to do with the class next time are right on. It was a great learning experience for me and I enjoyed all the new learning avenues. Hopefully I will see you again in the U2 class!

[Mike]

I hope that you will also consider covering www.blinklist.com among the tech tools if you do end up teaching your students about new tech tools and services. If you do check out our site, I would love to hear your thoughts on how we can further improve it. Mike

[will]

Ryan,

When I taught a technical class at GW, the class had a pre-assignment. Have you thought about that? You could put together a series of simple exercises and have people go through the work before class starts.

[Existential Punk]

As a seminary student myself, I appreciate that you really take into account the students concerns and make changes accordingly. i don't see many teachers doing this. i know you can't please veryone all of the time and can't be changing things around all the time, but i think it is a sign of a mature professor to be open and willing to be fluid. Thank you for your example. Hope i get to meet you some day. Merry Christmas! Adele

[Ryan]

Thanks for the affirming words...I'm on a steep learning curve but I'm having soooo much fun!!

[Andy Rowell]

Ryan,
I commented about this post at Taylor University faculty blog on educational technology:
http://grfriesen.typepad.com/becoming_a_millennial/2006/08/97_the_readwrit.html

I have pasted it here:

I like this idea of using blogs in class.

See the comments of Ryan Bolger who teaches at Fuller Seminary about his student evaluations on his class last fall. He has them do Wikis and Blogs.

His description of the class is at:
thebolgblog.typepad.com/thebolgblog/2005/10/44_new_blogs_ad.html
(Sorry this link is kind of broken - it is entitled New Blogs added to the Blogosphere).

Here are his comments about the student evaluations:
http://thebolgblog.typepad.com/thebolgblog/2005/12/what_i_learned_.html

Here is the class blog:
http://thebolgblog.typepad.com/mp520_f05/

By the way, Ryan along with Eddie Gibbs has written the authoritative book on the emerging church movement entitled "Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=as2&path=ASIN/0801027152&tag=churchleaders-20&camp=1789&creative=9325

[Marta Gillilan]

Hi Ryan- I'm checking out this blog for the first time. I look forward to class tomorrow. Marta Gillilan

[Lee Schnabel]

Hi Ryan,

Your presentation to the MAGL 10 Cohort class was excellent! Not having read your book I will confess some skepticism. However having been a missionary in Guatemala and Panama, you're advocating the same stuff(i.e. methodologies) that helped us survive and become effective in Latin America. I actually felt excited and hopeful after hearing you. Keep up the good work.

Later,

Lee