Assessing Student Needs in Your Course

• Often the name that students use does not match the name listed on the roster. It is important to find out the appropriate name that the student wants to use in your class to affirm their identity.
• Note: It is also important to make sure that you know how to accurately pronounce students’ names and do not repeatedly ask students with names that you are unfamiliar with to pronounce their names for you. Incorrect pronunciation and repeated clarifications are common microaggressions experienced in the classroom which can impact students’ sense of belonging. Your information form might be a good place to learn pronunciation, but you could also ask all students to upload their name pronunciation alongside their introduction posts within the LMS where both you and other students can listen to their classmates’ name pronunciations. Vanderbilt also has a tool called Name Coach available to faculty and staff within Brightspace that can be used to learn pronunciations.

Example question: “Sometimes the name that people would like to be called does not correspond with the name that is listed on the roster.  I would like for you to call me Amanda.  What name would you like for me to call you?”

• Even if your university provides pronouns alongside student enrollment, it is important to invite students to share this information with you in your specific class since the pronouns that individuals use can change over time and vary from context to context. Because of this, it is important to provide a way that students can let you, and ideally other students, know if the pronouns that they want you to use change over their time within your course. You can do this by allowing students to edit their information sheet or revise their pronouns in another location, within their LMS introduction, for example.
• You may also want to provide additional information for your students about pronouns before asking them about their pronouns to educate them about what pronouns are and why it is important to use an individual’s correct pronouns. You could do this by assigning an article in advance of asking them to fill out the information form. Or, you could also briefly describe pronouns and/or link an article within your information form. This resource describes in a clear and concise way why it is important to ask for and use correct pronouns in the classroom.

Example questions: 1) “What pronouns should I use for you during this course? Feel free to also include any other information you would like me to know about your pronouns (e.g., you have certain contexts you’d like me to use different pronouns, you’d rather not share your pronouns with the class, etc.).” 2) “Pronouns are how we refer to you in the third person. For example, I use the pronouns “she/her/hers.” So if you’re talking about me to someone else, you would say “she is my professor.” Other common pronouns are “they/them/theirs” or “he/him/his” – but other pronouns also exist. I am asking you this because it is important that we don’t assume people’s gender or the pronouns that they use just by looking at them or knowing their name. Using someone’s correct pronouns is a way to respect them, just as using a person’s name can be a way to respect them. For more information on this, you can visit https://www.mypronouns.org/” 

• A pre-course information sheet can be a great place to gather information about both formal (i.e. they have institutional accommodations granted) or other accessibility needs so that you can adapt your course, if needed, in the necessary ways to meet the needs of your students or assure students that their needs will be met.

Example question: “Is there anything that I can do to help make this course more accessible for you and/or help you learn?”

• This information is helpful in determining the time zone that your students are in which can aid in grouping students, creating or modifying office hour times, and, generally, understanding any difficulties your students may face in attending class and completing assignments.
• It can also be helpful to know the city and state that your students are located in to understand any situational factors that may impact their participation in the course (e.g. being located in Texas during the freeze and blackout of February 2021).

Example question: “Where will you be located during the class? I ask this not to be nosy (I promise!) but, rather, so that I can get a sense of different time zones and any other situational factors that may impact your participation in this course.”

• This information can give you advance insight into potential issues that may arise for those in your class and allow you to proactively mitigate challenges that your students may face.
• You could consider reaching out to those students that express potential challenges via email with solutions to particular issues (e.g. letting a student know that you will accept late work during a time that they anticipate being particularly challenging for them).
• You could also consider reaching out to students to simply thank them for sharing their challenge(s) with you and let them know that you will work with them to overcome what they share with you (including specific ways that you will work with them on this, if applicable).

Example question: “Do you anticipate any challenges to completing the work required for this course? If so, what challenges do you anticipate?”

• Knowing where your students access the internet can help you understand the best ways to structure your course and reasons why students may participate in the ways that they do within synchronous sessions. For example, one of the authors of this article found out that a substantial proportion of her students did not have reliable internet at home in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and primarily accessed the internet within public places. Because of this, she decided to adapt her course to a primarily-asynchronous format.

Example question: “Where do you usually access the internet? A) at home, B) in a public place, C) other [allow students to specify]”

• Knowing the reliability of your students’ WiFi access can help you understand and plan for various aspects of the online teaching and learning experience. It will also help you understand why students participate in the ways that they do (e.g. having cameras off during Zoom meetings).

Example question: “How reliable is the WiFi that you generally access?” You might use a likert scale (e.g. not at all reliable to very reliable) for the response. 

• Knowing how familiar or comfortable students are with tools that you use in your class can help you understand if you need to give additional information and/or training to students for those tools that students will be expected to use.

Example questions: “How comfortable are you using Brightspace?”; “How comfortable are you using Zoom?” You might use a likert scale (e.g. not at all comfortable to very comfortable) for the response.  

• Knowing the goals that your students have for your course can help you understand how to adapt your course to meet these goals or work with students individually to meet their particular goals.

Example question: “What are you most hoping to get out of this course? If you are just taking it for the credential, you can totally say that– no judgement!”

• Gauging what students already know can help you build off of their existing knowledge and/or affirm their prior related experiences in your class.

Example question series (for an online pedagogy class): 1) “Do you have experience teaching/TAing online classes or being a student in online classes? If so, briefly explain. 2) Please tell me about any other teaching experience below. You can be as brief or as detailed as you would like.”

Example question (for a sociology course): “Have you taken sociology courses before here at Vandy or elsewhere? If so, which?”

• Assigning this information form immediately after or alongside an assignment to thoroughly read through the syllabus and major project descriptions can give students the opportunity to express concerns, confusion, or apprehension they might have in relation to the course material as well as give you the opportunity to address these issues and/or make changes to your syllabus early in your course.

Example questions: 1) “Do you have any questions about the syllabus, major projects, or course in general? 2) Is there anything in the syllabus or major projects that you disagree with, think should change, or think should be added?”

• Providing a free-form question that gives students the opportunity to share anything else that may not fit elsewhere in the form allows them to express any additional needs, issues, or concerns. You may find that most students respond to this question with “no” or “n/a,” but you may also uncover important information.

Example question: “Is there anything else you think I should know?”