COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
STUDENT FEEDBACK for Elementary II – Spring 2020
This is a survey that I invited my students to fil out after Spring 2020 as Columbia´s administration failed to provide our courses with evaluations due to the shift to online teaching caused by Covid-19. (Questions included below.)
written feedback for question 10:
Any areas where your instructor did particularly well? Any areas of improvement for your instructor? How did you experience the (Covid-19 caused) shift to online learning in this class?
Cosima was always prepared and had so many worksheets for us to use. Last semester my instructor heavily relied on the textbook Ubungen and did not have any supplementary materials. I felt that the supplementary materials that Cosima had for us were extremely helpful for extra practice.
4/28/2020 6:55 PM
I can’t narrow down what Cosima did well to just one area – she was genuinely a lovely instructor who strove to make the class informative yet digestible! Maybe the only place for improvement could be in some grammar explanations, as there were a few times I and my peers could get confused with what she was explaining. But over all she handled the class both pre and post-COVID very well!
4/28/2020 3:43 AM
I could tell that the transition to online learning was not easy for Cosima, but she ended up conducting class in a very effective way. She encouraged us to speak in German whenever possible, which I found very effective for everyone’s learning. She also was willing to go over questions at any time, even if it was something we had already learned or might be tangential to our focus for that day. One thing we did not focus as much on was vocabulary, which I realize is difficult to do in a classroom.
4/28/2020 2:11 AM
Cosima did a great job transitioning to online learning! While this switch was not an easy one, she made it almost seamless. I appreciated her always coming to class with a smile and work prepared for us. It was also nice knowing that she wanted what was best for us as a class.
4/28/2020 12:31 AM
Cosima did a very good job of making sure that we reviewed past lessons, she also was very good at making sure we understood her answers to our questions. The shift to online learning was difficult in general, but Cosima seemed to have a very good understanding of how to use zoom before we met for our classes, so that was helpful. She made the transition easier than other professors.
4/27/2020 7:39 PM
Professor Mattner expresses genuine concern for every student and is particularly apt at presenting language learning concepts from the standpoint of a student learning the language for the first time. She evidently dedicates a huge amount of time and energy to planning the course and executing productive class sessions. Even amidst the shift to online learning, Professor Mattner maintained a connection with the class and presented concepts very clearly, offering her help generously inside and outside of class time.
4/27/2020 2:31 AM
Cosima was an amazing instructor! She really cares about her students and wants them to succeed. She makes the classroom a safe place to practice German where you don’t need to be afraid to make mistakes. She worked very hard to transition our class online and to make sure that we continued to learn German.
4/27/2020 2:28 AM
Cosima is an incredibly understanding professor. Anyone that has the chance to be her student will definitely end the course being fluent in German.
4/25/2020 10:50 PM
Cosima did really well with explaining the nuances of grammar and the ways in which different words are used in German. She was really good at making sure everyone’s questions were answered well, and her shift in response to COVID-19 was really good. The way she altered how she conducted class worked really well and she listened to student feedback. Really enjoyed have Cosima as my instructor!!!
4/25/2020 4:40 AM
Cosima was amazing! She’s a great teacher, and I learned so much with her. She was always very prepared and accessible, and was notably talented at explaining grammar topics in German in a way that we could all understand. I would recommend taking Cosima’s courses to anyone interested in learning German!
4/24/2020 9:16 PM
Cosima remained professional and compassionate throughout the shift to online learning. In class she was demanding but also encouraging, always pushing us to do better while at the same time praising our efforts and correcting mistakes in a thoughtful way. She was an excellent instructor, and I would recommend her to any student looking to learn German.
4/24/2020 3:23 PM
- How likely is it that you would recommend your instructor to another student?
- Answered: 13
- Skipped: 0
| DETRACTORS (0-6) | PASSIVES (7-8) | PROMOTERS (9-10) | NET PROMOTER® SCORE |
| 0 0 | 8% 1 | 92% 12 | 92 |
- How knowledgeable was your instructor?
- Answered: 13
- Skipped: 0
| ANSWER CHOICES– | RESPONSES– |
| – Extremely knowledgeable | 92.31% 12 |
| – Very knowledgeable | 7.69% 1 |
| – Somewhat knowledgeable | 0.00% 0 |
| – Not so knowledgeable | 0.00% 0 |
| – Not at all knowledgeable | 0.00% 0 |
| TOTAL | 13 |
- How clearly did your instructor explain the course material?
