course comments:

Below, I have organized comments from students who have taken this course in the past. I make these available to you in the hope that seeing what other students thought of the course might help you.

Question 1: Was the class intellectually stimulating? Did it stretch your thinking?

• Yes-very useful, important information presented in a very systematic, straightforward manner (Winter 2003)
• Yes-this was a great class! (Winter 2003)
• Yes-this class helped me in my everyday problems that arise during my teaching day (Winter 2003)
• Yes-Somewhat intellectually stimulating; however, I learned a lot and feel very competent in the FBA process-better than others at my school of employment (Winter 2003)
• Yes-I believe the material presented was relevant to my future career (Winter 2003)
• Yes-Michael's class and the subject matter presented a challenge to my philosophical and intellectual preconceived notions, but he succeeded in teaching me many new skills (Winter 2003)
• Yes-Michael is very interesting and knowledgeable; he is a professional in his field and has his own firm (Winter 2003)
• Yes-Awesome! I learned so much! At first I was terrified about the amount of work, but it all turned out to be manageable and I was very pleased with the outcome of all my hard work, if not my grade (I hate being graded) (Winter 2003)
• Yes-It required thought on my part about my students' problems and ways to change them (Winter 2003)
• Yes-I appreciated Michael's high level of professional intent; he's good at what he does and it shows; we appreciate good role models (Winter 2003)
• Yes-It gave me a better grasp of FBA's and taught me ways to collect data and creating FBA's and knowing when to do with the data and the information (Winter 2005)
• Yes-Lots of math, numbers, computer skills that ere not part of my day-to-day life working with toddlers--but interesting and refreshing to look at behavior more objectively (Winter 2005)
• Yes-It was great to gain useful, real life experience developing FBA's (Winter 2005)
• Yes-You bet! (1) never did FBA's before, (2) could actually follow along with Michael's teaching, (3) I learned a lot (Winter 2005)
• Yes-This was a great introduction as to how to implement an appropriate FBA and behavior support plan, how to graph and understand graphs (Winter 2005)
• Yes-Michael did an excellent job of explaining concepts to us. I like the way it was formatted in that it guided us through the steps of completing an FBA. (Winter 2005)
• Yes-I learned a lot from this class. I liked ho core concepts were repeatedly talked about and expanded on. (Winter 2005)
• Yes-some of the concepts needed more time than we had. I enjoyed having a presentable product at the end [of the course]. (Winter 2005)
• Yes-Extended my thinking. (Winter 2005)
• Yes-The class required a great deal of analysis. Ongoing assessment and evaluation of your thinking were essential to create effective solutions to assignments. (Winter 2005)
• Yes-The class was paced well. It kept moving, so we were using our knowledge and adding to it. (Winter 2005)
• Yes-It made me rethink how I approached behavior. It also allowed me to measure behavioral dimensions more consistently. (Winter 2005)
• Yes-I knew nothing about FBA's [at the start of class]. Everything fascinating. (Winter 2005)
• Yes-I thought it was beneficial to hear my classmates' examples and ideas for intervention strategies. I appreciated the questions and discussions that arose during lectures. Thank you. This class was the U's saving grace for this student. I had a negative experience in my other two classes, and this redeemed the UW in my eyes.(Winter 2005)

Question 2: What aspects of the class contributed most to your learning?

• Organization! (Really!)-rubric, breakdown of FBA/BSP into parts, web site; thank you for having the BSP due BEFORE finals! (Winter 2003)
• I really enjoyed the data shares and learned much from them (Winter 2003)
• the hands-on activities and lots of feedback; the rubrics were great; the web site was great; this was one of the best classes I've ever taken! Thank you! (Winter 2003)
• I enjoyed the low pressure atmosphere (Winter 2003)
• I enjoyed Michael's enthusiasm! (Winter 2003)
• the class was hands-on and experiential-doing the work provided lots of good practice (Winter 2003)
• the instructor was readily available to offer feedback based on [his] experience (Winter 2003)
• Michael's teaching style and approach (Winter 2003)
• Michael's experience in the trenches and his sense of humor; I learned a lot from fellow students too (Winter 2003)
• learning by doing (Winter 2003)
• assignments were great-useful, pointed, purposeful, and well planned (Winter 2003)
• Professor's input, lectures, and his attitude; having the notes online and help from peers (Winter 2005)
• going through the FBA process; reading example behavior support plans on the web site; data shares (Winter 2005)
• using real examples (Winter 2005)
• Michael's wit; the fast pace of the course; the practical application (Winter 2005)
• doing the FBA and developing the behavior support plan--it all was clear AFTER that was done (Winter 2005)
• Michael's enthusiasm and knowledge of the content was awesome (Winter 2005)
• Michael's enthusiasm was amazing and contagious; I really liked how the course was organized; I feel that really helped me learn the FBA process (Winter 2005)
• the examples, printing the lecture notes and samples of the web site (Winter 2005)
• the way we learned the methods and then went out and actually did each (Winter 2005)
• Michael and the project (Winter 2005)
• class discussion was important. Listening to other situations that were presented in class helped all of us consider our own projects (Winter 2005)
• Michael's feedback on assignments; the course readings; the course web site (Winter 2005)
• Michael's feedback was great, as was his guidance (Winter 2005)
• Michael's knowledge and expertise! The course web site; examples of FBA's and behavior support plans; [grading] rubrics for each assignment (Winter 2005)
• the lectures and PowerPoint slides that were available online; also the FBA examples on the Fabrizio/Moors Consulting web site (Winter 2005)

