Student Survey Responses - Unofficial Report

Term: Spring 2006
Survey: 21
Subject: INTA 6003 S - Empirical Research Meth
CRN: 23990
Class Size: 13
Instructor: Dion, Michelle Lynn

report run @05/12/2006 03:00 PM

1. Course Seemed Well Planned And Organized
I Know We Didn''T Cover The Planned Material For All The Classes, But I Think This Was More Because Of Students And Questions Than Any Planning Problem.
I Really Learned How To Disect A Quantitative Study/Paper - I Can Synthesize Now Within 15 Minutes What Would Have Taken Me An Hour To Get Through.
It Was Well Organized, But I Felt Like We Jumped Into Quantitative Analysis With Very Little Transition Time. Perhaps Starting With Quant. And Ending W/ Qualitative Would Be Better.
One Of The Things I Appreciated Most About This Class Was The Way In Which The Research Project Was Split Up In Different Sections Due At Different Times.
The Course Was Very Well Laid-Out, And With One Exception, All The Assignments And Readings Were Very Clearly Stated On The Syllabus.

2. Good Job Covering Course Objectives/Content
Dr. Dion Did Great With The Time Allowed. It Was Entirely Too Much Material To Absorb Once A Week.
I Think The Research Paper Was A Useful Tool To Help Us Really Understand The Principles Of Research. I Was Just A Little Frustrated With The Beginning Of The Class, Because It Didn''T Seem Applicab
Though, Perhaps As A Personal Preference, I Think We Could Have Done Less Work With Statistical Formulas And Focused More On Actual Methods (Eg. Time-Series Analyses, Etc.)

3. Explained Complex Material Clearly
At Times It Was Difficult To Separate What Some Students Already Knew And What Was Hard For Us To Understand For The First Time. Sometimes The Material Was So Hard To Keep Up With, That I Didn''T
Attention To Different Styles Of Learning And The Availability Of Alternative Sources (Like Other Textbooks) Was Very Useful.
Dr. Dion Made Sure She Knew How Each Of Us Learned And Processed Things. She Tried A Few Different Methods To Get The Point Across So Everyone Had A Fair Shot At Digesting The New Concepts!
Sometimes I Think I Had A Lot Of Trouble Understanding Her Explanations. It Wasn''T Her Fault; The Material''S Complicated & Takes A Lot Of Reading, Listening & Thinking Before It Really Sinks In.

4. Was Approachable And Willing To Assist
Dr. Dion Was Always Available When I Needed Her Help, Whether It Be Through Office Hours Or Aswering Posts On Webct.
Dr. Dion Was Very Accessible And Helpful During Office Hours And Willing To Take Extra Appointments
Even Though I Have A Horrible Schedule, Dr. Dion Was Very Approachable And Willing To Help Me Out!
I Always Asked A Lot Of Questions In Class, And Dr. Dion Was Always Very Patient With Me.
It Was Very Easy To Ask For Extra Help Or Simply Drop By At Office Hours, And Very Useful For A Class Like This.
She Always Posted Office Hour Changes, Reminded Us To Come See Her. I Found Her Very Intimidating Initially For A Lack Of Positive Feedback, So I Was Hesitant To Go See Her At First.
She Went Above Her Call Of Duty. She Was Very Flexible With Her Times And Very Often Encouraged Students To See Her.
Unfortunately It Seemed Like By The Time I Could Even Formulate My Questions It Was Too Late To Even Ask, But She Definitely Made Herself Available And Was Very Nice About Helping.

5. Encouraged Students To Consult With Him/Her
See Last Question.
She Wanted Us To Come See Her If We Had Any Problems And Always Told Us When She Would Be Available!
When I Was Having Problems With My Analysis, She Went Out Of Her Way To Help Me. I Very Much Appreciated That.

6. Class Attendance Important In Promoting Learning Of Material
Generally Students Who Come To Class Are More Serious, So That''S Why They May Get Better Grades. Coming To Class Definately Did Lessen The Amount Of Preperation And Studying Outside Of The Classroo
I Don''T Know If I Would Have Understood Anything If I Never Went To Class.
I Missed A Couple Of Classes For Medical Reasons, So I Missed Some Crucial Material...
Vital. Missing One Class Made A Huge Difference
Without Dr. Dion, We All Wouldhave Been Lost. Talking Before Class, It Was Apparent That We Had The Info- But Needed Her To Translate It. Her Examples Were Usually Right Up My Alley And Clarified T

7. Number Of Course Assignments Was Appropriate.
Enough To Keep Us Busy, And Keep Us On Track. Having A Major Chunk Of Our Paper Due Right After Easter Was Ill Timed And Very Difficult For Me- But Many Of The Hw''S Were Exactly What I Needed To H
I Feel Like Fewer Homeworks Would Be Appropriate. I Haven''T Had Homework Since High School...
I Think We Could Have Done Without The Last Homework, Or At Least Have It Due Earlier Than It Was This Semester.
Sometimes It Was A Little Frustrating Because Homework Assignments And Project Assignments Would Fall In Very Close To Each Other, But The Homeworks Were Helpful To The Project.
The Homework And Project Assignments Were Very Relevant And Well-Planned. I Do Think, However, That The Amount Of Work Required Within Each Assignment Could Have Been Reduced
The Homework And Project Sections Were Very Well Spaced.
The Homeworks Did A Good Job Of Preparing Us For The Different Aspects Of The Research Project. I Thought That Was Well Planned.
The Papers Assigned Were Very Helpful To The Overall Research Project. The Homework Assignments Were Time Consuming And Difficult And Didn''T Have As Much Reward As Far As Understanding The Mater

8. Exams Covered Course Content/Objectives
I Did The Readings For The Class, And Still Got Less Than Stellar Grades On Them Just Because I Never Could Figure Out What Would Be Pertinent. But Then, I Don''T They Were The Main Focus.
It Felt Like Quizzes Were Spaced Oddly Through The Semeser.
The Quizzes Were Enough To Catch People Not Doing The Readings.. Which Is Hwat They Were Designed To Do I Believe.
While Nobody Likes Quizzes, It''S Probably A Good Way To Make Sure We Actually Read The Statistics Book Without Making Us Stress Out About Understanding Absolutely Everything For A Final Exam.

