History Department Response to Student Feedback
HSTY 2666 - American Revolutions (2006)

Unit Coordinator: Dr Michael McDonnell

This was the second time I taught this unit of study at the University of Sydney. After taking on board some of the comments from the previous year (see response to feedback, 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 97.8% with one only one person neutral on the subject. This is up slightly from a satisfaction rate of 96.2% the previous year, and is I think a reflection of the changes we made in the unit of study, and also the superb tutoring of Cam MacKellar, who garnered many favourable comments from appreciative students and who were particularly happy with the level of feedback and response from both Cam and myself.

Though all students seemed very happy with what we did, some students were keen to have a bit more of a focus on the Revolutionary War itself (battlefield tactics and strategy!) and some others wanted to spend more time on other Revolutions in this era. I can only plead time constraints for not spending more time on these particular topics. I was also happy to allow students to pursue their own interests in the essays, which many students were very keen and willing to do. There were some superb essays. Finally, many students were not that keen on two-hour lectures. Neither was I in the end. So, 2009 we have gone back to the more traditional format of one hour lectures, twice a week.

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