The last week of class is as crucial as the first, so many instructors find that it is well worth their time to engage students in deeper reflection and learning even amid the last-minute logistical details and catching up. The Center for Teaching and the Office of Teaching, Learning, and Technology offer some ideas for finishing strong and building momentum for future terms.

Help students see how the course has helped them to meet the learning goals of the course

• Revisit a theory or scenario that you had first presented in very simplistic terms and then discuss together how you have built on or added nuance to during the term. 
  • Ask students to identify the 3-4 major takeaways that you want them to remember years after they complete your course.  
  • Inviting students to create some exam questions is a useful exercise for helping them to recognize the key points of the course.  
• Help students integrate ideas and materials from across the course. Asking students (individually or in groups) to create concept maps or some other visual representation of major concepts, ideas, and significant information can help them to review and process content for deep learning.   
• Encourage students to think about how the learning they did in the course can be used in other personal, professional, or academic contexts. You can ask students to identify skills they have developed, consider scenarios in which they may need to use knowledge from class, or even practice discussing aspects of the course in common interview questions. Setting up Discussions in ICON, or using Microsoft Education tools in ICON can allow students to share or collaborate on their reflections.  
• Remind students that they can save examples of their work to include in professional portfolios to demonstrate their progress and achievement. 

Help students to prepare for the final exam or final project

• Iowa students tend to respond very positively to study guides or other handouts that offer guidance about the format and content of the exam, or a checklist or rubric to check their final paper against. If your course has well-aligned learning objectives, this can also form a kind of study guide.  
• Students may benefit from some guidance about how to study for the final exam. Some students will try to reread the bulk of the materials; some will try to synthesize and rewrite old lecture notes; some will rework old problems; some will try to find new problems; some will study for many hours the night before; some will spread it out over weeks. Which strategies would you recommend?   
• Many students may be dealing with increased stress and anxiety during the final weeks. It is helpful to acknowledge this stress, and to remind students of the capacities they have built during the term to succeed as well as resources that are available to support them. 

Get constructive feedback on the course

Doing so can help you to plan for the future as well as help students to process what they’ve achieved over the course of the semester.   

• Ask students about how the assignments helped them to develop skills and understand information. List them all and ask students to offer their recommendations through a framework of “stop, start, continue” (e.g., identify something that hinders your learning that you suggest your instructor stop, identify something that your instructor could start doing to support your learning, and offer positive feedback on something your instructor should continue doing). ICON discussions, ICON Surveys and Top Hat all allow you ways to set up anonymous feedback for students.   
• Ask students to write a letter to the next cohort of students. What should new students be excited about? What advice would they like to offer?   
• You can offer your feedback on the course to the students: What key moments will you remember? 

Reflect on your own course experiences and plan for how you may want to tweak or revise it for future terms. 

• Gather and reflect on information about how the class went. Consider your own observations, student feedback, and the results of your assessments. The reflection process can sometimes be challenging, but you can ask colleagues, mentors, or Center for Teaching staff to help you make sense of the information you gather. 
• Identify the parts of the course that would most benefit from revision. Redesigning an entire course every time you teach it is not always necessary or sustainable, but identifying one or two key features to revise – a major assignment, the late work policy, accessibility of materials, or the organization of ICON modules, for example – can help you to make impactful changes for future students. 
• Make a plan for how you will revise the course. Do you need to identify new materials for the syllabus, reserve time to update an old assignment, or seek out a thought-partner to talk through your ideas? The Center for Teaching is here to help – reach out to us at [email protected]. 

Review your ICON course site and make a plan for copying and revising materials

References

Brookfield, S. (2017). Becoming a critically reflective teacher / Stephen D. Brookfield. (Second edition..). Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Brand.

Duffy, D. K., & Jones, J. W. (1995). Teaching within the rhythms of the semester. Jossey-Bass.

Lang, J. M. (2010). On course: A week-by-week guide to your first semester of college teaching. Harvard University Press.

Weimer, M. (2023, June 15). The last class session: How to make it count. Faculty Focus. https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/the-last-class-session-how-to-make-it-count/