Posted 9:25 p.m. Monday, Nov. 6, 2023
Oh, that’s what LENS stands for!
Yes, the LENS is replacing SEIs effective Fall 2023. This decision was supported and passed by the 22/23 Faculty Senate and an ad hoc committee was formed to initiate the transition from the current SEI to the LENS. So, this change has been in the making for a while and it’s finally here. We (CATL) know this change is unsettling for some, welcomed for some, and enigmatic for others. But no matter where you stand, it’s time to dig into the details of the LENS so you can help prepare your students and yourself for its upcoming launch.
The LENS Instrument
First and foremost, here is a PDF copy of the LENS instrument. Overall, the LENS instrument is intended to provide formative feedback to instructors that can be reviewed and used as part of a continual teaching improvement process. The LENS provides space and opportunity for ideally targeted comments. The survey is intended to focus on the environment created to support learning. And, since a student is capable of responding to and commenting on their experience and perception, that is what students are asked to do with the LENS.
The LENS Questions
There are 13 questions broken down like this:
- Item 1: Motivation. This is the only question that transferred over from SEIs. Knowing how motivated your students were to learn about the subject can help set the stage for how they may respond to the LENS.
- Item 2 (Instructional Activities), Item 3 (Student Learning Behaviors), and Item 4 (Time on Task) are all questions that ask students to reflect on how they perceive various practices (both in and out of the classroom) have impacted their learning in the course. The results from these questions can be seen as foundational/informational, and can help make sense of the responses received in later questions.
- Items 5 through 13 focus on eight tenants of effective teaching: workload manageability, expectations, course alignment, peer interactions, belonging, opportunities, support, and feedback. These tenants are widely researched and have long been sustained as areas of teaching that can be impactful to learners across disciplines, course types, and course modalities. Each of these areas has both target responses (yellow highlighting) and an optional open text response area.
CATL’s Role with LENS
CATL’s role is to help instructors understand the LENS instrument, supporting the reflection and improvement goals related to feedback, and supporting the process of continual improvements. Simply knowing what questions will be on the LENS is a solid first step toward being prepared for its upcoming implementation. In the coming weeks, CATL will continue to present blog posts with additional information about the LENS. We have also offered to attend department meetings to provide an overview of the LENS and address any questions instructors may have. And, we’re hosting Assessment Commons: LENS in January with a focus on reflective practice and exploring the eight tenants of effective teacher. We hope to engage with you soon about LENS and if you want to talk about ways CATL can support you and/or your department/college, please drop us a line – catl@uwlax.edu.
*Many members of that committee went on to publish a study about the pilot phase of the LENS – check it out, the findings are quite interesting.