Midterm Analysis of Teaching

The scantron version of our Midterm Analysis of Teaching student feedback survey is no longer available. The Teaching Effectiveness Program is exploring new options for instructors to receive valuable midterm feedback from their students regarding how the course is going-what's working well and what improvements would be helpful. So...

New this winter is the Online MAT for Blackboard users.

First Time MAT Users

In order for the MAT to provide maximum benefits to you and your students, please read through all of the instructions - from notifying and preparing your students to take the MAT to sharing the results with them. Please note, we provide the MAT service ONLY for University of Oregon faculty and GTFs.

    1. What is the MAT?

      The Midterm Analysis of Teaching (MAT) is a questionnaire that you custom design and assign to your students in the middle of the term while there is still time for you to make mid-course corrections in your teaching.

      Unlike departmental evaluations, MAT results are completely confidential. You are encouraged to share the results with your students, however, because it demonstrates your respect for their input. In addition, discussing your MAT results with your students allows you to share with them the changes you plan to make in the course. By doing this, you model for them what it looks like to receive constructive feedback and make positive changes.

    2. Designing Your MAT

      After you read these instructions, you will be ready to build your own MAT student feedback form. As you choose your statements and questions, be aware that what you choose to present to your students will influence the evaluation of your teaching produced by this process. With this in mind, we suggest you follow these guidelines:

      • Because the MAT is confidential, use it to collect information that might otherwise be threatening to you. Avoid selecting only those items to which you anticipate a favorable response; you might enjoy the confirmation, but you will not have gained new information.
      • Although the MAT is an excellent chance to investigate a particular problem area, we also caution against selecting only items expressing what you believe to be areas of weakness. This will give you primarily negative feedback rather than a balanced perception of your teaching performance.
    3. The Statements and Questions

      The menu items on the MAT focus on specific teaching behaviors, so that when your students answer these statements and questions, they will be telling you how much (if any) improvement they think you need for any particular teaching skill.
      • No improvement is needed
      • Little improvement is needed
      • Improvement is needed
      • Considerable improvement is needed
      • Not a necessary skill or behavior for this course
    4. Some Suggestions
      • We suggest you put around 25-30 questions on your MAT. There are no restrictions on the number of items you can choose. However, if you want your students to pay close attention to each statement and question, you may not want to overload them.
      • Look over the entire menu once before you start choosing statements and questions. It helps to have a general view of what's available.
      • Ideally, we suggest that you administer your MAT sometime during weeks 4, 5 or 6 of the term (although you are free to administer the MAT at any time during the term).By choosing the middle of the term you maximize the value of the instrument.This gives you valuable student input and several remaining weeks to make constructive changes in the course.
      • We further recommend that you include it as an assignment is your syllabus. If students are not required to fill out the survey, many will be less likely to participate.
      • Plan to review the results with your class.
      • Reword existing statements or questions or construct your own by adding them to the space provided at the end of the menu. Remember to word your statements in terms of a behavior so that the answers available to your students make sense.
      • You may ask students to include information about themselves, such as their class standing, gender, or estimated grade point average.
    5. The Process

    Once you have read these instructions and submitted your request for a MAT, you will receive via email:

    1. Step-by-step instructions for creating the MAT in Blackboard (including instructions for setting up a Blackboard account if you don't already have one)
    2. Specific instructions for administering the MAT and interpreting the results

Sound good? To request an online MAT, or for additional information, contact Georgeanne Cooper.

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Experienced MAT Users

Good news. We've streamlined the MAT process to decrease turn around time. If you have used our traditional Midterm Analysis of Teaching before and would like to conduct an online MAT using your Blackboard coursesite, please contact Georgeanne Cooper.

Not using Blackboard but want to conduct an online MAT? No problem. Follow these step-by-step instructions to create an account for yourself and request a coursesite. Once you're up and running, you're ready to create your MAT survey.

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    Address questions or comments about TEP or this site to:
Georgeanne Cooper, Program Director, 64 PLC
Phone: 541-346-2177 Fax: 541-346-2184
© Copyright 2000-2006 Teaching Effectiveness Program, University of Oregon.
Last Modified: 01/11/08