Course Evaluations
Religious Studies 121, World Religions
Fall 2001, Caroline T. Schroeder, Elon University


Indicate the extent to which you disagree or agree with each of the following statements using the following scale:
5=strongly agree    4=agree    3=undecided   2=disagree   1=strongly disagree

Course Content, Organization, and Goals

 Avg.
1.  The instructor has clear student learning objectives. 4.31
2.  The instructor's class is well prepared and well organized.
4.27

Communication

 Avg.
3.  The instructor communicates course material clearly.
 4.09
4.  The instructor displays interest in the subject. 4.70
5.  The instructor summarizes or emphasizes important points in class. 4.28

Faculty/Student Information

 Avg.
6.  The instructor stimulates my thinking about the subject. 3.98
7.  The instructor provides opportunities for student contact out of class. 4.25
8.  The instructor expresses concern about student progress in the course. 3.96

Assignments, Exams, Grading

 Avg.
9.  The instructor provides useful feedback on exams assignments. 4.01
10.  The instructor clearly indicates how my work will be evaluated. 4.05

Comment on aspects of the instructor's teaching and style that helped the learning process.  (All comments included below.)
* Passion about the subject was obvious.  The study guides were very thorough and useful.  I liked working in small groups.  Extra credit opportunities were nice.
* I really felt that the study guides were helpful -- very much appreciated.
* You can see the enthusiasm and love of the subject matter, which is really awesome!
* The stuy guides for the tests were the best I have ever seen.  They didn't give the answers but they cleraly told me what and how much I had to prepare for.
* She was always enthusiastic about what it was we were learning and she was always encouraging us to engage in discussion and ask questions.
* I really thought that she was a wealth of knowledge about religion and was clearly interested in what she was doing.  Also, if I had a question about something, she knew the answer immediately.
* I feel that Ms. Schroeder is very enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the course material, which helped me become more interestsed in it.  She did an exceptionable job as a teacher who is also attending college.
* I like the 2 textbooks used for Buddhism and Hinduism, but I did not like the book for Islam.  It did clrearly state terms and what their relation to Islam was.
* She was willing to cover material many times to get students to understand.
* The study guides were very helpful.  The prompts you gave us for our final project were very helpful also.
* I thought that it was good teaching and the discussions helped.
* You made the big points clear to us, and that was very beneficial.
* Hit all main topics for each section.
* The lecture days were very helpful.  I think I'm better at taking notes while the instructor is talking than during class discussions.
* More organization is key.  However, main ideas were stressed so it was easier to prepare for test.
* I liked this class.  I learned a lot about the world and things that are especially important.  Her teaching style was great.  Class was rarely just a lecture.  It involved many different aspects of discussion and things that got the class involved.
* Her lectures were great.  The slides and videos.  No other teacher could compare to her magnificent style of teaching.


Comment on aspects of the instructor's teaching style that could be improved upon to help the learning process.  (All comments included below.)
* I had trouble following the notes and discussions in class.  The readings were all difficult.  The essay questions were hard to follow.  Too much information to cover.
* The notes from class were very disorganized -- when it came time for tests, my notes were confusing and often contradicted themselves along the way.  The tests were good in general however there were some questions that I didn't feel we went over well enough.
* I just had a really hard time with the organization of the class.  To service my learning style I need the teacher to take clear and organized notes.  I feel like if we had bought one more expensive book for each hapter instead of having a cheaper book and spending over 30 or 40 $$ on copying things on reserve.  For me to benefit from learning I really need organization and it was really hard for me to get organized.
* The first two texts we had were fine, the third, Islam, was really confusing.  I would suggest trying to find another to use.
* I think that I often felt the material we covered was scattered.  The books we read were also very boring...I think that if we had more study guides to accompany the readings, we would have had better group discussions.
* Some things were unclear because of jumping around from subject to subject.
* The teacher was not prepared in her discussion and did not plan ahead and organize the sequence of her discussions.  She required way too much reading for class and it was not good for us to have to pay to copy the texts.
* Needs to write more understandable notes on the board.  Hinduism book good.  Other books were bad.  Glossaries are useful.
* The class moved too fast and the material was complicated to go so fast in.
* Some of the readings we never used...felt they were not useful.  Ruthven was extremely hard to understand.
* Unorganized.  Too much extra outside source searching.
* None.  Wonderful teacher!  Great class!
* No Ruthven, too hard to follow.
* None - I loved this class.
* I didn't feel we got a lot accomplished in big group discussion.
* Have faith in yourself - you are a good teacher.
* Don't like big group discussions.  More teacher lecture necessary.  Shorter reading assignments with more easily comprehended texts or explanations the next day.
* Nothing.

Course Statistics:
Enrollment: 21 students
Average Grade:  B+