Report evaluation Product Life Cycle 2007-2008 - WESP

Report evaluation Product Life Cycle 2007-2008Course name Product Life CycleCourse code 285074Contact person ir. M.E. ToxopeusTeaching staff ir. M.E. ToxopeusCredits5.0 ECPhaseMStudy period Quartile 2, 2007-2008Report date 21 May 2008Reporter EVAcom Wouter BrinkmanOverall appreciation 7.0The master evaluation committee of the master IDE has evaluated the master courseProduct Life Cycle by means of a paper questionnaire. The questionnaire was send to 35students and 27 students completed it. Therefore the response is 77%.The course Product Life Cycle is appreciated with the overall mark of 7.0While students hardly complain on the studyload of this course in the commentaries, it israted as very heavy. They consider that this course took roughly 40 hours of extra time tocomplete, due to the fact that it was given in English.RecommendationsBased on the scores and the validity of the results, the committee believes that there are anumber of improvements can be made to the course:• Reconsider the guest lectures, making them more relevant to the LCA theories oralternatively remove them from the roster.• Bring the course load up to par with its ECTS. As students do not consider the theoryto be too extensive, consider reducing the number of deliverables for this course.FactsThe course Product Life Cycle is appreciated with the overall mark of 6.6. The studentsjudged the study load as heavy according to the amount of ECTS. Also, the relevance wasconsidered sufficient with a 6.9. The quality of education scored more than satisfactory witha 7.4. Also the organisation is valued more than satisfactory with a 7.2.The students judged the assessment more than sufficient with a 7.7.Students judged the level of English of the instructor with a 7.2, while they rated their ownEnglish capacities at 6.6.Specific questionsRegarding meetings and theory:Students feel that the theories were clearly explained, and rate this with a more thansatisfactory 7.1. The assignments were useful with a score of 7.3, and the providedinformation on TeleTOP was rated 7.0, while the presentation sheets were rated 7.6.

Particular sessions were rated as well. Students feel that the presentation which gives anoverview of the LCA theory can be made clearer. The guest lectures failed in their relevanceas they received a 3.8. In addition, the milestone meetings were welcomed by the studentsand received a good 8.2. Students state in their comments that they would prefer some moreexercises before continuing on their final assignments, in order to understand the LCA theorymore clearly.The usefulness of the student assistants was valued with a sufficient 6.1.Graph• The overall appreciation is asked on a 1 to 10 scale.• The correctness of study load is asked on a 1 to 5 scale, with a 1 as too heavy, a 5 astoo light and a 3 as correct.• The other questions are asked on a 1 to 5 scale and multiplied by 2 to an 1 to 10scale.• The vertical lines in the graph are a representation of the deviation.Comments of the studentsStudents were able to make an additional remark. Some additional remarks are:“Report + presentation + debate are a bit too much. Maybe just the report.”“The assignments during the meetings made the theory very clear so that was verygood.”“The guest lectures are absolutely not relevant, especially the lecture of Kockelkoren.”

Comparison with previous yearIn the graph, the scores of this year are compared to the scores of previous year.Comments of the teaching staff:The staff is pleased with the results of the evaluation, and is aware of the relevance inrelation to the guest lectures. However, these guest lectures are there to present a moresocial context to the LCA studies. They are to stay within the course, although the sessionsare being given with more relevance and with a suitable application.With regards to the study load and previous years, the presentation sheets have beenheavily compressed to get the information to the student in a faster way. Yet, by giving thelectures in English as opposed to Dutch, a lot of time is spend on adding nuances in thepresentation, to get the exact message across. Whether the study load can be lowered byoffering optional assignments to practice on are considered; as well as changing the numberof ECTS for this course.With regards,Marten