Mid-Semester Assessment

Intended Audience

WSU faculty interested in receiving student feedback during the semester.

Overview

Find out what is working (and maybe in need of a tweak) from the students in your classroom.

Have you ever wanted feedback about how your class is going and what students are learning before the end of the semester? A Mid-Semester Assessment gives you the opportunity to receive feedback on students’ learning experiences during the middle of the course, when there is still time for adjustments.

About the Process

Mid-Semester Assessments are a great way to find out directly from the students just what is on their minds. The process begins when the faculty member completes the Mid-Semester Assessment Sign-Up Form. faculty member selects some topics for feedback (usually about 3) and questions are build around these topics to ask the students. The topics can be whatever the faculty member desires and often include items like "How is the textbook working?", "Are the labs engaging and helpful?", or "Do the assignments and worksheets support the learning of the topic?" (Download a copy of Planning for a Mid-Semester Assessment.) A facilitator visits the class (the faculty member leaves the room) and divides the class into working groups. Each group is presented with one topic to discuss and determine what is working, what is not working, and where possible improvements can be made related to their assigned topic. Once all group discussions are complete, comments from each group are discussed with the entire class to determine consensus on the feedback. Final comments are organized and presented to the faculty in a way that guarantees student anonymity. The faculty is then free to accept and act upon any of the comments as seen fit. (Students are told up front by the facilitator that there are no guarantees that comments will be acted upon during the current term.)

The Mid-Semester Assessment Process

Week	Activity
3	Mid-Semester Assessment training held. Come to the training and get answers to all of your questions. At the end of the session, you should be able to: select the topics you would like feedback on, create meaningful questions to solicit student feedback, and conduct a Mid-Semester Assessment for a peer.
4	TLT emails all trained faculty to solicit whom is interested in doing Mid-Semester Assessments for the current term.
5 & 6	All requests for Mid-Semester Assessments are scheduled and the schedule is distributed to the participants. (If you are interested in scheduling your own assessment, complete the Mid-Semester Assessment Sign-Up Form.)
7	One-on-one consultations held between faculty participants and TLT. By the end of this meeting, topics for feedback are defined. (Download a copy of Planning for a Mid-Semester Assessment.)
8	Assessments conducted by facilitators in the classroom.
9 & 10	Feedback from students is formalized and presented to the faculty member. A meeting is scheduled with TLT to discuss possible implementation of change as a result of the assessment.

Student feedback is given only to the faculty. The faculty is then free to share the feedback with others as seen appropriate.

Acting as a Facilitator for Peers

Once your have completed the training and have had your first Mid-Semester Assessment, you are expected to perform assessments for peers in upcoming semesters. There is no expectation of faculty performing assessments for peers during the term of their first Mid-Semester Assessment. However, faculty that have completed an assessment are expected to facilitate assessments for their peers any term they themselves are having a Mid-Semester Assessment done.

The first time a faculty acts as a facilitator, it may be in the role of shadowing a more experienced facilitator.

Resources

The following resources are made available to the faculty member during the assessment process. The faculty is free to use any or all of these items as part of the PDP/PDR.

• Mid-Semester Assessment Sign-Up Form
• Planning for a Mid-Semester Assessment

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