Physci Canvas, affective domain, and laboratory survey

All nine students registered in SC 130 Physical Science at term end summer session 2021 completed a written anonymous survey. Because submission rates for online surveys can be low, this survey was done in class at the end of a residential laboratory class. 

This summer was a second term for the Instructure Canvas pilot. The students were asked "What did you like about Canvas?" The student comments were overwhelmingly positive. Although this sort of survey is usually a Likert style survey, an open written response can provide more detail and texture than a "strongly like/like/dislike/strongly dislike" survey.

• Easy accessing
• Everything. The way it is set was very convenient for as a student
• Helpful
  
• I like Canvas because it gives me details on everything that I need to learn and have to learn in Physical Science.
• I like Canvas because it makes things easier
• I like it because it is built to make teaching and learning easier for everyone, from the littlest learners to the college faculty
• I like it because it was cool and it's almost the same as Schoology.
• I love Canvas. It is easy to use. It is my first time but I get to used it and I liked it.
• The contents and the organization of the web site are very neat. It shows assignments that require work. Moreover, it has different sections that if a student want to hover over, they can easily find a specific section. 

When asked what they did not like about Canvas, the students responded:

• None
• No dislike
• I'm having trouble with the connection
• None!!
• There is nothing that I do not like about Canvas.
• There is nothing I don't like about Canvas
• There's nothing I did not like about Canvas
• Everything is good about Canvas. There is nothing bad about Canvas.
• When it comes to submission, I had a lot of trouble submitting lab reports. It keeps popping up that there is an error.

Note that the comment on a connection relates to Internet connectivity issues that many students face in these islands, not necessarily a Canvas issue specifically. This is also underneath the last comment. Students in more remote rural areas experience time out connection errors when submitting assignments. 

The students were asked what their attitude was towards science prior to taking the class, during the class, and after taking the class. Prior to taking the class students held a predominantly neutral attitude with some having a negative attitude. This shifted during and remained shifted after the class. While not a specific learning outcome of the course, having students leave a class turned off and disliking the material in a course would be a terrible result. The class does not have to be "easy" to make a class enjoyable. Physical science demanded three multipart, multipage science laboratory reports per week along with a test at the end of each week. 

Physical science was not a major requirement for any of the students in the course. All of the students were taking the course to fulfill a general education science with laboratory requirement. 

The use of prompts can provide insights into what the students were thinking or feeling internally. The students were asked to respond to one of the following prompts:

• My learning of the content was most helped when… because… 
• The activity that contributed the most to my learning was… because… 
• The biggest obstacle for me in learning the material was… because… 
• I was most willing to take risks with learning new material when… because… 
• During the first day, I remember thinking… because… 
• What I think I will remember five years from now is… because… 
• What is something you learned to do in this course that you could not do before?… because… 

The students responses provide perhaps a richer insight into the students experience than a typical Likert survey can produce.

• My learning of content was most helped when I did the labs because I've never done labs before, it's a new process to me.
• My learning of the content was most helpful when the professor gave us laboratories to experiment on because for me, I learned new things quickly when I got to do them physically.
• The activity that contributed the most to my learning was that I really loved kinesthetic activities that is why I loved science with lab, to get to do something on my own/with others, share ideas, work with hands on.
• During the first day, I remember thinking because I am a returning student since spring 2013 and I don't really know if I can still remember how to speak English.
• During the first day, I remember thinking that I wouldn't need this course in my major. Now I am so glad I took it because I not only learned a lot but I really enjoyed what I learned.
• During the first day I remember thinking about dropping this course or withdrawing from this course because I wasn't feeling good about joining this course. But for now, it was great taking this course with my classmates.
• What I think I will remember five years from now is the different types of clouds. Because at first I thought that all clouds are the same. Now I know that there are many different types of clouds and all of them have different names and different meanings.
• What I think I will remember five years from now is the laboratory in chemistry, acid and base, because it was fun to learn. It is a new and exciting topic for me to tackle.
• Everything that I learned from this course was not something I have done before. Since day one I have learned much thanks to Professor Dana Lee Ling. I think I can do reports.

Another way to approach assessment is to ask the students about most favored and most disfavored assignments. This can return some of the more interesting and specific comments. In physical science the students were also asked which laboratory was their favorite and why.

• Density of soap was my favorite laboratory.
• I have a lot of lab favorites, but the most is lab one. Lab one is when we discover the density of soap, debating if the soap was going to float or not, we thought it was going to sink, but it didn't and that is when I realize that the mathematical equations are telling us what the object will do.
• Density of soap because that was my first lab experience. All I know is that soap floats, but after doing the lab I realized that there are some that float and some cannot.
• My favorite laboratory was the acceleration of gravity by dropping a ball which is Lab. #3. I like this laboratory because it involves more movements and it was much fun. I have learned a lot in this lab as well.
• Laboratory 10. I really enjoyed it because it doesn't have to do with many stuffs and I think it was the easiest among the laboratory reports.
• Laboratory 13 chemistry, acid and base detection using flowers. I was perplexed at first but after tackling the laboratory in class, it was fun to learn. The idea of using flowers and household appliances is amazing!
• Laboratory 13 detection using flowers. Because it was my first time knowing that I can detect everything in my house by just boiling the flower and doing the procedure.
• Lab 13 because I like how they change color when we put those lime or baking soda in it.
• My favorite laboratory was site swap notation and juggling because it reminds me when I was in Elementary

When asked which laboratory they most disliked, they responded:

• Lab 7 because I am not good at using GPS.
• Laboratory eight cloud drawing. I really do not know how to draw very nice and clear. I hate drawing.
• The lab that I really disliked was laboratory eight. I do not like this lab because I do not like to draw. I am not good at drawing. I also do not learn much because I still have trouble naming some clouds.
• Laboratory nine. I do not understand much of wave distances and some wave function. Even in high school I had a hard time understanding when it comes to waves. 
• RipStik wave distance. I was having a hard time figuring out how to solve the wave fractions. I guess I didn't pay much attention to the lectures.
• My most disliked laboratory was the Ohm's law because I don't know about electronic stuff.
• Ohm's law was my most disliked laboratory.
• Laboratory 14. The laboratory was good but I don't really understand much about it. But it's good enough.
• The last one, lab 15. Simply because I don't exactly know why we are learning it.

These sorts of written response surveys do not lend themselves to number crunching statistics and numeric values. Yet these are the types of surveys that provide the best information for making meaningful changes in courses and curricula. Numbers never tell one how to get a different number. Numbers are simply a value at a moment in time. Numbers can point to areas of weakness or strength, but cannot tell one what to do to change the situation. The above provides specific actionable information for my working on and improving my course. 

My personal thanks to the source for the link some years ago to the "prompts" assessment which derive from an article on new approaches to assessment.