Final Reflection (30 minutes)

Let’s go over the prompt, which is in the Labor Instructions folder for November 30.

No matter which option you choose, you are asked to review as much as possible from things related to class (e.g., syllabus, grading contract, readings, “listenings,” lesson plans, labor instructions), writing you have completed, and the writing of your classmates.

Take the next 15 minutes and start reviewing. I’m going to give you a 3 minute warning when time is almost up. At that point, I want you to start thinking about what stood out to you most as interesting, surprising, frustrating, etc. and how you might write about it in your reflection (no obligation to do so).

I’ll have feedback to you on your proposals by tomorrow.

 

Course Evaluation Survey (15 minutes)

You get these for all of your classes, usually in an email. You can also access it here: Student Course and Faculty Evaluations – Enrollment Management (cuny.edu) (click on “Log in” in middle of page and use your Baruch username and password).

What do these actually do? How are they most valuable?

Let’s start with a wider contextual information that helps see flaws in this system of evaluation.

Here are some sources:

Bias against female instructors is large and statistically significant. Difficult to adjust for this bias.

In addition to female instructors, there is a large bias in these methods of evaluation for people of color.

Here is a great bibliography of all research on bias in student evaluation surveys: Overview of bias in student evaluations – Google Docs (approximately 200 studies showing biases in student evaluation surveys)

And here is a popular source that sums up much of this research, especially one study that attempted to create ideal conditions in which these measures still end up being flawed: Study: Student evaluations of teaching are deeply flawed (insidehighered.com)

I offer none of this to say that *YOU* specifically are biased, but, rather, there is a lot of evidence for systematic bias (much of which is likely unconscious) that tends to rate White and cisgender male instructors much higher than non-White and other gendered instructors, independent of teaching performance or course design.

All this said, these evaluation surveys are still commonly used across the U.S. and at Baruch.

Imperfect as they are, they are still used to evaluate instructors by administrators (i.e., management, bosses).

Imperfect as they are, they still communicate something and can be used by job seekers (or asked to be provided by employers) when applying for jobs or promotion.

Imperfect as they are, they can still give instructors some valuable information that might confirm or complicate intuitions instructors have about how the class was going (and how to adjust for next time).

So, I would say to do the following when filling out these surveys for *ALL* of your courses:

• Do not rush through them. If you want to give a lower score, for instance, be sure you have thought it through and genuinely feel that way. Since these can have an effect on evaluation decisions (e.g., tenure, promotion, hiring/firing/laying off), be sure you are assigning scores you believe in and are filling it in thoughtfully. Try as best you can to take a breath and check in with yourself on where your criticism–good or bad–is coming from in terms of concrete and specific examples of the instructor’s approach to teaching and its impact on your learning.
• In open-ended portion, offer constructive criticism. If you did like something, explain what you liked. If you did not like something, explain why and do so in a way that is helpful toward revision of the course. Finally, if you do have something to offer that you did not like, try to think of something you did like, too. (this helps! it can confirm some things that are working which is just as valuable as saying something about what is not working).

Okay, so with that out of the way, let’s take about 10 minutes in class to complete the survey. I’ll need a volunteer to come grab me when the class is finished completing the survey.

 

Podcast Work (45 minutes)

Let’s return to our November 18 agreement document and talk more about other stuff to finalize the podcast for December 7.

Some of the things to do could be used for a grade boost. I also think we can divide up transcription duties and episode descriptions among the 15 of you, too; or that could be done by a few people for extra credit. But stuff like cover art could be something a given person does for extra credit for sure since that is hard to divide up. Doing a fifth episode is on the table for extra credit, but we don’t have to do that.

Another thing to think about is delivery. Where is this living at? Do we want to present it anywhere? Do we want to actually try to upload it to a podcast distribution app? Something else? I can send out an anonymous survey on this.

Speaking of, thanks to those of you who filled out the survey about workload. If anyone is having issues, please let me know. From the responses I got, it seemed like those folks are doing okay.

Another thing: is the order of the episodes finalized?

Yet another, related to your Podcast Post 4 responses/comments: what is the timeline looking like for each group? Is there room for feedback to each other? Other thoughts on finalizing things?

FINALLY: Logistics for setting up podcast episodes. Submit to Blackboard, “Submit Audio Files Here,” “Podcast Episodes (Finalized).”

Anything else we should be thinking about? Otherwise, get into groups and use some time in class to check in about final submission of your episode.

 

Logistics for Closing Out Semester (5-10 minutes)

-Feel free to continue to check in with me about grades

-let me know if you didn’t get feedback on your research project yet

-Let’s talk about remaining assignments so we are all on same page. Let’s go to the schedule and see below:

 

Close Out (2-5 minutes)

-Get me very brief proposals for Final Reflection or ELD by tonight.

-Labor Log, Labor Post, Labor Journal entry for December 4

-Finalize podcast episodes by end of day December 7, turn them in on Blackboard in “Submit Audio Files Here”, “Podcast Episodes (Finalized)”.

-Final Reading/Listening Post due on last day of class on December 9 by end of day. Make sure you double-check if you are signed up for that day or not here.

-Final Reflection or ELD due by Dec 18

-Podcast Contribution Narrative (very brief) due by Dec 18. (will just ask what you did and if you have feedback on your role or how the project went for future iterations of the project).