Revising a Course

Course revisions may be prompted by shifts in delivery methods, updates to materials, changes in student demographics, or feedback from previous students. Recognizing these factors helps educators adapt their courses to better meet evolving needs. Understanding why a change is necessary is key to determining what needs to be revised and ensuring that updates are both relevant and effective.

Here are some common reasons a course might require revision:

• The course was last taught several semesters ago.
• The course has transitioned from in-person to hybrid format.
• The course has transitioned from in-person to online delivery.
• Required course materials have changed.
• The student population has shifted (e.g. the course is now for first-year students or prerequisites have been added).
• You are revising the course based on student feedback.
• You want to incorporate more interactive or engaging elements, such as discussions, multimedia, or active learning strategies.

Once you’ve identified the need for a revision, gathering and analyzing student feedback is an important next step. Whether through surveys, discussions, or reflections, this feedback offers valuable insights into what can be improved in your course, from content to teaching methods or assessments. Incorporating student feedback strengthens your course and shows a commitment to evolving the learning experience based on student needs and preferences. This fosters a more engaging and collaborative learning environment.

When should you ask for feedback?

Collecting student feedback at various points during a course can provide you with valuable insights to enhance the learning experience. Here’s a breakdown of when you might ask for feedback, highlighting the strategic importance of each timing:

Preliminary Feedback

• Timing: At the beginning of the course.
• Purpose: To gather initial impressions and expectations. This can include students' prior knowledge, concerns about the course content, and their personal learning objectives.
• Benefits: Adjusting the course pace and content early on to better suit the cohort’s needs, potentially increasing engagement and satisfaction.

Post-Module Feedback

• Timing: After completing specific modules or major topics within the course. 
• Purpose: To assess the effectiveness of individual modules or specific content areas and activities.
• Benefits: This targeted feedback allows for timely adjustments to teaching methods or materials that students may find confusing or lacking. It can also validate what is working well.

Mid-Course Feedback

• Timing: Approximately halfway through the course.
• Purpose: To check in on overall course satisfaction and effectiveness up to that point.
• Benefits: Mid-course feedback is crucial for making more substantial changes that might be necessary. This could involve revising future modules based on the difficulties students have faced in the earlier parts of the course.

End-of-Course Feedback 

• Timing: At the end of the course.
• Purpose: To reflect on the whole course, covering all aspects from content and delivery to assessments and resource availability.
• Benefits: This feedback isn't always comprehensive, as students may forget or overlook aspects from earlier in the course. However, it can still provide a broad overview of what occurred and is valuable for guiding significant updates each semester or year.

Implement a feedback schedule

Implementing a structured schedule in advance for collecting feedback ensures you have multiple opportunities to enhance the course. It helps create a responsive learning environment where students feel their concerns and suggestions are valued and acted upon in real time. Additionally, this approach can significantly improve the course design process, making it more agile and adapted to the needs of each student cohort. 

What questions should you ask? 

When revising a course, it's crucial to ask the right questions to gather meaningful student feedback. 

Open-ended questions, especially those starting with "how" and "what," encourage detailed and constructive student feedback. For example, asking "What additional resources would enhance your learning?" or "How could assignments better support your understanding?" often uncovers insights that more direct questions may miss.

Structured questionnaires complement open-ended questions by quantifying student satisfaction and identifying trends. Using Likert scales, where students rate their agreement from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree," provides a quick way for instructors to spot consensus on what’s working and what needs improvement.

Using both open-ended questions and structured questionnaires gives a comprehensive understanding of student experiences and perceptions. Open-ended questions provide detailed insights, while structured questionnaires cover many topics. This combination helps you gather useful feedback that you can use to improve the course’s effectiveness and relevance.

Feedback Tools

This depends on your goals, types of questions you wish to use, privacy needs, class size, available resources, and personal preferences.

