End-of-Semester Narratives

From Fall 2011 to Spring 2016, I:

• Held a one-on-one exit interview with each student in each section I taught that semester
• Conducted over 700 interviews in total, with more than 80 interviews in some semesters
• Collected 3-5 page narrative exit essays from each student prior to the interviews
• Amassed over 1000 pages of student narratives on their course experiences (downloadable here)

I value feedback from students greatly, and identifying useful and effective mechanisms for student evaluations has long been a cornerstone of my research (see the description of courseware I've developed) and my service to ISAT (most recently, as an 11-year member of the Assessment Committee which I now chair, and member of the ISAT Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) Task Force). As a consequence, I have relied upon mechanisms other than the standard ISAT end-of-course evaluations to continuously improve my teaching practice, and so this section will present markedly different information that you will see from other members of the ISAT faculty.

Even though the SET Task Force has only started to present its findings to the faculty this academic year, I have been engaged in the preliminary work for this committee for several years. I am extremely knowledgeable and sought out for my expertise (see the section on course evaluation-related committees on which I serve) with respect to course evaluation. Because I have long been a loud critic of the course evaluation instrument that has been used in ISAT for such a long time, I have also been working diligently to investigate alternatives since Fall 2011.

For the remainder of this section, I will describe key themes that have come up repeatedly in my course sections, particularly as relates to the many iterations of CYOG that I attempted. I will use quotations from the student essays to illustrate and highlight those themes, and I will discuss my responses to student feedback, and if possible, the student responses to my responses. But first:

For most of the semesters since 2011, I have solicited an end-of-semester narrative from all of my students. The students brought me a hard copy of the narrative and we had a one-on-one exit interview that lasted between 15 and 60 minutes, usually around 25 minutes. The interviews were (almost always) relaxed and friendly, and contained a balance of me providing feedback to the student, and the student providing feedback to me. Here is a sample of an email I used to solicit the end-of-semester narrative:

Email Soliciting End-of-Semester Narrative

Hello All,

It is time to set up our end-of-semester exit interviews. Interviews will take place between 9AM and 5PM on Tuesday and Wednesday 12/13 and 12/14. I will have a signup sheet in class on Friday 12/9. Those who show up to class will get first dibs on an interview time slot.

Your interview will be relaxed and friendly. I would like you to bring a PRINTED copy of your end-of-semester narrative essay. Here are the questions I would like you to address:

• What were your expectations coming into this class? What learning goals did you set for yourself? How did your goals evolve over the course of the semester?
• In what ways did you feel you were successful? Please refer to specific, concrete artifacts that would serve as evidence of your successes. In what areas do you feel you failed to achieve your goals?
• Please reflect on what you think you've learned from your failures, and what, if any, plans you have to address those issues in the future.
• JMU's Mission Statement is to produce "educated and enlightened citizens who lead meaningful and productive lives." Do you feel more educated? More enlightened? Less so?
• How have your activities this semester contributed or detracted from your knowing yourself better and having a better grasp on what you want to do in the near or distant future?
• How did this style of course work for you?
• If you were to take it again what would you recommend that I do it the same or differently?
• What grade would you like for me to report to the registrar for you, and why?

The goal of this narrative is to give you an opportunity to do some deep reflection. Take it seriously. Take a good, long, hard look in the mirror. Have fun with it. I expect that doing a good job of this will probably mean that you'll write somewhere in the 3-5 page range (single spaced).

Thank you for a great semester, and I hope to see many of you in 345/348 next fall!

Cheers, Morgan

Sometimes these emails asked specific questions about a new feature of my pedagogy that I was trying out. Below is a summary, in no particular order of some common themes that came out of these essays. These are representative examples culled from over 1000 pages of students' exit essays and my notes from our interviews. (downloadable here)

Expressions of Fear and Trepidation

It was common for students to express fear or nervousness about their ability to be successful in a class. Here is a very typical statement from a student:

Coming into this class ... I was honest really nervous because I am still not comfortable with coding. I have taken [some some other coding classes], however, coding is still very new to me.... I felt like I would be in over my head....

