ZOOL 304

Course Critique

This page is your invitation to provide feedback about this course.  Send responses to dgking@siu.edu, or drop off a note in the Zoology office.

Please consider what you expect from your education.  Then evaluate the materials and style of this course.  Let us know how well this course works for you.  Help us make this a better course for future students.

The following are major considerations for course planning.

• Pacing.  Does the course try to cover too much too fast?  (Or too little too slowly?)
  • Do you appreciate a quick survey of the breadth of the subject (i.e., zipping through an entire textbook).
  • Would you rather concentrate on a smaller core of essential concepts, and work with those until they are mastered?  (This might involve covering only five or six chapters in depth.)
  • Would you prefer more intense engagement, in depth as well as breadth?
     
• Coverage.  Were specific topics covered adequately?
  • Which topics did you find most interesting / illuminating / surprising?
  • Which were most helpful in other areas of biology?
  • Which topics deserve greater coverage?
  • Which topics should get less attention?
     
• Laboratory.  ZOOL 304 currently does not have a laboratory.  Should this be a 4 credit course with an extra period (2 - 4 hours per week) for exercises in modelling evolution, mathematical analysis, interpretation of examples, extended explanation, viewing videos, question-and-answer sessions, discussion, etc.?  (If yes, please indicate the format you would like to experience.)
   
• Classroom activities.  Do you find classroom attendance helpful?  Would your appreciation of the subject or motivation be enhanced by more or by less of the following?  
  • Presentations by the instructor?
  • Discussion, in which students explore and challenge their understanding?
    • Do you participate in discussion?  If not, why not?
  • Video presentations?
  • Quizzes?
  • Homework?
  • Other?
     
• Website.  Do you visit the course website for information and assistance as well as for assignments?  If so, which features do find helpful?
  • Class notes?
  • Links to outside information?
  • Study questions?
     
• Textbook.  Did the textbook contribute to your understanding and appreciation of evolutioary biology?  
  • Which topics or chapters were most helpful / interesting / illuminating?
  • Stearns & Hoekstra is one of the thinnest texts on the market.  Would you have preferred a heavier tome, one with more extensive detail and explanation?  Or do you appreciate our text's concise summary presentations?
     
• Grading.  
  • Is the basis for grading well-explained?  Do you know where you stand and what you need to do?
  • Is investment of effort rewarded by improved grade?  (If not, why not?)
  • Is there an appropriate correspondence between your grade and your understanding?
  • Is the grade scale too hard or too lenient?
     
• Other concerns.  If you were to take this course again, what would you wish to see changed (modified, enhanced or eliminated)?

Any feedback would be appreciated.  
By e-mail, send to dgking@siu.edu.  Deliver written comments to the Zoology office, Rm. 351 in Life Science II.

304 index page

Comments and questions: dgking@siu.edu
Department of Zoology e-mail: zoology@zoology.siu.edu
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