SGID, Focus Groups
SDIG, or Small Group Instructional Diagnosis, is a powerful tool for gaining insight into your students’ learning experiences in your classes. It’s a process that elicits student perceptions of what they feel is most and least helpful to their learning in the course, as well as what they think they can do to help improve their own learning. Faculty members get a report with consensus-based answers as well as rankings that reflect the level of agreement across the class on each item. Students value the fact that you have taken the time to listen to them, and they often feel more dedicated to the course knowing that you value their input.
It requires a minimum of 40 minutes of class time (usually prior to mid-semester), without you present, and involves both pre-and post- meetings to discuss goals and results.
Focus Groups can also be useful ways to gather student feedback and ideas for constructive changes or adjustments that you might make in a course.
If you are interested in learning more about these services, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I’d be happy to review the details so that you can decide if this is an option you’d like to try.