I saw this kind of expression over and over again. In response, I went to great lengths to drive out fear, and make students feel welcome and comfortable in the class. I worked to make them feel that class was an opportunity, and not a chore. As a result, the student above went on to say:

Morgan has such a great way of approaching the teaching and learning process, that being scared or nervous for this class just seemed stupid. ... Comparing our skills to other classmates was not an option. We needed to do a project that would benefit us, and reflect our own personal strengths and gifts.

This particular student teamed up with a classmate and built a fully functioning online store where they sold blue jean shorts that they had decorated. It was pretty impressive to see that happen in a single semester.

Love/Hate for the Amount of Freedom

Since there are no requirements with CYOG, students had A LOT of freedom to decide how they would spend their time during a semester. Some students thrived in this atmosphere:

I was very surprised when I walked in and I was told to pick my own project. I had no idea what to do since I was never given this opportunity before so at first I still tried to do a regular project that I thought you as the professor wanted to see. Then when [another student] said he wanted to create a game and it was considered an appropriate project, I knew that's what I was going to do.

These students teamed up and built a fully immersive 3D software model of the ISAT building and populated it with zombies. This student later submitted the game to the Dream it. Code it. Win it. contest. She didn't win, but she did use the game she'd written to show off her skills to potential employers. Not everyone handled the freedom well, however.

Knowing that I didn't have to worry about failing the class since I get to choose my own grade made me procrastinate work for this class on more than one occasion. Not having deadlines meant that I could play video games with my friends at night instead of learning more about coding in JavaScript....

And from another student:

Unfortunately, the style of teaching in the class didn't resonate with me. I feel like I very much need structure in order to succeed. There were points in the beginning of the year that I felt so lost.

A very consistent message from students was that I didn't provide enough "structure." This puzzled me since my syllabi were very detailed and gave pretty clear guidelines for how to spend their time. What I discovered in the interviews and essays was that when students say "structure" what they meant was "tell me what to do so I don't have to figure it out for myself."

Students Paid More Attention to Health and Well-being

When you can't use grades to make students do the work, you have to spend a lot more time getting to know them personally, to find out what makes them tick, to help clear away the obstacles that are standing in the way of their learning. It was this intense listening that helped me realize the dire need for students to pay more attention to their bodies and their hearts. From one student:

I consistently stress myself out to be the perfect student, but I don't enjoy everything I do. I've been working constantly at the expense of my health in hopes it will benefit me some way in the future. My hair has thinned. I haven't been eating healthy.... I think I need to start figuring out what I'm intensely passionate about and put my effort into that.

And from another:

This semester was honestly a little rough for me. I had a lot of personal things going on and combined with school I felt like honestly dropping out. It was during the cell phone project that I decided not to, though. ...during that time I thought long and hard about everything and decided that I had come this far and that I wasn't going to let any of the bullshit stop me.

One of my explicit goals was to help students discover their own innate passion for learning. Doing this required developing a habit of mindfulness. I spent time in the class teaching students to meditate, and creating assignments that forced them to unplug their technology, turn off their cell phones, and just be with themselves for a while.

Sometimes the Motivational Theories Worked

By removing extrinsic motivation (i.e. grades) from the course, it freed students up to learn just for the sake of learning. Some students said things like:

I can't remember the last time I pursued assigned school work with such an attitude.

Or:

I don't remember the last time I had this much fun working on a project for a class... The lack of deadlines or tests to regurgitate information made a much better atmosphere.

This was NOT a majority of the students. More often than not, there was something (internal or external) that prevented them from getting to this level of relaxation and enjoyment. This leads to the next theme.