9. Exams And Quizzes Were Of Appropriate Difficulty.
Sometimes They Were Sort Of Hard, But I Don''T Think They Were That Bad.
The Quizzes Need To Be More Frequent In Order To Keep Students Up To Speed. Many Got Away W/O Doing The Readings And Would Subsequently Sit On Their Laptops And Avoid Eyecontact. It Made The In-Clas

10. The Instructor Was An Effective Teacher
Although I Do Not Enjoy Statistics, I Did Enjoy Having Dr. Dion As A Teacher. She Made This Methods Course A Bit More Fun And Easier To Understand For Those Of Us Who Don''T Enjoy Stats!
Dr. Dion Was Very Motivated To Keep Us Interested And Learning. The Material Is Very Dense And Boring, And I Think She Did A Great Job Of Making It As Approachable As Possible.
I Can''T Imagine Anyone Doing A Better Job Than Her. The Course Itself Is A Difficult Subject, And While It Was Sometimes Frustrating, It Was Certainly Not Because Of The Professor.
If The Semester Were Longer, Or The Stuff Were Split Into To Classes I Would Have Retained Everything. I Think Given The Copious Amounts Of Info And The Short, Infrequent Timespand For Meeting, She
She Was Great This Semester And I Can Clearly See That She Will Continue To Improve As A Professor. (And That''S Not Implying That She Wasn''T Effective.. Don''T Get Me Wrong).

Student Comments about the Class or Instructor

I hate math yet I really enjoyed this class. Dr. Dion was very approachable with any questions I had and always tried her hardest to make Methods interesting. One thing I would suggest is introducing the regression part of the material earlier in the course, especially those parts of the regression that will be used in developing a final model. This would give students more time to better incorporate these into the final paper. Overall though, she did an awesome job. It was an enjoyable class and she was an enjoyable teacher. And, most importantly, I learned things that I thought I would never be able to grasp. She gets an A++!

Although this course was a bit dense between the project and the theory, I feel that it was very well handled and that I have gained a great deal from taking it -- including a better understanding of techniques I had used by rote beforehand. Breaking the project up into sections is an excellent way of making sure people are on the right track before finding out they''re entangled in a horrible mess in the last few weeks of the class. The class did a very good job of covering different sources of data and different methods of analysis, some of which I had not encountered in previous classes (ie, surveys), although at times it felt that some of the different methods were broken up over several classes and that made them a bit harder to absorb. Chi-squared tests, for instance, didn''t feel as well related as regressions and pearson coefficients. Overall, this was a well taught and enjoyable class, despite the necessary lecture-style format. Thank you for a good semester.

Although there''s no good way of checking this, I found it very distracting when those students using their laptops used it for non-class related things. If there were some way to penalize/prevent students from distracting others, I would feel more like I was getting a quality education. It''s difficult to feel taht way when some dont read and don''t participate and use instant messenger. i''m sure i''m not alone in this sentiment.

Being a first semester graduate student, I have been very thankful to have Dr. Dion as my professor. She goes beyond the call of duty and is willing to help everyone. This greatly increased my confidence in my own ability and strengths, which is something you question a lot in your first semester. I was very nervous about this class when I started because I had not taken math since my first year of undergrad, and I''ve never been a ''number'' person, but this classes ended up being my favorite of all my classes, and I think it is largely due to Dr. Dion''s personality, effort, and patience! The material is definitely difficult but Dr. Dion does a fantastic job of presenting it and making it ''useable'', I feel like I''ve really learned a lot in this class, and it is important and useful to what I''d like to do in the future. I thought the book we used was fine, also I never used the SPSS companion manual, but it would have been good to use SPSS more in class with Dr. Dion.

I really appreciated you always answering my (many, many) questions with a smile, and you somehow made having to spend three hours in one classroom teaching a potentially boring subject very enjoyable. I''d like to confirm, also, that the only people who really had trouble with things were those who didn''t come to class or tried to do their homework/projects the last minute and ended up relying on the rest of us for directions/answers. I found the small book particularly helpful in explaining regression concepts.

The class structure worked well (the qualitative before quantitative was good). Your lame jokes were appreciated (especially that thing you did with your arms that will haunt my dreams for years to come). I felt the class was well organized. Overall, I enjoyed the class. Thanks for a great semester.

Dr. Dion was my favorite teacher this semester :)

Dr. Dion is a great professor. She is easy to approach and great with the students. I do believe that there should be more work done in class using the software, SPSS, since the major project is mainly using that software.

I had a problem with the initial stages of the project. In hindsight, I understand the progression and logic behind assigning the paper as it was done. However, in choosing a topic, I wish I had a better understanding of regression and its usefullness to answer a particular research question before choosing that question. In the end I found the class very usefull and learned alot.

Thank you for being such an understanding professor! I suppose that''s not constructive, but I think while the course matter wasn''t exactly my favorite ever, you made it tolerable.

Thanks for the experience...please include more SPSS for the next class.

 

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