I received my student evaluations of teaching for the spring semester of 2019 about an hour ago. I taught four classes this semester, and at my institution for every class we receive a one page summary of our evaluations, a one page summary of our progress on relevant learning objects (which we identify before the evaluations go out), tips for improving your teaching effectiveness based on the quantitative responses, the raw data for each response, and qualitative responses (i.e. written student feedback).
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For this post, I will be providing something of a “live update” / immediate recap of reading through the evaluations. I will not necessarily be writing about what the evaluations say specifically. Instead, I will be focusing more on my mindset in regards to consuming the information provided AND how to get something valuable for me as an instructor out of reading the evaluations.

Back in February, Dr. Sean Fitzpatrick shared his plans to "gamify" his Sports Psychology class he taught this spring. Now, he's back to share reflect on the experience and provide some tips for others thinking about this teaching strategy. 

To read his original post, click here. 

​During one of my on-campus interviews this past year, I was asked how I maximize student engagement. Obviously, this is important when teaching as we want our students to participate during class instead of us talking at them the entire time. I had an answer prepared for this question as any good job candidate would, but it really got me thinking. What are all the ways that I maximize student engagement? Or at the very least, what are strategies I use to assess whether students were engaged? 

Patrick Cushen and colleagues tackle whether or not students benefit from instructor-provided study guides, in the current issue of Teaching of Psychology (article here). In addition to being a great source for instructors in any field of study, this research is also a wonderful example of experimental SoTL research, and sparked so many research ideas I can’t wait to get off the ground!