Bruin Brief 2021-10-08: Diving into student evals
- Paul Macey
This week the Bruin Brief is written by a guest editor, Brenda Yeung, Policy Analyst in Academic Affairs.
Sometimes when I’ve lectured in the past, I’ve always wondered if what I’m saying and teaching is getting across to students and if they are engaged. The sea of blank stares from students back at me do not give me reassurance that I’m doing a good job of getting through to them. HOWEVER, data on the contrary shows otherwise!
In 2020 out of 68 responses to the survey, more than 75% (77.6% to be exact) of undergraduate nursing students report they “often” or “very often” have had opportunities for active participation in lecture and discussion in classes. That’s great ESPECIALLY considering most faculty are online teaching via zoom and still able to provide these opportunities to connect with students to keep them engaged!
Similarly, you never know which students you will inspire to become more enthusiastic about the subject you are teaching. Well, actually, with data we get an idea!
In 2020 out of 68 responses to the survey, more than 50% (60.3% to be exact) of undergraduate nursing students report they “often” or “very often” have an instructor increase their enthusiasm for the subject.
Faculty in School of Nursing are not only teaching the content and engaging students, but rather inspiring them to dive deeper into the content and become enthusiastic about the subject itself! That’s fantastic!
Where is this data coming from?
Student Affairs Information and Research Office (SAIRO) is the assessment office within UCLA’s Student Affairs organization and where this data is coming from. Each year this office sends out multiple surveys to students to get an idea of how their experience at UCLA has been. The above questions are just two of the many questions asked from the UCUES (University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey). More information about SAIRO can be found here: https://sairo.ucla.edu/
Why does this matter?
The sudden pivot to online teaching and need to remotely and creatively engage our students in the new online “classroom” world has been challenging. We sometimes may doubt the impact we have made on our students. The numbers above prove that the School of Nursing is doing well at its mission of educating the next generation of outstanding nurses.
As we start the new 2021-2022 academic year, we at the Academic Affairs Office want to virtually give all faculty and staff a pat on the back and a round of applause for their amazing efforts during this past difficult 2020 pandemic year.
Even with all the teaching challenges we have faced, we have still been able to engage and connect with our students, so BRAVO everyone!
GOOOOOOOOO BRUINS, FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!!!!!
Brenda Yeung MSN, OCN, CMSRN, CBCN
Project Policy Analyst
Office of Academic Affairs
UCLA School of Nursing