- Answered: 13
- Skipped: 0
| ANSWER CHOICES– | RESPONSES– |
| – Extremely clearly | 76.92% 10 |
| – Very clearly | 15.38% 2 |
| – Somewhat clearly | 7.69% 1 |
| – Not so clearly | 0.00% 0 |
| – Not at all clearly | 0.00% 0 |
| TOTAL | 13 |
- How concerned was your instructor that students were learning the material?
- Answered: 13
- Skipped: 0
| ANSWER CHOICES– | RESPONSES– |
| – Extremely concerned | 92.31% 12 |
| – Very concerned | 7.69% 1 |
| – Somewhat concerned | 0.00% 0 |
| – Not so concerned | 0.00% 0 |
| – Not at all concerned | 0.00% 0 |
| TOTAL | 13 |
- How organized for class was your instructor?
- Answered: 13
- Skipped: 0
| ANSWER CHOICES– | RESPONSES– |
| – Extremely organized | 69.23% 9 |
| – Very organized | 23.08% 3 |
| – Somewhat organized | 0.00% 0 |
| – Not so organized | 7.69% 1 |
| – Not at all organized | 0.00% 0 |
| TOTAL | 13 |
- How well did your instructor answer students’ questions?
- Answered: 13
- Skipped: 0
| ANSWER CHOICES– | RESPONSES– |
| – Extremely well | 76.92% 10 |
| – Very well | 23.08% 3 |
| – Somewhat well | 0.00% 0 |
| – Not so well | 0.00% 0 |
| – Not at all well | 0.00% 0 |
| TOTAL | 13 |
- Was the speed with which your instructor presented the course material too fast, too slow, or about right?
- Answered: 13
- Skipped: 0
| ANSWER CHOICES– | RESPONSES– |
| – Much too fast | 0.00% 0 |
| – Too fast | 7.69% 1 |
| – The right amount | 84.62% 11 |
| – Too slow | 7.69% 1 |
| – Much too slow | 0.00% 0 |
| TOTAL | 13 |
- How helpful were the homework assignments to your understanding of the material?
- Answered: 13
- Skipped: 0
| ANSWER CHOICES– | RESPONSES– |
| – Extremely helpful | 30.77% 4 |
| – Very helpful | 46.15% 6 |
| – Somewhat helpful | 23.08% 3 |
| – Not so helpful | 0.00% 0 |
| – Not at all helpful | 0.00% 0 |
| TOTAL | 13 |
- How easy or difficult was it to get in contact with your instructor outside of class?
- Answered: 13
- Skipped: 0
| ANSWER CHOICES– | RESPONSES– |
| – Very easy | 69.23% 9 |
| – Easy | 23.08% 3 |
| – Neither easy nor difficult | 7.69% 1 |
| – Difficult | 0.00% 0 |
| – Very difficult | 0.00% 0 |
| – Not applicable (I did not attempt to get in contact with this instructor outside of class) | 0.00% 0 |
| TOTAL | 13 |
TUTORING
Review by Tutoree
I am very pleased to write in support of Cosima Mattner as teacher of German language and literature. I hired her early in this academic year to work with me, privately, to improve my spoken German, which had become very rusty after decades of disuse. We met via Zoom, given covid, but quickly established a good working relationship that was both professional and relaxed. Cosima quickly figured out what kind of help I needed most urgently, and although I had thought I just wanted to practice speaking, she gently pushed me to review some points of grammar that I had either never learned properly or had forgotten, and she assigned some challenging readings – poetry, biography, philosophy – that were different from the material I was familiar with as an historian of late medieval and early modern Europe. The readings were in themselves interesting, and we spent much of our time discussing them as cultural objects, not just as instructional texts. At her suggestion, I also wrote some short texts (250 words or so), although when I began I had no intention of working my German up to the level of being able to write for the Academy in the language, but I found the exercises very useful. And once again, Cosima helped me correct (and improve) them without turning my German into hers.
I had found Cosima simply by perusing the website of the Department of Germanic languages, and contacted her simply because she was listed first among the graduate students willing to teach German privately. I could not have chosen better.
