Online Course Evaluations - 2023:

One student requested more clarity on the grading system.

I discuss how students' presentations, reports, attendance, team & individual class participation, and project outcome affect their grades. (These percentages are also documented in the syllabus.) I will mention the high grades that students have earned in the prior year.

One student felt there was a lack of project guidance and milestone deadlines.

Project guidance is provided by the instructor during weekly in-person meetings or in reply to emailed project updates. If a team chooses not meet with the instructor or provide an update, that team will not receive feedback. In addition, since each team works on a different project, it is difficult to provide universal milestones.

Another student relied on team members for project guidance.

The instructor, the course assistant, and the 23 PRL course assistants welcome questions on materials, processes, and fabrication techniques. But teams are responsible for managing their design, fabrication, slide production, presentation practice, and report writing activities.

One student recommended that at least one team member have some fabrication experience.

This is a good recommendation, but the 23 PRL course assistants are available to assist all students, even those without fabrication experience, with their projects.

One student commented that the guest lecturers are "recycled every year".

Yes, many guest lecturers have spoken in the course for several years because they have interesting perspectives and are excellent presenters.

That same student felt that the speaker sessions were too passive.

All guest lecturers are encouraged to engage the students in discussions and questioning. Class session activities included identifying low cost assistive technology devices, interviewing stroke survivors, visiting an accessible playground, interacting with vendors during the Assistive Technology Faire, checking out prosthetic legs, meeting with project suggestors, and questioning Stanford students and faculty with disabilities.

One student noted that a 3 credit unit project course consumes as much time as a 4 - 5 non-project course.

Yes, in a project course students spend considerable time outside of classtime working on project tasks. But this course has no finals, exams, quizzes, or problem sets, activities which consume considerable time and effort. Stanford suggests that that a course's credit unit should be based on the amount of outside effort with each credit unit reflecting 3 hours of homework. Last year students reported an average of 5 hours per week spent on their project activities.

One student noted that no classtime is devoted to project work.

Students are expected to work on their projects outside of class. Fabrication activities typically take place in the PRL or Room 36. Some student teams meet before or after class in the course classroom, often with their project partner. Students frequently schedule a meeting with the instructor after the class session to provide project updates or ask questions.

Two students thought some of the guest lecturers were better than others.

I understand that some students - due to personal preference - may not be interested in exoskeletons, robotics, prosthetics, cochlear implants, device commercialization, adaptive sports, wheelchair fabrication in developing countries, conversing with vendors of assistive technology products and services, visiting an accesible playground, learning about an engineering design process, or the topics presented by other guest lecturers. But all presenters earned high scores on the Class Session Evaluation Form.

Several students reported navigation difficulties on the course website.

A sitemap webpage has been created to faciltate website navigation. This information will also be posted on Canvas.

Online Registrar's Course Evaluations - 2022:

One student commented that lectures weren't "concise".

Unfortunately this remark lacked specificity and an example. However, I have added a request that guest lectuers begin their presentation with an agenda slide and end with a summary slide.

One student wanted to know why laptop and smartphone use were not allowed during classtime.

It is the expressed desire of guest lecturers and the instructor to have students focus on what is being presented. Notetaking with a tablet and stylus is ok. Students can check out iPads at the Tech Desk in Lathrop Library. During the short break before the guest lecturer's, students are welcome to catch up on their email and social media.

One student suggested that some kind of student / project matching be instituted.

During Pitch Day, students are asked to prioritize their top 5 project choices. This coming year I plan to add a Google Form element where students can enter a short personal description to aid team formation to include previous student project experience; skill & expertise in fabrication, presentation, and reprot writing; available time during the quarter; and passion to work on projects benefiting people with disability and older adults.

Two students suggested using Canvas to send class-wide emails.

This suggestion will be implemented this coming academic year.

One student was unsure how to provide anonymous feedback and concerns to the instructor.

Currently, students have been able to use the Class Session Evaluation Form for comments. In addition, I plan to create an anonymous Google Form for this purpose.

One student observed that internet videos didn't play smoothly and attributed the problem to the laptop and browser.

The difficulty playing video is due to lack of bandwidth in the Stanford network and wifi connection. To avoid this, I will download the video and play the resultant mp4 files.

One student preferred not to be reminded of upcoming project deadlines and guest lecturers.

I will mention in class that some students appreciate these reminders.

One student was concerned about the project workload.

Students indicated that they spent between 2 and 10 hours per week on their projects - with an average of 5 hours. I will provide a breakdown of project activities at the beginning of the course and caution students not to enroll in the course if they are taking heavy workload courses such as ME170, ME218, and ME310.

One student suggested that course projects could be demonstrated in Meet the Makers.

I will pursue the possibility of doing this.

Online VPTL Coure Evaluations - 2021:

One student stated that most of the speakers were older white men.

I admit that I am an older white man with over 40 years experience in assistive technology and 14 years experience teaching this course.

In looking at the list of guest lecturers, 5 were older white males, 5 were women (one is black), and 4 were students.

One student misunderstood my definition of disability discussed in the first lecture.

The point I was trying to make is that there are situations such as culture, a country's political system, and war that prevents some people from taking advantage of their talents, attending school, and pursuing happiness. I plan to revise how I will present this concept.

One student thought I was not interested in changing my "perspective or wording".

I am not quite sure to what this student was referring. Often I will present my philosophy or opinion on a topic, but I do not expect students to adopt them. I will make sure I communicate this better next academic year.

One student commented that there were no lectures that applied to his/her team project.

Lectures often do not relate to the teams' projects. Guest lecturers are chosen by the ability of an individual to present an excellent lecture on an interesting topic related to assistive technology, while candidate projects are accepted if they meet many requirements. For these reasons lecture topics and project areas may not overlap. Since there are many more candidate project offerings than teams and class sessions, and teams do not decide on projects until Week 2, it would not be possible to schedule specific lectures based on the teams' project choices.

One student suggested that I use Chrome rather than Internet Explorer.

I have updated my laptop's browser to Firefox.

One student thought that the reports and presentations were redundant and unnecessary

Mid-term and end-of-term presentations and reports give students practice improving their communications skills. Teams universally showed improvement in their end-of-term activities based upon class evaluations to their presentations and feedback from the instructor on their reports.

One student thought my discussion on "Famous people with disabilities" should have focused on real celebrities rater than the characters on Big Bang Therory.

I will plan to discuss the best of both next academic year.