PHY110Y/PHY138Y Laboratory Evaluation

Prepared by David Harrison - April 2005

INTRODUCTION

Ruxandra recently surveyed students in our PHY110Y/PHY138Y Laboratory about their opinions regarding the lab. This document summarises the results.

Exactly 600 students participated, which is 52% of the students enrolled in the laboratory.

MAIN RESULTS

In the table below, the uncertainties are the standard error of the mean, , i.e. the standard deviation divided by the square root of the number of responses. Blank answers are ignored. The numbers in parentheses were the responses to the same question in last year's evaluation.

Question Mean ±
Everything considered, give an overall rating of the lab by choosing one of the following:
1 Excellent 2 Good 3 Fair 4 Poor 5 Very bad

Comment: below we compare this result to previous years in more detail.

2.89 ± 0.04 (2.87 ± 0.05 )
Please compare the Physics lab with other labs you are taking:
1 Much better 2 Better 3 The same 4 Worse 5 Much worse

 

3.30 ± 0.04 (2.95 ± 0.05)
Are you learning enough from the lab?
1 Yes a lot 2 Yes, fairly much 3 A little 4 No, not at all
2.55 ± 0.03 (2.43 ± 0.04) )
Do you get adequate and prompt feedback on the quality of your work?
1 Yes always 2 For most of the labs 3 Sometimes 4 Never
2.40 ± 0.04 (2.29 ± 0.04)
Please rate your demonstrator in terms of his/her teaching ability and help provided:
1 Excellent 2 Very good 3 Good 4 Fair 5 Poor

 

 2.91 ± 0.05 (2.59 ± 0.04)
The Guide Sheets for some Core experiments are new, using multimedia, Flash and videos. Other older Guides are only in hardcopy in the lab manual. If you have used both types for Core experiments, please rate the new multimedia Guides as compared with the older Guides:
1 Much better 2 Better 3 Same as 4 Worse 5 Much worse
2.44 ± 0.04 (2.41 ± 0.04)

Comparing the Overall Rating

Here we compare the overall rating of the laboratory this year to previous years. The numbers assume that the uncertainty in the number of responses is the square root of the number.

Percentage of Students Whose Overall Rating of the Laboratory Was "Excellent", "Good", or "Fair"
Physics Course This Year Spring 2004 Spring 2003 Spring 2002 Spring 2001 Spring 1998
PHY110Y 74.3± 7.0% 71.0 ± 8.1% 55.3 ± 7.7% 62.3 ± 9.0% 77.7 ± 9.1% 55%
PHY138Y 78.2 ± 4.2% 70.6 ± 3.7% 60.9 ± 4.1% 70.6 ± 3.9% 83.9 ± 4.7% 74%
Although the overall mean of students responses to this question question was virtually unchanged from last year ( 2.89 ± 0.04 this year; 2.87 ± 0.05 last year), the percentage of students who rated the lab "Excellent", "Good", or "Fair" went up this year. This is because the distribution of answers was different. To the right I show again the histogram for student reponses to the question this year, and also show the histogram from last year's survey.
This Year
Last Year

The Most Difficult Part of the Labs

Not summarised above is another question from the survey:

What was the most difficult part of the physics labs? Please rate by circling one or several of the following:
A) Experimental B) Theoretical (physics concepts) C) Analysis (mathematical concepts)

Below, the uncertainties are the square root of the number of responses converted to a percentage, and last year's percentages are in parentheses.

The Most Difficult Part of the Lab Was:
What Number Percentage
Experimental only
118
20 ± 2% (15 ± 2%)
Experimental and another part
26
4 ± 1% (5 ± 1%)
Theoretical only
112
19 ± 2% (25 ± 2%)
Theoretical plus another part
54
9 ± 1% (6 ± 1%)
Analysis only
282
48 ± 3% (49 ± 3%)
Analysis plus another part
73
12 ± 1% (7 ± 1%)
Students who do not know the meaning of "most" and answered all three choices
22
3.7 ± 0.8% (1.5 ± 0.5%)

A Final Note

There were structural problems with 2 questions traditionally used in this survey, so they are not reported above. The 2 questions were: