Pre-Course Survey

Designing an effective and concise pre-course survey takes a bit of planning and forethought.  The key is determining what information would facilitate community building (some insight into the instructors background and interests included), help the instructor steer the course in a direction that would benefit the most people, give a good baseline for students’ preconceived understanding of the topic, and engender some self reflection and goal setting on the part of the student.  Phew, that is a mouthful of learning objectives to incorporate into one concise survey.  An additional icebreaker would definitely be needed to flush out some these objectives.

Survey properly formatted in Survey Monkey can be found here: Brain Based Living PreCourse Survey

Some example questions included:

1) What is your highest degree level (please list your degree if applicable)?
some high school
high school
some college
undergraduate degree:Major:____________________________
some graduate school
graduate degree:_________________________________

2) Which best represents your experience with neuroscience?
read a few articles in the newspaper
taken a class or two
completed personal research in certain topics
occupation is related
hold a graduate degree in neuroscience

3) Which of the following topics seem the most interesting (choose all that apply)?
Parkinson’s/Alzheimer’s disease
The Mind
Neurons, Synapses, Neurotransmitters
The Brain as an Electric Circuit
The Neural Network
Decision Making
Autism
Vision, Smell, Hearing
Learning and Memory

4) Your Dream Vacation Would Include (choose all that apply)?
Soft Sand in Your Toes
Majestic Mountains in Your Sights
Artistic Masterpieces from the likes of Michelangelo
The serenity of your home garden
Visiting 10 countries in 8 days
A private tour of outerspace
Other:__________________________________

5) What are your current occupation and/or goals?


6) What do you hope to learn/achieve from taking this course?


7) Do you prefer the best episodes of Star Trek or movies of Star Wars?
Star Trek
Star Wars
Depends on my mood
Neither
Enjoy them both equally

8) Would you classify your home as:
rural
urban
suburban

9) Where do you live?


10) Please share a brief professional bio with any other relevant information.