• You can ask for feedback during office hours (in-person, Zoom, or Slack)
• You can gather feedback through an exit ticket, a brief activity completed at the end of class that gauges student learning and provides targeted feedback. Regularly collecting and acting on exit tickets fosters open communication, enhancing student engagement, learning, and a sense of belonging. 
• Canvas Survey enables the blending of different types of questions and anonymity
• Google Forms enable a variety of types of questions and customizations
• QuestionPro is a free tool for creating surveys

Consider the Feedback

Effectively applying feedback is a crucial step in the course revision process. Start by analyzing the feedback to identify common themes and patterns, such as constructive criticisms or areas where students provided detailed responses. Prioritize the feedback by distinguishing between what can be addressed immediately and what may require long-term changes, considering both the impact of potential revisions and available resources. Incorporating the feedback may involve updating materials, changing assessment methods, or adjusting the course structure. Engage with colleagues or educational specialists to ensure the revisions enhance the course. Finally, communicate back to students how their feedback has been used, fostering trust and encouraging ongoing engagement.

Feedback isn't limited to student perceptions; it also comes from analyzing assessment results. Look for patterns in course grades, especially after changes in teaching approaches or course materials. A drop or improvement in grades can indicate areas that may need revision. By examining this data, you can uncover insights that guide course adjustments and improve student outcomes.

Note: When gathering feedback, it's important to distinguish between evaluating the course and assessing student knowledge. Feedback on content, pace, structure, and teaching methods provides insights into the effectiveness of your course and where improvements might be needed. In contrast, assessing students' knowledge focuses on measuring their understanding and mastery of the material. Both are valuable but serve different purposes.

Identifying potential changes and making revisions to course content involves a systematic approach to editing various components of the course structure.

Edit current course content

Begin by reviewing the existing course materials comprehensively. Look for outdated information, areas lacking clarity, or content that could benefit from recent developments in the subject area. This review should encompass all materials to ensure consistency and relevance. Read our Inheriting a Course Pathway for more information on editing course content including:

• Arranging content
• Adding and editing content
• Verifying due dates
• Updating your syllabus

Running accessibility checks is an essential final step in the course revision process to ensure that all students, regardless of their abilities, can access and benefit from the course content. Arizona State University provides tools like Ally and the Canvas accessibility checker to facilitate this process.

Ally

Ally is an integrated tool in many learning management systems that automatically checks for accessibility issues within course content. It provides feedback not just on what issues may exist, but also gives detailed guidance on how to fix them. For instance, it can identify images that lack alternative text, documents that are not screen reader friendly, or multimedia content without captions. Ally then offers step-by-step instructions to rectify these issues, helping to ensure that all learning materials meet accessibility standards.

Canvas Accessibility Checker

Canvas also includes a built-in accessibility checker that is particularly useful for reviewing content directly within the rich content editor. This tool scans the course materials that you edit or create in Canvas, such as pages, assignment instructions, and discussion posts. It highlights issues like poor color contrast, missing headers for structured content, and lack of descriptive links. The Canvas checker is user-friendly, providing real-time feedback and suggestions for corrections to enhance accessibility.

Comprehensive Accessibility Review

It’s important to conduct a thorough accessibility check using both tools:

• In the Rich Content Editor: As you finalize each piece of content in Canvas, use the Canvas accessibility checker to ensure that any text, images, tables, or other elements you’ve added or modified are compliant.
• Across the Course: Ally should be used to scan the entire course to capture a broader range of accessibility issues, including those in uploaded files like PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, and other resources.

These tools highlight necessary improvements and explain their importance, deepening your understanding of accessibility principles. Implementing these changes enhances course usability, ensuring inclusivity and accessibility for all students. This proactive approach goes beyond compliance, enriching the learning experience for everyone.

Once your course is set up the way you want, it's time for a final check to ensure it’s accessible, easy to navigate, and matches your intended design. Canvas provides a "Student View" feature that lets you experience your course exactly as your students will. Use Student View to navigate through the course, test pages, submit assignments, participate in discussions, and take quizzes. This allows you to verify that everything functions correctly from a student’s perspective. 

After completing this final check and confirming everything looks as planned, you’re ready to start teaching!