Results from Form 1 of Page ACCT 570

Student Evaluations- Instructor's Questionnaire
Fall 2003

What qualities or characteristics helped to make the course instructor effective?

Several things: 1. Distance learning is a bit cumbersome, and most students, including myself, feel a real disconnect when they are on the long distance end. Ron, you made that distance disappear. By bringing both classrooms into the discussions, directing comments specifically to the distance students, and bringing your own special brand of humor to the classroom made it a transparent, rewarding classroom experience. 2. Although the material was somewhat repetitive from prior tax courses, the emphasis on tax planning, tax research and tax return preparation took that basic information and brought more depth and real world meaning to the material. 3. Your use of technology was perfect for this venue of teaching. In prior experiences, the grading system, submission of assignments was positively painful. Your system was really effective. 4. Your demeanor made students sit up and take notice and know that they had a true professor, but at the same time you treated the students with fairness and with respect. There was a real sense that you appreciated the cost the students were paying for the course, and you gave them value. Thanks for a great quarter!

The CCH research system is very helpful.

The one characteristic that seems to shine through is, dispite Ron acting like he's a hard-ass he genuinely cares if you are learning or understanding the information. He didn't spoon feed the information to us - he made us work for it and I respect that.

The use of the web site greatly enhanced the learning experience in a distance education setting. It allowed all students the chance to retrieve materials in a timely manner for class - the west side students didn't have to wait for the inter-campus mail to receive materials. It provided a forum for students to receive pertinent and timely feedback which is always useful when one is focused on achieveing good grades. The entire course was structured thoughtfully and assignments were not "busy work" but were meaningful tools to reinforce concepts learned in class. Other professors should look to Ron Tidd's class as an example of "best practices" when designing their distance education classes.