Student Feedback (SGID)

Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID) is a voluntary, confidential feedback process that enables instructors to get frank, useful comments from students on a course that is still in progress.

Designed to increase communication between the students and the instructor, with the aim of improving learning in the class, the process uses small group student interviews to identify strengths of the course, areas of student concern, and possible ways to address those concerns.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who can request an SGID?
Anyone teaching a class at UND may request an SGID. This includes faculty, part-time instructors, and GTAs.

Who conducts the process?
All SGIDs are conducted by volunteer SGID facilitators—UND faculty members who receive special training in how to conduct instructor and student interviews according to the established SGID process.

When are SGIDs conducted?
SGIDs are conducted around the middle of the semester. You need to have enough time remaining in the course to make meaningful changes based on the feedback provided. All fall semester SGIDs must be completed by Thanksgiving. All spring semester SGIDs must be completed by the second week after spring break. Request your SGID well in advance of these cutoffs. You can make your request as early as the beginning of the semester. 

How do I request an SGID?
The first step is to contact Jana Diemert
. Jana will need to know when your class meets and your preferred date for the SGID. This allows her to match you with a facilitator who is usually available during your class time.

How is the SGID scheduled?
After you have requested the SGID with Jana, a facilitator will contact you. You and the facilitator will schedule the three parts of the SGID process: a pre- and post-meeting and the class visit itself.

What happens during the SGID process?

1. A few days before the scheduled class visit, the instructor and facilitator meet to discuss the course and determine what questions the instructor would like to see addressed in the interviews.
2. On the day of the scheduled class visit, the facilitator meets with the class, in the absence of the instructor, for about 30 minutes. The facilitator directs students to form small groups, select a leader, and come to consensus on answers to three questions. Although the questions may vary in form, they always focus on strengths in the class, areas for change, and ways of making suggested changes. (If an instructor wants to focus feedback on specific aspects of the class, he/she may choose additional questions designed to obtain information on those aspects.)
3. Soon after the class, instructor and facilitator meet again to review the process. The facilitator provides a written summary of student comments for the instructor, and together they review and interpret these comments.
4. When the instructor next meets the class, he/she takes a few minutes to respond to the student comments and discuss questions and issues that arose in the SGID.

How is an SGID report used?
Because the SGID is a confidential report designed to give formative feedback to the instructor, no one besides the instructor sees it. No copy of the report is kept, either by the facilitator or OID. (While facilitators file a final report to indicate that an SGID was completed, the instructor's name does not appear with this record-keeping data.)

The SGID is definitely not to be used as an instrument to evaluate teaching. Although an instructor may choose to refer to or quote from an SGID report in a teaching portfolio, to explain how he or she responds to student feedback, the report itself should not be included. The reason for this is to help insure that the SGID process remains confidential and that the results of the process are used only by the instructor, for the purpose of improving teaching and learning in the class.

What are the benefits of an SGID?
Student and instructor response to the SGID process has been outstanding. Students appreciate the midterm timing, which provides opportunity for changes to affect them. Instructors value the personal interaction and supportive interpretation by a facilitator/colleague, as well as the concrete student input in a form which facilitates its use by the instructor.

Can SGID be used in online courses?
An SGID can be conducted for online or hybrid classes which meet synchronously and utilize live discussion in the class. If the course meets asynchronously or does not have live discussion as part of the course, it is better to utilize an anonymous online survey to receive feedback. Help with online surveys is available through the Center for Instructional and Learning Technologies (777-6305).