Question 3: What aspects of the class detracted from your learning?

• Data shares-perhaps a short lesson/example by you beforehand would have cut down on the time and extra info shared (Winter 2003)
• A lot of time spent figuring out how to use the computer that could have been spent on my projects (Winter 2003)
• time of day (7:00 PM to 9:50 PM) (Winter 2003)
• worrying about getting a bad grade (Winter 2003)
• the assignments weren't always clearly defined; then they weren't always checked; this created the problem of me doing an assignment, thinking it was right, turning it in, and then finding out it was wrong one month later (Winter 2003)
• late night BUT the professor made it easier to handle (Winter 2005)
• I would have preferred to go a little slower, perhaps going for one more week (Winter 2005)
• sometimes the "speed" of Michael's explanations/comments were too fast, though he was open to re-explaining/rephrasing and cared about our level of understanding (Winter 2005)
• too late in the evening (Winter 2005)
• some of Michael's verbage--a little over our heads on occasion (Winter 2005)
• The time. I wish the class was earlier, but thank goodness Michael's enthusiasm kept me awake (Winter 2005)
• the pace was too fast, but it was nice to be done with the final project early (Winter 2005)
• the pace was a little too quick (Winter 2005)
• I wish we could have done lectures first and left questions for the end so we could get through the material and not listen to everyone's questions. Or, at least have the option to listen to questions but get the information from the lecture. (Winter 2005)
• the speed of the course and the weekly expectation could have been spread across the quarter more evenly (Winter 2005)
• classroom environment--no Internet access to reference the web site (Winter 2005)

Question 4: What suggestions do you have for improving the class?

• Grading-very sensitive; minor errors=big points lost (Winter 2003)
• maybe modify the overall grading rubric (Winter 2003)
• a different grading scale; an "A" should go down to 95% of he total possible points; 95% is a very high number! I would say 95%-97% is 3.9 and 98%-100% is 4.0 (I know, I know, but I hate grades!!) (Winter 2003)

Michael's note: I took the grading scale I use in the course directly from that endorsed by the University of Washington. While the grading scale does set a high standard for students, I agree with setting such high standards and believe that it is the joint responsibility of me and my students to help ensure that everyone masters the course material.

• following up and checking on students' work at all steps to see if they are understanding; answering emails (Winter 2003)
• having a drop box for assignments (Winter 2003)
• nothing--great! (Winter 2005)
• Michael, you rock! Thanks for teaching! (Winter 2005)
• don't schedule the class so late; it's hard for people to think at this hour (Winter 2005)
• Why was the class over in 6.5 sessions? Would have really appreciated a whole course syllabus on day 1; would have loved to have some of the information Michael gave/flung out on paper; he has GEMS of information to share; glossary of terms, information on trends, variability, etc. (Winter 2005)
• an introduction to Microsoft Excel, a tutorial on using the library to find journal articles before that assignment, more examples of FBA's and behavior support plans (Winter 2005)
• increase the number of strategies presented and the number of examples of FBA's and behavior support plans (Winter 2005)
• a different class time (Winter 2005)
• Michael has a wealth of information to share. I learned a great amount, but wonder how much more I could have learned if we would have continued through the end of the quarter. Thanks for the knowledge and for the quick turn around time to get feedback on assignments. (Winter 2005)
• a tutorial on using software graphing programs would be helpful. At times I think it was assumed that students had a deeper knowledge of behavior analytic vocabulary then they actually did. (Winter 2005)
• nothing. Great class. Learned a lot and it made a big difference to a kiddo, a classroom, and a family. (Winter 2005)
• use the whole quarter (Winter 2005)
• a little too rushed; would have liked to spend a bit longer learning to write individual parts [of the FBA and BSP]; have a research librarian visit the class; a lesson on Excel (Winter 2005)
• show an example of a data share before we begin collecting the information for our own data shares; helps with references. (Winter 2005)