I actively look for feedback and constructive criticism from students, friends and colleagues. I also strive to get continuous feedback during my classes from my students verbally and through classroom assessment techniques such as one-minute papers. If possible, I try to then adjust my emphasis accordingly, tailoring the class to the specific set of students, in the same way as I do this with business professionals.
My evaluation as a Teaching Assistant of Dr. Juan-Carlos Molleda (PR Department Chair at University of Florida) in the core PUR 3801 “Public Relations Strategy” class has been excellent both in presenting knowledge and inspiring critical thinking in the students.
As a professional lecturer and coach to public officials and senior administrators of the German state of Saxony have been good to excellent and my courses have been highly recommended to be taken by others:
“Media Training”: Rated 1,5 (A-), 100% recommended to others. Positive: Broad knowledge of media landscape, provided very good background information on the topic. Negative: Used too many English terms.
“Does a major’s office require a Facebook page? Strategic use of new media”: Rated 2,5 (B-), 80% recommended to others. Positive: Questions were directly answered, practical relevance, good communication, easily understandable even for “layman”. Negative: Not enough emphasis on the communal problems, not enough time for individual problems. Note: This was perhaps the hardest lecture I ever gave. All participants were highly suspicious about social media in general and had been send to the seminar by their superiors against their will. Thus, the initial attitude was highly hostile, but I was able to turn it around and made it relevant to them.
Even though I would really like to have detailed evaluations of my classes in the exchange program, Tec de Monterrey unfortunately insists on conducting these themselves and did not provide us with detailed, quantified data. However, I have been told that my classes were overall rated “good” to “very good”; that most students found them rewarding and helpful. Several students have expressed, “that they wished, there would be more classes like Mr. Fessmann’s at university”. Many of them keep in touch, even though I cannot attend the various events that they invite me to in Mexico. Two of the students asked me to write them a reference for applying to programs.
The overall success of my students on tests also tends to strengthen my conviction that in the main I am achieving my teaching goals in creating interest, insight and proficiency in the course topics. Class grades hereby tend to be spaced out nicely along a bell curve, with a concentration on the very top end (with max scores) and small concentration around the C. In spite of the difficulty, all of my students so far have passed the classes, even though some needed to use every extra credit opportunity that I offered. I attribute this to making expectations so clear in the beginning and then working hard with the students that need extra attention to help them succeed without lowering my standards.
fessmann 