A previous installment of Teaching with Tech Tips focused on end-of-semester assessment from the perspective of students. This time around we'll focus on strategies faculty members have used to look back on their semesters and plan ahead for future courses. You may also be interested in our previous end-of-year reflection prompts, tips on ways for students to reflect on their learning, or our sample end-of-semester feedback survey. And the May 2022 Faculty Development Forum on Equity in Teaching is a great upcoming opportunity to hear from your colleagues across the university.

Self-Reflection on Your Terms

End-of-semester feedback surveys can contain some helpful perspectives from students, but at times they can be exhausting to sift through, especially when we encounter negative or critical responses, or when we think too much about the way this type of feedback may be perceived when being considered for promotion. Some instructors may also feel like a university or department's approach to soliciting and measuring student feedback is beyond their control in these evaluation contexts.

May instructors have found strategies for self-reflection that work for them by:

Soliciting and documenting feedback over the course of the semester via one-on-one meetings, anonymous feedback (in-person via index cards or via Canvas through anonymous surveys), or by pairing required student evaluation surveys with customized questions aligned with instructor priorities (feedback on favorite or least-favorite readings, assignments, or course modules, for instance)
Identifying particular components of future courses that seem in particular need of revision. For example, some instructors may choose to focus on increased use of open educational resources, alternate approaches to assessment and grading like unessays, new strategies for scaffolding assignments, improving regular and substantive interactions, increased opportunities for collaborative learning and shared authority models. Connecting particular needs to particular phrases common to these areas of course development can help you when researching these topics for best practices.
Checking in with an instructional designer for a quick meeting at the end of the semester can be a great way to create space for a semester debrief and an opportunity to set future pedagogical priorities. Putting that time on the calendar can ensure that some self-reflection will happen before the semester is too far into the rearview mirror.

Make Time for Self-Reflection

At the end of the semester, it can be tempting to simply turn off the computer once grades are submitted and walk away. Taking time to decompress and rest between semesters should be a priority. But before you hit the beach or the pool, you may want to take a few minutes to document reflections on a just-completed course while those experiences are still fresh in your mind.

Oakland University's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning has created a guide to "Reflective Practice in Teaching"
An emphasis on reflective practice and refining approaches to teaching over time can go a long way towards combating the myth of the "natural teacher"
Bullet journals, daily reflections, and synthesizing feedback from student evaluations are some specific approaches teachers have taken to adopt reflective practices over time

Putting Things in Perspective

It can be helpful to take a step back and place a particular course into some larger contexts: your own teaching history, the semester experience at SSU, the challenging conditions many teachers and students are facing nationally and internationally at this point in time.

At the end of last spring, The Chronicle of Higher Ed asked its readers what "innovations" required by pivots to pandemic teaching seemed worth keeping

More recently, the Chronicle checked in with faculty members on the topic of student engagement strategies during these challenging times EDUCAUSE recently published its 2022 "Horizon Report" on Teaching and Learning

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