Posted on by jennifer_fleury@charter.net

A chart showing my grade distribution for the courses that I taught during the 2019-2020 school year are shown below.  

While the overall GPA for the courses is slightly under “target,” I feel that the GPA is at target when you look at the courses individually.

For instance, the overall GPA for the entrepreneurship capstone (EPS 480) was 3.67, which is above the “target” GPA. However, the class was comprised of many high performing students who deserved to receive an A in the course.

On the other hand, the GPA for the math courses were lower, which is expected with math courses at Nichols. The courses that I taught had the following overall GPAs: 1.93 (stats), 2.37 (stats), 2.77 (stats), 3.01 (stats), and 3.06 (MATH 117). While the GPA for two of the courses is lower than desired, the other three are basically on target. This show that the composition of each individual class (because I do the same assignments for different sections of the same class).

Similarly, ITM 202, which most students consider to be a challenging quantitative course , had overall GPAs of 2.87 and 3.13.

Then, the ITM 209 overall GPAs were on target with 2.88, 3.12, and 3.00 for the three sections that I taught.

Information about the courses above:

  • EPS 227 is a course for all students considering the Entrepreneurship Certificate Program. It can be taken instead of MGMT 227.
  • EPS 480 is a required course for all students in the Entrepreneurship Certificate Program.
  • ITM 202 is a course that fulfills the professional development category for students at Nichols.
  • ITM 209 is a required course for all business majors.  
  • MTH 117 is required for the lower performing mathematics students at Nichols College. It is predominately freshman.
  • MTH 215 is a required for all students. It is primarily sophomores.

Blue Evaluations

The Blue Evaluation results of the three credit courses that I taught during the 2019-2020 school year are attached in the subcategories of this section.

Some of the feedback was extremely positive. A sample of the comments (as they were written) are listed below:

  • “She is very patient and understanding – will give you whatever you need in order for you to succeed.” (MATH 117)
  • “I absolutely loved the hyflex model for this course. It was incredibly helpful to see the professor work through problems and be able to ask questions in real–time. The instructor did a great job of uncomplicating the work. I’ve never enjoyed a math class until this one!” (MATH 117)
  • “Kept class discussions to get everyone involved” (ITM 209)
  • “She was very helpful in responses to emails on any questions that I had.” (ITM 209)
  • “Professor Fleury gave us review games, and sessions if we needed help. She had her office hours opened so we could go to her whenever we needed” (MATH 215)
  • “Professor Fleury created an engaging and supportive learning environment for me by demonstrating important steps in a timely manner for all students to understand and ask questions.” (ITM 202)
  • “engaging teacher most of the time, very friendly which helps” (ITM 202)
  • “I would always email her and should would always get back to me in a timely manner” (ITM 202)

While my overall evaluation comments for all my classes were positive, probably collectively the most positive they have ever been, everyone was not happy. For instance, a couple of students said:

  • “The instructor talked, a lot. She was nice and respectful and attended class regularly but the class wasn’t engaging unless we were put in groups. There were numerous moments of awkward silences whether it was the professor thinking or waiting for the class to participate. I didn’t think it was a good learning environment. Group projects and presentations were the only exciting thing about the course with this instructor.” (ITM 209)
    • My response: I admit that I don’t enjoy lecturing for long periods of time, and I personally don’t feel that it is the most effective way to teach and learn. As the student mentioned, while I give them the background information that they need, I give a lot of assignments where students work collaboratively, and I conference with each group.
  • “I don’t like the teaching style, asks too many questions and waits for the class to answer them.” (MATH 215)
    • Although I listed this as a criticism, I didn’t entirely take this as a criticism because, for the most part, this is what teachers should do.

In summary, students are receptive and satisfied with my delivery. However, some students view the same activities and examples through a negative lens. While I always try to make the experience as worthwhile as possible for all students, I do recognize that it is unlikely that I will achieve total satisfaction.

Blue Evaluations

Beyond Blue

Although I am overall pleased with the feedback from the blue evaluations, I often feel that the blue evaluations do not properly encapsulate the effectiveness of of my teaching because all students are not required to complete the evaluations.

I recognize that many instructors secure a higher completion rate when they entice students to complete the evaluations by awarding extra points. However, I am opposed to rewarding students for completing a course evaluation so I do not do it. As a result, I often feel like the blue forms measure the very happy and/or conscientious student, or the student who is unhappy; the average students who do not see the value of completing the evaluation, or simply forget to complete the survey, are not represented. Ideally, I would like to see a requirement that all students complete the evaluation.

However, students do often take the time to personally email me, thanking me for the course. Some of the emails are included below.

Going Online

It seems impossible to write a reflection on teaching during the 2019-2020 school year without mentioning the move to synchronous online Zoom teaching that occurred during the Spring 2020 semester due to the COVID pandemic.

Luckily, the transition to online teaching was not much of a struggle for me because I am comfortable with technology, and I have been teaching online for more than 10 years.

For the math classes specifically, I used the whiteboard app on a tablet to work through all the problems. This seemed to be effective. My math students also REALLY appreciated that the Zoom technology allowed me to record the courses because they were able to review the videos from class if they had difficulty with a homework problem. (They told me that this was very helpful.)

COVID did really present obstacles for my EPS 480 students, who are required to complete an internship to fulfill the requirements of the class. Luckily, I was able to work individually with each student so that ALL students were able to complete the internship remotely.

Some of the comments from my blue evaluations (as they were written) were:

  • “Mrs. Fleury created a very engaging learing eviermonet on the zoom meeting and recroding them for students that could not make it. This was very helfull with the topics on hand.” (ITM 209)
  • “Reviewed all our questions and did problems together on the whiteboard tablet.” (MATH 117)
  • “She found great speakers in different fields, with different types of stories of how the started and their journey to give us more ideas. Helped us during the covid with our internships.” (EPS 480)
  • “Her videos at the beginning of each week / module were very helpful to fully explain the assignments due for that week and weeks to come.” (ITM 202)