History Department Response to Student Feedback
HSTY 2662 - Atlantic World in an Age of Empire (2007)

Unit Coordinator: Dr Michael McDonnell

This was the third time I taught this unit of study at the University of Sydney. After taking on board some of the comments from the previous years (see response to student feedback, 2004 and 2005), I am pleased to report that the overall satisfaction rate for the unit of study, wherein students agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that they were satisfied with the quality of the unit of study, was 96.5% with only one person neutral on the subject. This is up slightly from a satisfaction rate of 85% in 2005, and 86% in 2004, the first year that I taught this course. This improvement is perhaps a reflection of the changes we made in the unit of study, but also due to the superb tutoring of Kate Blake, who garnered many favourable comments from appreciative students and who were particularly happy with the level of feedback and response from both Kate and myself. Kate, whose research expertise lies in the field of renaissance Italy, contributed much to the unit of study and compelled both students and myself to look anew at topics we thought we already understood!

Most students were very happy with the course and their comments reflected this. Students seemed to particularly enjoy being able to choose their focus of study for the essay and tutorial papers.

For more details about the course, and the kind of feedback we have received, please see the responses to student feedback from 2004 and 2005.