346 Evaluation Form 2a Results

Student Evaluations- Instructor's Questionnaire
Summer 2003

In what ways could the course instructor improve how he teaches the course?

Materials should be updated and finalized at least a week before the class. No last minute changes. If so, just mention them in class and have students cross out handouts and write in new information. Too confusing to go back all of the time and update handouts. Overall, class was excellent. I have taken traditional classes through WSU and University of Nebraska (distance). This was excellent, excellent instructor. Down to earth and realistic. I work in accounting and the instructor is very accurate in real world assessments.

N/A

One thing that was a bit of a frustration during the course was the many corrections that needed to be made (like with check figures and a few questions of the take-home tests). Obviously, it is impossible to eliminate all of these errors (and in all fairness Ron did let us know about them as soon as they were brought to his attention). However, I did find myself wasting a lot of time trying to reconcile numbers that were wrong to begin with. The net result of this was that I felt I stole study time from other classes that I had during the quarter.

When assigning the excel spreadsheets, it would have been less frusterating and more informative if better instructions on how to complete the worksheets were given. On the last test, I feel like students were graded too harshly. A 54 average on a test that's not graded on the curve was very low. I do not think that reflects bad teaching, I just think the grading was very harsh.

Be more fair in the grading.

The instructor could move away from subjective grading to an objective grading system. The instructor could try and give more meaningful answers and move away from the rude and smart aleck answers the instructor gave. The help that was available was limited, and the amount of help that one did received mattered on how much the instructor liked the individual. If the instructor didn't care for you, then consequently you received minimal help. The instructor could actually make sure the students learned something instead of releasing these students into the work world with no real knowledge about tax laws. The students in this class are not prepared properly to complete tax returns, or answer any specific tax questions. Trying to sift through the instructor's questions made this class seem like a waste of time. The questions on the CCH were vague and the questions for the test were worded so poorly that more times then not, the question could have been true or false depending on how the instructor was feeling at the time. The grading in this class was a disgrace to Central Washington University because the grading was so biased. Three students would submit the same answers and to no one's surprise there were three different grades. The instructor’s grading seemed to be based on the mood of the instructor or again how much the instructor like the individual. The terms quizzes are a waste of time and the only thing my colleges and me learned was how to read fast and try again to sift through the instructor's wording. The excel homework is based on the instructor's thoughts; it would make more sense to let the students make their own spreadsheets because nobody thinks like the instructor. I found that the instructor's snide email comments frustrated most and were inappropriate for a college level class.

The standards he set for the CCH tax research question answeres were not consistant, which led to some confussion on my part. If one is aware of what is required in an answere, the likelihood of answering the question correctly would be much better. Initially I found blackboard to be confussing also. A printed instruction manual would help beginning students adapt at a faster rate.

Hmmmm, the T/F Questions on the exam were especially nasty.

I'm against the use of check figures in a course like this. I'd rather see the students forced to "get it on their own", not only because there are no check figures in the real world, but also because they serve as a crutch for those who don't fully understand what they are doing and permits them to complete assignments using plug figures as opposed to actually figuring it out and working it through (in my opinion). I also think that the nature of the material is such that more memorization would have been appropriate. I don't advocate this for every course, but in tax there are so many details that are suited to memorization and I don't feel they have been fully ingested. I like the open-book test format as it allows asking more detailed questions that take some research, but perhaps one exam that truly forced the students to memorize some details would have served well. Finally, while I appreciate the manner in which the course was organized in contrast to the order the material is presented in the text, after reading chapter 2 late in the quarter I wished I had read it earlier. Until that point, I felt there were some loose concepts floating around that were brought together in chapter 2. I wished I had read it earlier to have a "big picture" perspective against which to relate each subsequent element.

I don't really like long class periods, I like classes that do not go longer than about an hour and a half. This is not really improving the way of teaching, I just get to anxious in class if it is long and I tend not to pay that much attention as the class period progresses.

The assignments were not available (posted) in a timely matter to allow the students to prepare and plan an effective way to get homework/assignments accomplished. When the instructor was presented with questions about various assignments/topics, the answers were unclear and several time demeaning. Sincere questions were being answered with questions making the issue even more confusing. Questions relating to homework were also so vague that they were seldom helpful. I understand the using a textbook that was not planned for can throw a wrench into the homework system but not only was it hard for the teacher to “switch” books, it made it also hard for the students.

He needs to be a little more indepth on some of the tax issues. Some of the material we skimmed over the top a bit and didn't really get down into the important details. I think he should assign other homework instead of the spreadsheets. I think maybe a couple spreadsheets through out the course, but overall I didn't find them very helpful, and with doing more written problems from the book we are force to actually read the book and apply the techniques necessary. With the spreadsheets we would just wing them from class lectures and not really understand them.