Page and the Stage Feedback 2010-11

NOTE: This page reproduces the questions I asked via an anonymous online questionnaire at the end of the course. Because of a computer server error, some unknown number of responses were lost. All those I have are reproduced below; some, at least, will have been resubmitted after I let everyone know about the server problem.

In each case I identify one learning strategy that folks who had been engaged in the class will recognize; if you weren't enrolled and want to know more, please go to the course Web page for the 2011-12 version.



In this course I employed a number of learning strategies that I think are not especially conventional. I would very much appreciate comments on any of them, especially dealing with whether they helped you learn, or made your learning more difficult, and why. (I'm much less interested in whether they were enjoyable; I hope they were, but my bottom line is about learning.)

Making the writing of students a central focus of the course rather than primarily a means of evaluation:

Written prompts to explain and structure what we'll be doing in and between classes: Focusing classroom sessions on student discussion and input: Using Moodle Forums and wikis as a way of sharing and discussing information and ideas: Creating a course Web site to organize work and make information available: Requiring a minimum number of postings on reading a script and seeing a production: Using rounds structured by the use of 3X5 cards to promote discussion: Counting work as "done" rather than evaluating assignments and averaging them toward a grade: Requiring participation in a Task Force and an Editorial Team: Writing and research assignments whose audience is the other members of the class: Conducting discussions of scripts and plays through the online Forum: Tracking tasks completed to attain a minimum mark: Counting a weekly learning journal entry as a task completed: Strategies I haven't thought to ask about here that helped you to learn: Here are three slightly more general questions:

The focus of the course was on learning from experience of theatre productions. Would you say this was a valuable way to organize a course, or not? Why?

This is a course in literature, though its approach to texts is not conventional. To what extent do you think it helped you understand literature (especially, of course, plays) better? If you heard I were offering this course again, and you knew someone thinking about enrolling, what would you tell her?
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