Experimental Psychology
Student Comments – Spring Semester 2003
08/13/2003
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The strengths of this course were:
The weaknesses of this course were:
Suggestions for improvement or additional comments:
The web site and work examples were extremly helpful. But, what helped me learn the most was Dr. Whatley's philosophy of making the student learn for themselves. He pushed me really hard, scared me to death at times, and that is why I won't forget anything I learned in this course. He is the best preparation for Graduate School in the psychology department and he weeds out those who shouldn't have a degree in psychology. Other students may not like his teaching style, but they just don't realize that he is making you think for yourself! Overall, I think he ROCKS and I wish I had ten more just like him... N/A
Possibly tutoring sessions could be set up for those who have a hard time writing the paper, with students who have done well in the course. That might be helpful for those students who have difficultly going to Dr. Whatley with questions.

Good idea! Are you volunteering to be the first tutor? If so, then get in touch with me.
The most valuable aspects of this course were the examples that Dr. Whatley provided on his course website.  Without them, I would have been COMPLETELY clueless about where to even begin on the paper. N/A
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Learning how to conduct and write a research paper. N/A
Having students take the same instructor for 3500 & 3600 would be helpful because the instructor would be aware of exactly what the student has been taught and how.
Learning how to write, learning how to interpret data. I guess all of the material that we covered will be discussed further in upper divison classes, so I wouldn't consider one aspect less valuable than another.  Good question. The course is what it is. Sometimes you just have to take one for the team.

I feel that this course was an extremely valuable experience for me. This course effectively taught the methods of experimental research. While I feel this course was a difficult one, I feel that it callenged my abilities as a student, in addition to helped to assess the skills I need to improve on to further my future career in psychology.

All the skill learned in this class seemed to be advantageous. N/A
The website was the most valuable aspect of this course. It really helped me understand what I needed to do for the paper and provided us with good notes. Also Dr. Whatley's email account is very valuable. He is very good at emailing you back when you have questions.  Overall I think Dr. Whatley is a valuable instructor with good ideas in order to succeed in this course. The only problem I had is that it was a little intemidating talking to Dr. Whatley and being comfortable to ask him questions in class. The course is fine.
I learned how to write a research better and I feel more confident now when writing a paper. I wish I would have taken this class that offered more than one class a week. It was a little much for a one day a week class. Very true.
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Aspects that were most valuable were learning how to write a research paper. None.
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LEARNING HOW TO WRITE THE APA STYLE PAPAR ADN LERNING HOW TO GO ABOUT CONDICTING AN EXPERIMENT WAS VERY USEFUL. N/A
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The outlines of the chapters online and the paper resources. N/A
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The study guides on the website were very helpful in understanding the material in the book. Overall, the website was very helpful for the class. We did not really go over homework assignments that were graded. N/A
Learning how to write a formal paper and reinforcing aspects from statistics in psychology. Writing the formal paper helped to understand published articles relating to psychology and
former research.
Everything was valuable. No suggestions. It's valuable the way it is.
Conducting research. N/A
Have more fun with it.  When you are too serious, it makes a tough task even harder.
The paper was very helpful in learning APA format.  The text was easy to understand with relevant information, examples, and an almost conversational tone at points.  The website was a lifesaver for writing the paper and understanding difficult concepts from the class.
Meeting only one night a week made keeping up very difficult, even with the website and the professor's willingness to help. There was alot of important but difficult material covered in this class and alot of it seemed rather rushed or crammed.  Maybe the department should not offer this class as a one night a week.
The online practice quizzes were very helpful in reviewing the materail before exams. Dr. Whatley's website also provided valuable links to reference material for the course. I also appreciated the lecture outlines given on Dr. Whatley's website as an aid for taking notes during class. Dr. Whatley gave information and examples during lecture in addtition to the material contained in the text to further my knowledge of the subject matter. The writing days available during class were helpful in writing the paper. N/A More instruction and information could be given about the experiment conducted during the course to aid in writing the required paper. The answers to relevant questions asked by a particular student could be shared with the rest of the class.
learning to write a research paper using APA style some of material in the text focus one part of the course on writing the research paper and chapters in the text relative to the paper and the other part of the course focusing on the part of the text more relative to designing and conducting experiments. Also, work on each section of the paper as a class in baby steps to be sure students actually master writing the paper, especially considering that many students have never written a research paper and the paper is such a significant part of the class, Students may not know what questions to ask individually or outside of class.  Maybe if the paper were completed using groups or partners, the workload would be less and students would be encouraged to learn more and ask questions.
The use of the computers and the web site were extremely valuable. The book Help the students that may have had statistics many years before with understanding it a little better. It had been 7 yrs. since I took the stats class for this course and I felt somewhat overwhelmed at first, but somewhat better by the end of the course.
having several things to contribute to our grades, not just tests (ex. homework, papers, etc.), powerpoints were also helpful. Tring to figure out some homework assignments when we hadn't done much like them in class. more discussion from the instructor on how to write the paper, not just figure it out for yourself.

Sometimes, when you try to figure things out for yourself, you realize what you do not know and then you come to me for help; this is a learning tool.
learning to write a APA style research paper. repetitiveness of issues taught in statistics. cut out some of the repetitiveness and focus more on the paper since it was a huge part of our final grade...a lot of the course was self taught....to include writing the paper.
Learning to think critically and analytically were emphasized and helped me in my writing. Dr. Whatley was always available to help you outside of class whenever you needed it. We were given large amounts of class time to work on the paper which was very helpful.
Often there was a condescending attitude that was present from the professor during class time that was not present in his office.  Found this to be frustrating and discouraged me from class participation. Adding a lab portion to this course would allow more opportunity for students to focus more on both the academic portion of the course and the paper portion.

You are correct and when the psych department has the resources to do so, you can bet I will be pushing for just this solution.
The website was very useful. The paper was also a very good project, I felt it was very difficult to get a good grade on it though. He graded very tough, but I feel like I learned alot. N/A
Maybe a little more help and feedback on the paper during class.
The website was really helpful.  The instructor was very knowledgeable.  He is also a likable sort of person and always held my attention during lectures.  I feel like I got my "money's worth" as some other evaluation forms put it.   

The instructor graded unneccessarily hard.  Also, he was available for students to ask questions, etc. but he seemed like he was hoping we would mess up.  If we didn't think to ask then he didn't mention it even if he realized we neeeded to know something. He was one of those teachers who make you want to change your major.  However, I am not trying to say he is a bad teacher, because I suppose that sort of thing can be helpful every now and then.  I tried very hard, but expect to receive a grade much lower than grades in my other classes; that just tells me something may be wrong, although I cannot articulate it.

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I do not believe I grade unnecessarily hard. When students make an error, I find it and correct it; how is that grading unnecessarily hard?
The professor seems to have a lot of knowledge and experience with experimental; however, he is very much reluctent to take time to answer students questions. The professor seemed constantly too busy for his students.

Not true. There were many students who came to me for help during office hours and when I did not have office hours scheduled.
Radically change your teaching style, include more appropriate examples. Cover all material that you require us to know to complete homework, tests, projects. Tell us what you expect from us! Help students who ask for it, effectively.

I did convey what I expected from you orally in class, in the syllabus, and via the examples on the webpage.