by Deborah Lanser
Introduction
SummerFest was generally a hit. Of the 82 members who answered the survey, 90% rated the course content as good or excellent and 94% had a favorable impression of the presenter. Of course, there was some constructive criticism and disappointment mixed in with the praise. Here’s a sampling of the comments.
Course Content
Most comments indicated that members appreciated the course content.
- The program is well thought and planned, yet proceeds naturally and with humor.
- It was fascinating and made me think.
- A great survey–much of which is little known today.
- Exceeded expectations.
- It encouraged creativity in a fun and non judgemental way.
- Really liked this class despite the difficult material.
Although some had reservations.
- Perhaps too limited a topic for four 90 minute classes.
- Some of the material was tangential–but overall it was very interesting.
- I enjoyed it less than I thought I would.
- A little too much content was being presented in a 4-week class.
Presenter
Members appreciated the presenters’ expertise and efforts.
- The presenter was well prepared and each week there was more interesting information.
- [The presenters] made sense of an astounding amount of data.
- Extremely knowledgeable and yet showing his strong interest in continuing to learn more–which encouraged me!
- The presenter is a gifted teacher with a very lively intelligence and a deep knowledge.
- I loved listening to the presenter and was very challenged by his questions and his remarks.
- The presenter is smart, funny, overly organized, willing to engage with the audience and looking forward to what is still left to learn on the subject.
- Obvious that he spent a lot of time creating the visuals to accompany his lecture.
- I’ll sign up for anything he presents.
- [The presenter] handled some of our more annoying members most graciously.
- [The presenter] always provides excellent sources.
There were some caveats.
- I loved the presenter, but she didn’t teach me anything.
- Knowledgeable but not that engaging or instructive.
Repeat Course
Members often supported repeating a course.
- Will take again and highly recommend.
- Absolutely it was such a fun class.
- Another great one, bring on the next!
Sometimes with changes.
- I don’t know how much interest there is despite how informative I found it.
- Fine to repeat, but I would prefer same presenter, new material.
- I am the producer and would like to offer this class again with some changes to the conditions.
- Not for me but yes for a group of folks it may have resonated with more.
- The course should be firmly capped at 15 and repeated.
- If the topic is repeated, there should be more substance.
Member Participation
There were mixed comments about member interactions.
- This was an intimate but highly engaged group, with interesting and on-topic discussion.
- I appreciated the involvement of the class members and how the presenters used the relatively small size of the class to make it more like a college seminar.
- The most interesting part of the class was the discussions and the class was just too big for this to really work well.
- There was often background “chatter” from groups of students which impeded learning.
- Many of the students had not read the materials and were still commenting–at length–about the material.
Audiovisual Issues
- Sometimes the textual illustrations were presented too fast for the slow-poke readers in the crowd.
- Why can’t all lecturers use a mic?
- Please encourage lecturers to REPEAT questions.
- Sometimes hard to follow because of the meeting room acoustics.
General Comments and Suggestions
- The course descriptions may not be strictly accurate.
- The only thing I miss in June is a convenient place to gather afterwards for lunch.
- I think the class enrollment (25 plus 2 extra) was too large, given the conditions.
- I would hope that other instructors, especially those who use a densely packed lecture format, figure out a way to integrate breakout groups.
Thanks to the Curriculum Committee for once again developing such excellent courses on a wide variety of topics.
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