University of Cincinnati, College of Engineering

Course Evaluation Results

Class 20-MTEN-632-001
Class Name POLYMER ANALYSIS
Instructor G. Beaucage
Quarter Fall 1999: (00-A)
Respondent Size 20
Class Size 29
Quarter Size (Students) 1053
Quarter Size (Classes) 108

# Question Excellent
 		 A B C D E Poor
 		 N/A Quarter Average Class Average
1 Planning and organization of course.   8 8 4 0 0   0 4.17 4.20
2 Conveying ideas and concepts in an understandable manner.   7 9 3 1 0   0 3.92 4.10
3 Teaching in a style that holds my attention.   12 7 1 0 0   0 3.68 4.55
4 Encouraging interactive class participation when appropriate.   16 3 1 0 0   0 3.91 4.75
5 Motivating and challenging me to learn course material.   6 10 4 0 0   0 3.88 4.10
6 Communicating relevance of course content to my engineering education.   13 7 0 0 0   0 4.12 4.65
7 Answering students' questions thoroughly.   7 8 5 0 0   0 4.07 4.10
8 Emphasizing analytical thinking skills as opposed to memorizing information.   9 9 2 0 0   0 4.13 4.35
9 Using examples of practical engineering application to facilitate learning.   12 8 0 0 0   0 4.09 4.60
10 Approachability and availability to assist me.   20 0 0 0 0   0 4.25 5.00
11 Willingness to discuss and review difficult points during lectures.   15 4 1 0 0   0 4.20 4.70
12 Creating exams and quizzes of appropriate length.   12 5 3 0 0   0 4.07 4.45
13 Speaking skills.   12 7 1 0 0   0 4.15 4.55

# Question Strongly
Agree		 A B C D E Strongly
Disagree		 N/A Quarter Average Class Average
14 The text helped me to learn the material.   5 3 2 0 1   9 3.64 4.00
15 The instructor's lectures increased my understanding of material beyond what I gained from the text.   7 8 0 1 0   4 4.03 4.31
16 The instructor's learning aids (text supplements, handouts, etc.) helped me learn the material.   12 8 0 0 0   0 4.03 4.60
17 The assigned homework helped me to learn the material.   4 4 1 0 0   11 4.30 4.33

The number of times the instructor started class late or ended class early. 0-1 2-3 4-5 6-7 8 or more Average
Class Responses 19 1 0 0 0 4.95
Quarter Responses 863 117 27 11 35 4.67

The number of times the instructor canceled class without attempting to reschedule. 0 1 2 3 4 or more Average
Class Responses 18 2 0 0 0 4.90
Quarter Responses 917 91 34 3 8 4.81

The instructor announced exams at least one week in advance. Yes No N/A Average
Class Responses 20 0 0 5.00
Quarter Responses 1011 8 0 4.97


Effectiveness
of		 Question Numbers Weighted
Class Average		 Weighted
Quarter Average
Instruction 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,11,15,16,17 4.42 4.03
Organization 1,10,12,18,19,20 4.74 4.48


See the above data as graphs

Free Response Questions

1) Describe at least one thing you like about this course or professor


  • Approach of the instructor to students is really perfect. He tries to explain some theroretical concepts by demostration.
  • Dr. B. is very knowledgeable on the subject, and conveys this info to the class very well. He brought in many 'props' to help us learn the material or understand the processes. He often used real-life examples to make things easier to visualize/understand. He believes in being encouraging to the students, and is concerned with class morale and sustained interest in engineering.
  • Encouraged to ask questions in class, organized educational and exciting plant tour
  • Fundamentals become stronger after this course
  • He knows what he is teaching and has thorough knowledge of that subject
  • He offered a challenging learning enviroment which facilitated a higher level of thought towards the material.
  • I liked the way he forms questions for the quizzes, it really makes you think beyond the matters given in the text. Its totally application based.
  • Made class enjoyable. Made subject interesting. Good class demonstrations.
  • Not only explains the theory of topics but the need to know important facts that conclude lectures.
  • Professor was lively, friendly, extremely fair and approachable
  • The atmosphere in the class is very friendly. this is created by the professor of course.
  • The weekly quiz instead of a midterm and final helped keep the information fresh in my memory.
  • Very personable, had a good time in the class
  • Very thoughtful, Prof Beaucage used to come up with great practical day to day examples to explain difficult polymer behaviour.
  • application oriented, relating all theoretical aspects to the day today life.
  • good lecture notes prof has good sense of humor, very approachable
  • interactive class
  • much more relaxed atmosphere easy environment to learn
  • the material is interesting and useful.
  • weekly quiz instead of exams

    2) Describe at least one improvement you feel would benefit this course or professor.


  • Better organization of notes on the board when going over in class.
  • Better use of a text for the course.
  • Encourage me to study the course beforehand. Application of the theoretical concept to practical ones.
  • Improved handwriting
  • More practical knowledgewould help
  • Plan the lecture and follow it.
  • Please write more legibly on the board
  • Professor seemed to jump around in class during lecture and was hard to follow. Side thoughts all over the board - didn't seem to have a lot of organization in lecture
  • Quizzes were over the correct topics but many times were abstract or had more theory relavance than practical relevance. Not everyone in the class is graduate student.
  • The professor in class tends to write/draw things on the board in an incomplete form. For example a few scribbles for a picture and a couple words and then more scribbles and lines between the two. This makes it hard to follow the point of the discussion.
  • To be fair to students who do try to work hard in the class, there should be a little more of a difference (ie. in grades for notebooks) in grading between the minimum and maximum effort. For example, students who do not bother to turn in work should be penalized more than getting an 80 0.000000or no work.
  • better teaching of material
  • eliminate the notebook assignment.
  • increase the depth of knowledge
  • less emphasis on weekly quizzes more organization on lectures
  • may be he has to talk louder in the class
  • when teaching... tended to skip around some during discussion I sometimes would get lost in following of explainations from one step to the next

    3) If your answer to any question between #1 and #17 was `D' or `E', please identify the question number and explain why.


  • #14--I never purchased a textbook, because attending the lectures and reviewing the information on the website was sufficient to understand the material.
  • As stated above, not very formulated - seemed to be various thoughts thrown together as they came to him in class. This was hard to take notes on and hard to study for quizzes.