Students Realized How Much Grades were a Motivational Crutch

A large number of the exit interviews contained a passage that said something like:

The most important lesson I believe I learned from this class, which to me may also be the most important less I learned this semester, is one of two things: I either need to have more structure in my education, or I definitely need to take this opportunity to improve my discipline to follow through with the expectations and goals I set for myself. ... I've spent all semester thinking about the kind of man I want to be, and disciplined and hard-working are pretty high up there...

Students frequently referred to themselves as procrastinators, but in the end they usually went pretty easy on themselves. You could tell from reading their essays that:

• they felt like they had been given a lot of freedom,
• that they had been strongly encouraged to take advantage of it,
• that they knew that they had NOT done so,
• that there was nobody to blame for this but themselves, but
• they found someone else to blame for it anyway

Many seemed to become more aware of the forces that kept them performing in their classes.

They Knew They Didn't "Deserve" an A But Asked for an A Anyway

It was not uncommon to see something like this:

I would like to leave you with this about me. I am not a bad person for choosing an A in this class. I am simply abiding by your policy and that is the grade I want you to report to the registrar. I also do not want you to think I am a dishonest person. It would be a lie for myself to tell you about all the things I have learned in your class besides the history of computers. ... Sure I had plethora of injuries, struggles with my personal life, and questioning of who I am, but that is by no means the only reason I didn't show up. I do not want you to think I am a bad person for not showing up...

For these students, I wanted them to have to make this kind of argument on paper, and face-to-face. The discrepancy between asking for the grade they wanted (usually an A) and feeling that they deserved something lower was uncomfortable. When I first started doing CYOG, this was a relatively small number of students. As time went on though, the number grew. Until...

The Straw that Broke CYOG's Back

I finally had to come to the conclusion that while there were a lot of interesting and beneficial facets to CYOG, it was not serving students well, and I needed to come up with something different. The entire email thread is worth a read, but in a nutshell, I had a student tell me I was "the most intriguing/interesting professor I've ever had" and then tell me he was not coming to class, ever. He was completely honest about it in his exit essay:

I wasted a spot in your class that may have been used by someone who needs it. I wasted your time that you spent designing course work for your students. I abused your policies. I disrespected your hard work and I added negative energy in your life that was unnecessary.

Essentially, he stayed in my class because it allowed him to focus more time on his other classes, and then he used the good grades to successfully compete for an internship. (I feel compelled to divulge that he was a business major.)

His approach was crass and cynically pragmatic, but given his professed goals it was hard not to agree with him that he had made the most sensible choice. When it became clear to me that we are caught in a system where the "sensible" thing is NOT to do the things you'd find most meaningful and enjoyable. At this point, I decided that CYOG was no longer serving students' needs as best it could.

I should be clear that I don't think there's anything wrong with CYOG, per se. I think about it the same way that Churchill thought about democracy, as the worst way to grade students, except for all of the other ways that have been tried. I think it could work in an atmosphere where I was not the only person teaching a class that way. I think if everyone were doing it, our time would be spent very differently and we would accomplish astounding things that we haven't even dreamed of yet.

Summary of What I Learned from Exit Essays and Interviews

I am a HUGE fan of collecting feedback this way. The conversations I had with students ranged far beyond the content of the course, and it really gave me the opportunity to personalize and contextualize the course content for each individual student. It is impossible to sit in all of those meetings, and read all of those essays, and not realize what a profound responsibility you have to work to design the most incredible learning experience you can possibly muster. I feel a deep sense of obligation to my students. It is out of love and respect that I continue to innovate in course delivery and assessment. I am truly grateful to have had the freedom and opportunity to work in the way that feels most authentic to me. And the final part of this section will demonstrate why I feel so fortunate.

Expressions of Gratitude from Students

Here are some examples of students' expression of gratitude for the experience they had in my class. These are the kinds of things that really make your job worthwhile!

