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Assessment of My Teaching

In 1999, I was honored to receive an Illinois State University Teaching Initiative Award.  Details about the award are contained in Appendix 11.

Appendix 8 contains a summary of my summative course evaluations.  My student evaluations have consistently been above the mean for the department and in several semesters I have received the highest scores for any course at that level.  I consider this outstanding in light of the exceptional teaching faculty in the economics department at ISU (Three economics professors have won University Teaching Awards.)  The scores for ECO 235 are especially good since half of the students are non-economics students who are required to take the course for the Telecommunications Management major in Applied Computer Science.

All of the open-ended comments from the course evaluations are also contained in Appendix 8.  General comments include “very caring and concerned,” “one of the best instructors I have had at ISU,” “Dr. Loomis is an excellent teacher,” “he’s an all around good instructor,” “instructor showed concern for the students’ learning,” “makes difficult subject easy to understand and interesting.”  I find it especially rewarding that students comment on areas that I feel are the most important to good teaching, namely, knowledge, variety, enthusiasm, contact, relevance, and high standards.  I want to highlight a few of the student comments related to each area below:

Knowledge

·        very knowledgeable

·        knows a lot about the industries we’re studying

·        major strength is instructor is not only an economist, but someone who has experience in the telecommunications industry

·        opens new useful information for students and has the background for it

·        instructor has first hand experience with the subject matter and gave detailed and effective personal examples

·        he lives the material and knows it well

·        I love the fact that this teacher is so current with our topics.   

Variety

·        helpful to be introduced to the material from so many angles

·        he is flexible when presented with a difficult situation

·        class interaction it wasn’t just lecture

·        willingness to open class to discussion of topic

·        his teaching style is very effective by explaining the material well and having his notes posted on the internet for additional help

·        very interested for everybody, till everyone understands it

• I really liked his personal experience stories.  They helped shed light on the inner workings of the organizations.

• He tried different ways to help us learn (Central office trip).

Enthusiasm

·        very enthusiastic about teaching and helping students

·        enthusiasm for subject

·        makes class interesting and helps us want to learn

·        adds humor to lighten the work

·        his enthusiasm rubs off

·        I had no desire to take this course and he has made it worthwhile

·        enjoys teaching class

• Dr. Loomis is one of the best teachers I have ever had the pleasure to have class with.  His excellence shines in every class.  He is an asset to the University & deserves a pay raise.

·        Dr. Loomis is probably one of the best teachers I have had at ISU.  He knows his stuff and it is evident that he loves teaching.  This enthusiasm carries over to his students.

Contact

·        meets with students constantly when he probably has other work to do

·        strengths: office hours/spending extra time with students

·        he’s very good with offering help outside of class

·        easy approachable

·        it was painful at times but this professor helped me stick with it, it was a valuable learning experience

·        was available outside of class for further discussion

·        Dr. Loomis is probably one of the best teachers I have had at ISU.  He knows his stuff and it is evident that he loves teaching.  This enthusiasm carries over to his students.

·        Dr. Loomis shows concern for his students.  I have been to his office 5 or 6 times this semester.  Each visit was not during his scheduled office hours.  He said that if I needed to see him, he would make time for me to come in.  I really appreciate that.  Each visit to his office was productive and helped me improve in the class.

• always willing to help out when difficulties occurred while doing homework - always available during office hours.

Relevance

·        Instructor tries to relate abstract economic ideas to everyday life

·        real world experience, adds color – examples and stories to enliven class

·        strength: using theory and applying to the “real world”

·        As a graduating ACS major, I believe this class was one of the most interesting. insightful, relevant subjects that I could end my school career with.

·        the conference was very valuable in understanding the recent development in the industry

·        offers real world examples and experience

·        the conference we went to and the class discussion on the conference was extremely valuable

·        Dr. Loomis always explained what everything meant, as opposed to just putting the notes up and standing there.  I liked learning about the Internet and wireless services.  That was very useful and relevant. 

High Standards

·        he is a very difficult grader

·        some of the topics were difficult for me

·        I don’t have much time to spend hours in the library.

·        Tests are too long

·        I learned a lot more in this class than I thought I would and I have already seen the benefit from some of the knowledge gained

·        Great class, tough tests!

Unsolicited letters of recommendation from students and others are contained in Appendix 10.  One letter from Dr. Robert Zant, Chair of the Applied Computer Science Department, highlights the outstanding response that I received about ECO 235 from a panel of industry representatives who evaluate the Telecommunications Management program. 

Eight of my students for whom I have written recommendations have won Lela Winegarner Fellowships, awarded to promising international students who are pursuing career service to their country (1998 - Qing Li & Narmada Nanjudan; 1999 – Xiaodong Deng & Fang Chen; 2000 – Yu Chen & Lei Zhang & Xiaoye Cui; 2001 – Cheryl Wang).  One of my students was graduate student of the year (Joe Wiedman, 1999).  My student interns have gotten exceptional evaluations from their supervisors and most have gotten job offers from the company with which they interned.  Industry supervisors have called me asking for interns next summer because their current intern worked out so well.

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