Inside Iowa State: Iowa State University

July 5, 2002

Business students tapped to critique profs

by Anne Krapfl
Students in the College of Business will be asked this year to help improve how business classes are taught. In what organizers hope is the first year of an ongoing effort, upper-level students will be paid to give faculty members advice on their instructional habits.

"Our goal is to create a better environment for learning in our college," said interim associate Business dean and finance professor Gary Koppenhaver. "We want to short-circuit some of the more traditional styles of faculty-based learning by involving our students directly."

Koppenhaver, one of five faculty members who wrote the program proposal, said he thinks it can benefit students and faculty. The voluntary program is intended to be non-threatening to faculty. "We think hearing about what works and doesn't work, from the consumers in this case, will be helpful," he said.

The appeal to students is a chance to see what kind of class preparation goes on behind the scenes and to have a bigger impact than end-of-semester course evaluations, Koppenhaver said.

Joining him on the planning group are Ginny Blackburn, management; Kay Palan, marketing; Sue Ravenscroft, accounting; and Brad Shrader, management.

The Business college program is based on successful, university-wide programs at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, and Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. It is financially supported by a $20,000 Miller faculty fellowship grant from the Center for Teaching Excellence and $7,500 in college funds. Fifteen programs will receive a total of $249,689 in Miller grant support from the center during 2002-03.

The college proposal includes two components. In the first, students will be paid hourly wages to serve as "consultants." That might involve observing a class and providing a description of what did or didn't happen or offering feedback on specific elements, videotaping a class and reviewing the tape with the instructor, interviewing students about their experiences in a specific class, or creating Web-based modules to supplement student learning, among others. Faculty may select from a menu of services and the students' work for them will remain confidential.

Koppenhaver said he's not sure what kind of response to expect. "We've talked to department chairs to promote this and the goal is to involve enough faculty that our culture changes, but we also know it could be the choir that comes," he said.

The second component is a series of teaching seminars -- brown bag lunches, for example -- intended to "make good teaching practices public," according to Koppenhaver. Students could be included as planners or panelists, he said. A list of seminar topics is being developed this summer, but could include subjects like student cheating, presenting cases in class, bringing your own research into class, using student evaluations or teaching to the "tails" versus the top students in the class.

Koppenhaver said he hopes to recruit a pool of about 20 students for the program. They'll be selected based on school activities, commitment to the program, references from the college and a short essay on good teaching.

About a third of the project funding will pay student wages and a third will compensate one of the five faculty who will coordinate faculty requests with student consultants. The last third will serve as professional development funds for some faculty who attend and participate in the seminars.