A Post-Graduation Thank-you Note

This is from one of my capstone students who took all of my classes and with whom I published a paper based on her capstone work. I met her when she was still in high school. When I met her, she was driven, but anxious to be told she was doing the "right" thing. She got really upset with me around sophomore year when I wouldn't give her direction anymore. She responded by taking charge of her studies, adding a second major (in SMAD), and turning out probably the best capstone I've ever seen.

Morgan,

Giving me permission to take 252 early in college transformed my JMU experience. You made coding accessible to me, because you let me hold the reins to my education. Not everyone appreciates this control because they want to take the easiest route. However, I know it helped me grow and allowed me to discover my passion for UX design. I hope to let others carver their own paths. It is the best way to function as a lifelong learner. I know you'll continue to impact others just as you did for me. We'll be talking.

Best wishes, C., ISAT/SMAD '15

From the "Worst" Student in the Class

Morgan, your passion for teaching and enthusiasm for students is unparalleled. You not only inspired me to rethink how I look at college but the way you carry yourself has helped me mature so much this spring semester. Whenever I brought up something [of only tangential relation to the topic] such as Candide, or the Washington Capitals you were always up beat and were into it. After spending an entire semester with you I know that is your genuine personality and I strive to be like that.

This student was paying his own way through school and stopped attending class midway through the semester. I became worried about him when his roommate related to me that he was skipping his other classes and spending all of his time playing video games. As a result of that, I went to visit him at his house one evening with my TA. He explained to me that up until this point his attitude had been that since he was paying his own way through school, that he’d spend his time however he wanted to, even if that meant skipping classes and drinking too much. That sets up the context for his next comment:

When you came to my house to see how I was doing, that really changed things for me. I still thought the same about programming [he "despised" it] but it made me realize how genuine you were and how much you cared, and it made me realize how much I missed listening to you in class when you give advice about previous and current experiences in your life…. Another huge thank you I have to give you is getting me really pumped up to do my senior thesis project. Before it was a means to an end, but now it is something I am really ready to dive into to make a part of my college experience.

Confessions of an Over-Achiever

The next student was at the opposite end of the spectrum–a chronic overachiever–a quadruple major who routinely took around 26 credit hours per semester. This student only missed my class twice: once to have an emergency root canal, and the other because of an anxiety attack related to a physics exam she had that day. In her end of semester narrative she said:

I have always lived my life according to one saying: You are what you do; therefore, excellence is not an act, but a habit. I work hard because all I want from life is to be respected. And this does not mean that I will always be liked because I do have a habit of going against societal norms and embracing my ideals whether popular or not. But because I act on what I believe and because I am true to those beliefs, I will gain respect in the long run. Furthermore, my hard work has always been reinforced by the grade a professor gives me. But along with this “reward,” I also believe there is a hidden punishment. The grades come with expectations. Before college, I was an average student with many extracurricular activities. Now, I focus the majority of my energy into my academic work and my GPA reflects that. The pressure to maintain that average is almost unbearable, but I remain sane because I am not obsessed about the number, but rather I am obsessed with excellence and potential. Your class has proven to me that I can strive for excellence even without the grade on the line.

In a personal letter she wrote to me after the semester she went on to say:

I feel that my obsession with approval and excellence has become detrimental to my health and self worth because of the emphasis on the grade. Even at the end of this semester my body and mind are in knots in the anticipation of the final judgment that will be passed on me by my professors. And this judgment allots so much power over me.... Your guidance has helped me see, again, the difference between excellence and perfection in grades.

A few semesters later, when this student got her first B ever in a college class, she made a point of coming to me to let me know that she was not upset by it because she felt she had done her best in the class that semester. Perfection was no longer something she struggled with quite as much.

The Last Word

I don't know how else to convey to what degree I take this calling seriously. I was truly inspired by some of my professors as a student. It was out of some profound sense of patience and kindness that I feel like I was able to get through college. I feel it is my duty to work as hard as I can to come up with the most effective learning experience possible for every one of my students. I hope that the above will convince you that I listen intensely to what students have to say, and I'm willing to take big risks to achieve the best outcomes for them.