Drawing on Experience: an holistic approach to student evaluation of courses

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Abstract
Many traditional methods of course evaluation are fragmentary, seeking feedback on particular dimensions of teaching or courses. This paper reports on a trial of an innovative holistic approach, which allows students to express more global feelings about their course experience. Students from years 2–6 in an architecture degree course were asked, as part of an evaluation of their course, to pictorially represent their impression of the preceding year. Students illustrated their experiences in a number of ways including, self‐portraits, cartoons, metaphorical images, and diagrammatic representations (flow charts, etc.). The variety of content of the drawings and the validity and comprehensibility of this approach to evaluation is addressed in this paper. It is suggested that drawings by students or staff can be a valuable source of information for course evaluation. Not just in terms of what has happened but how people feel about what has happened. They appear to generate information which is not usually obtained from written comments and which could readily be discussed by staff in the process of improving their courses and teaching.

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