The Midterm Class Interview, sometimes referred to as the SGID (Small Group Instructional Diagnosis), is an open-ended, mid-course oral interview process in which students discuss their perceptions of the effectiveness of a course, including both its strengths and potential areas for change.
Instructors frequently report to us that what they learn through the SGID is extremely useful for helping them make decisions about their teaching during the remainder of the quarter, and CIDR research indicates that students also appreciate this opportunity to provide anonymous formative feedback to the instructor while the course is still in session.
The SGID allows an instructor to:
- Provide an open-ended forum for students to identify concerns that they think are most important
- Let students relay their feedback confidentially through a neutral third party (the CIDR consultant)
- Discover student perspectives on the course and make changes, address misunderstandings, or clarify policies before the course is over
- Confirm impressions that a course is going well
- Explore aspects of a course that seem to be problematic
- Receive more in-depth student feedback than end-of-quarter student evaluations typically provide
CIDR staff can facilitate the SGID process for individual TAs and instructors at their request. We recommend that you choose potential dates for the SGID which are early enough in the quarter for you to make use of the feedback during the remainder of the course, but far enough into the quarter for students to have a good sense of what the course is like and how they are doing in it. It's best not to schedule an SGID directly before or directly after an exam.
In some departments, CIDR consultants have conducted class interviews for groups of faculty or TAs teaching the same course, and then summarized the information to indicate common strengths and areas for improvement in the course. The process has also been used with all students in a program as a way of obtaining curriculum feedback.
Because of the high demand for this service, we recommend that you contact CIDR early in the quarter about scheduling the SGID. We will then schedule a pre-SGID appointment so that you can give us more information about the course, your students, and your goals for the feedback session. It is also helpful if you can send your syllabus and any other relevant course materials to the consultant before your pre-SGID appointment.
On the day of the SGID, the consultant typically observes a portion of the class before conducting the feedback session. Approximately 25 minutes before the class ends, the instructor briefly introduces the SGID to the students, and then leaves for the remainder of the class period. The CIDR consultant then spends the remaining time facilitating the student feedback session.
After the SGID, the instructor meets again with the consultant to review a written report of the students' feedback. After reviewing the feedback and discussing its implications together, the consultant and instructor develop options for responding to it.
View sample survey forms that CIDR uses to help facilitate SGID sessions.
For more information, or to schedule a midterm class interview, call 206-543-6588, or contact us by email to arrange an appointment.
For other varieties of student feedback which can be implemented more briefly, more frequently, or in ways that are less open-ended than the SGID process, please see our Consulting page on Other Forms of Student Feedback, and also our Resources page on Classroom Assessment Tools.
