3.4 Additional comments
The final question on the survey was an open-ended question box where
students were invited to provide any additional comments about teamwork
or the course. Only three students commented here and all were positive.
Respondents 7 and 9 both provided comment on issues/improvements. For
example: “a shame that we were unable to have the popcorn session, and
the lack of poster feedback from the class was disappointing” (ID7).
The ‘popcorn session’ was to be an optional viewing session in the last
programmed class and 23/24 students logged into the BIOS3015 class team
to join in. Unfortunately a storm took out the internet in our local
area where several lecturers lived, resulting in the session being
cancelled. Also the poster feedback happened online rather than the
planned in-person session, so fewer students engaged with providing the
feedback. In future this session will be done as a class (preferably in
the classroom but could also be in the BIOS3015 Class Microsoft Team
environment) with instant feedback given in the chats.
The other potential ‘improvement’ suggested was a shorter video and an
exam based on all the content. The reason just one topic is requested of
each group is so they can explore the science in depth, linking scales
and different physiological and genetic responses. Since the general
processes apply similarly across many of the stresses explored, by
understanding one in detail students can then apply this to any future
situation. Memorising the content of every lecture for an exam would not
achieve this goal. However, in future it may help to make this
overarching goal clearer to the students in the course objectives and
reminders provided throughout the semester.