Final Exam

Span 498: The Mexican Novel

Final Exam: Self-Evaluation and Course Evaluation

Due Monday, 3 August by midnight

Complete in English or Spanish, but not both mixed.

Please write an essay at least 2.5 pages long in which you analyze your performance and learning in the course. Please base your essay on the following ideas and questions, but feel free to go beyond the list below.

You will be graded on how much effort you put into your answers; you will NOT be graded on your opinions (for example, whether or not I agree with the opinion expressed in your answer will NOT affect your grade). Providing honest answers to these questions will greatly help me to improve the learning experience of students who take this course in the future.

Begin with at least one paragraph in which you offer general reflections on your personal experience in the course. Feel free to approach this any way you like.

Explain to what degree the course topic was interesting to you

Explain what element(s) of the course (writing, reading, completing “cuestionarios,” discussion board, etc.) do you feel most effectively contributed to your learning. Which ones were least effective?

Some of the novels were more challenging than others to read. Please rank the novels in order of difficulty, “1.” being the most difficult and “4.” being the least difficult.

Was the “most difficult” novel so difficult that you felt you got nothing out of reading it or did you feel like the challenge posed by reading that book was in some measure useful for you?

Which novel(s) would you like to see replaced by a different novel if you were to take the course again (hypothetically speaking).

Was the general work load too great, too light, or in the middle? Explain. Also, rate the reading load alone in the same terms.

What did you like about the Discussion Board? What did you dislike about the Discussion Board?

How could the Discussion Board format have been changed so as to improve your personal experience with it?

Did you find the feedback mechanism (correction symbols, other corrections and suggestions made on the first draft) for the essays useful? Would you like to have more written comments on your final draft?

Blackboard was used for a brief period in this class, but was then abandoned owing to technical problems. While it was used, did you find Blackboard useful for purposes of this class?

The blog was used as a substitute of sorts for Blackboard. The blog has obvious limitations, such as not allowing users to oragnize the information in more user-friendly ways (such as in folders). Aside from this, did you like or dislike the blog format? Explain.

Explain any other ways your learning could have been enhanced in this course (please include any possible changes to your approach to the class, as well as changes to the course itself)