A Comparison of Group and Individually Completed Course Evaluations in Introductory Astronomy

Abstract

In an effort to streamline the collection of student feedback in a large enrollment introductory astronomy survey course, 283 individual students and 84 student working groups submitted mid-course evaluations. An inductive analysis of recurrent themes suggests that student course evaluations completed individually do not differ significantly from those completed by collaborative learning groups. These results suggest that faculty can obtain meaningful student feedback by analyzing a smaller number of surveys completed by groups of students, as opposed to analyzing a large number of surveys completed by individuals.