<point> I think it would be easier to make suggestions if we knew how
you're going to structure this...</point>
And who you're gathering this data for, and why. Is this to give
feedback to the instructors to improve the course for next round? To
show the students what they have (collectively) learned? To tell the
open source projects involved what happened from your side? In the hopes
of getting departmental resources/approval for continuing experiments of
this sort? Ideally, you'd have designed the instrument before running
the intervention (teaching the class), but we don't live in an ideal
world. :)
All your current questions ask students for their perception. Perception
is a tricky thing; we usually don't remember things correctly. Also, if
you know your instructor is the one asking these questions, you're more
likely to put what you think the "right" answer is ("oh yes, I learned a
lot of valuable real-world skills...") which may not tell you very much.
What I'd be interested in hearing, personally: (Disclaimer - I am an
education graduate student, not a professional instrument designer --
although I do study with some and am trying to learn that.)
* We'd love to see your open source work from this course. Can you
describe where (online) we can find contributions from you specifically?
Code commits, wiki edits, chat logs, mailing list archives -- help us
navigate them to find your open source portfolio. [Note: I'm interested
in what students point to and how they display/explain their work to
you. Do they just say "uh, somewhere on this mailing list, search it
yourself," do they offer to email things to you (because they're not
public), do they point to specific logs and messages, do they point to a
profile page that has those things linked from them, etc.]
* If you could write a letter that would go back in time to your past
self at the beginning of the class, what would you say? What do you wish
you'd known? [Note: A broader question than "skills required," but
capturing some of the same things.]
* How would you change this class if you were in charge of redesigning
it for the next round?
* If you were to take this class (or an advanced version of it) in a
subsequent semester, what would you do to build on what you've learned?
In other words, what do you see as the follow-up experience to this
class? (If it's not a class, but rather an internship or independent
study, research project, co-op, or some other format, let us know that too.)
* Would you be interested in such a class?
* Has working on an open source project for class been a different
experience than other projects you've done for classes before? How are
the experiences similar and/or different? [Note: they may mention
motivation here -- or they may not. I know you're hoping to get positive
feedback here, but it'll be a stronger case if you don't ask leading
questions -- you want to understand their actual experience and find out
what that was, regardless of whether you like the answer or not. ;-)]
Also, amidst this haze of feedback, remember that (usually) *some*
measurement is better than none. So let us know how it went --
ultimately, this is your class, your instrument, and your call.
--Mel
PS: If TOS faculty would find a standard end of class survey of this
type useful, and would use it, I can see about getting some help from
education researchers who focus on instrument design to find something
appropriate (and adapt it if needed). I imagine others have (1) STEM edu
research experience and (2) colleagues with STEM edu research experience
who'd also do an excellent job of this and would be more than happy to
cede the job to them. ;)
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