Course analysis meeting

The way in which a course analysis meeting is organized and carried out depends on the particular group of teachers. If the participants do not know each other well and are not very familiar with each other’s courses, you as the chairperson should try to compensate for this so that everyone feels welcome to attend the meeting. A main aim of the course analysis meeting is to act as a forum for exchange of ideas on, and experience of, course development and pedagogy.

Three to Five participants

Aim at organizing the meeting in groups of three to five participants. With three participants, a meeting will take about two hours. With five participants, it will take about three hours. For the participants to get the most out of the meeting, you should try to organize meetings with participants who can benefit from each other’s ideas and experience. This may be participants with similar courses but different organization, with the same or similar student groups, etc. Remember to word the invitation to the meeting in such a way that it is clear that participation is voluntary and that the aim of the meeting is clearly stated. You should also point out that the course evaluation and the course analysis meeting is an excellent basis for the mandatory course analysis.

Preparation

Along with the invitation, you should send questions to the participants that they can work on as preparation for the meeting, if they are willing and have time. One suggestion is that they perform a preliminary course analysis and consider the following:

• What are the stronger and weaker aspects of the learning environment, respectively?
• What aspects would you like to develop? How should this be accomplished? How is this development expected to improve student learning? 
• Do you need any support and/or competency development in order to implement the course development you would like to see? 

The organizers role is to guide the discussion in order to support the exchange of ideas and experience. 

Conduction the meeting

A main aim of the course analysis meeting is to act as a forum for exchange of ideas on, and experience of, course development and pedagogy. Consequently, the atmosphere at the meeting should be open, inclusive, and based on voluntary participation. The participants should not have the feeling that their courses are being exposed to scrutiny. The discussion may be inhibited if the participants have the impression that what is said will be recorded and reported. Therefore, you should not take notes during the meeting. Your role is to guide the discussion in order to support the exchange of ideas and experience.

Here is a concrete example for a way to conduct the meeting that has proved to work well:

1. Open by explaining the aim of the meeting and pointing out that participation is voluntary. Also explain your role as chairperson.
2. Continue by asking the participants around the table to present themselves and their courses. Particularly interesting aspects are year of study, number of participants, the homogeneity of the course participants, and course organization.
3. Then, using the preliminary course analysis and the student group’s analysis (if there is one), invite each participant round the table to present and reflect on the following:
   • Stronger and weaker aspects of the learning environment in their courses and possible ways of developing these.
   • Is there a need for further support and/or competency development in order to implement the course development?
     • It is good if the participants’ contributions give rise to spontaneous discussions with an exchange of ideas and experiences. Then, all you need to do is guide the discussion back if it moves away from the actual topic – learning environment, course development, and pedagogy. When discussing competency development, you can inform the meeting about the possibility of taking part in existing seminars, workshops and courses.
4. Conclude by encouraging them to carry out the final course analysis.

Finally, document the suggestions for teacher development that arise or that you yourself have identified as possible topics for seminars and workshops.

Documents

Conducting a course analysis meeting (pdf 60 kB)