Services

Submit Your Application for a Spring 2026 SGID

Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID)

Small Group Instructional Diagnosis (SGID) - a.k.a. Facilitated Mid-Term Evaluation - is a method of formative course evaluation that uses a trained, outside facilitator to conduct a mid-semester discussion with your students and gather their feedback. You don’t even need to be there, so this can be a great option if you have to be away for a mid-semester conference. SGIDs can help strengthen communication between faculty and students, offer an opportunity to make mid-semester course adjustments, and assist in the development of ideas for strengthening a course.  

This feedback arrives in time to be useful in the current semester, and potentially to guide adjustments that impact learning as well as SPoT course assessments at semester’s end. A SGID takes 50 minutes of class time and works most effectively in courses with 20-75 students. (If your course doesn’t fit these parameters, contact Jonathan Chenoweth directly. We’ll work something out.) 

Fall 2026 SGIDs can be conducted in person or synchronously online (via Zoom) from October 5 to October 23. If you are interested in having a SGID done in a course this semester, please complete the form found at this link. It helps if we have your request by October 1, and at least a week in advance of your requested date(s).  

The SGID process requires a full 50 minutes of class time. If you need to be out of town for a conference just before or after spring break, don’t cancel class: schedule a SGID! 

Why SGIDs?

The Small Group Instructional Diagnosis was developed by Joseph Clark and Mark Redmond as a government grant project in 1982. The SGID is a mid-term course evaluation where a trained facilitator conducts a structured conversation with students to highlight the students’ consensus on what is going well and poorly in the class, what the instructor could do to further facilitate students learning, and what students could do to contribute to their own learning.

There are a number of reasons to use the SGID:

1. To inquire into one’s course and the students’ learning experiences.
2. To obtain systematic feedback from student relatively early in the semester (6-8 weeks): it is useful feedback at the right time. And, the feedback is, perhaps, more helpful because it represents group attitude.
3. To locate what might be changed for improving students’ learning and satisfaction in a course.
4. To make changes that can improve students learning experiences during the remainder of the course.
5. They can be used to enhance teaching effectiveness. (formative vs. summative assessment)
6. They are low pressure for students and faculty because they are not “official” student assessments. (Not used for tenure and promotion)

A few studies have been done on the effects of the midterm evaluation on improving teaching, and its relationship to SETs. In her book, Student Ratings of Instruction: Recognizing Effective Teaching (2013), Nira Hativa reports the following:

“Cohen (1980) performed a meta-analysis of 17 studies that examined effects of midterm evaluation on improving teaching. He found that receiving feedback from student ratings administered during the first half of the term was positively related to improving teaching as measured by student ratings at the end of term. Similarly, Murray (2007) showed (on the basis of Murray & Smith, 1989) that midterm feedback with ratings of specific behaviors led to significant improvement of classroom teaching, as indicated by significantly higher ratings of Overall Teaching at the end of term. Murray concluded that under the right conditions, midterm feedback on specific teaching behaviors could significantly improve teaching.”

• Cohen, P. A. (1980). Effectiveness of Student-Rating Feedback for Improving College Instruction: A Meta-Analysis of Findings. Research in Higher Education, 13(4), 321-341.
• Murray, H. G. (2007). Low-inference teaching behaviors and college teaching effectiveness: Recent developments and controversies. In R. P. Perry & J. C. Smart (Eds.), The scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education: An evidence-based perspective (pp. 145-200). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
• Murray, H.G., and Smith, T.A. (1989). Effects of Midterm Behavioral Feedback on End of-term Ratings of Instructor Effectiveness. Paper presented at annual meeting of the American Education Research Association, San Francisco.

Other SGID Resources

• "The Impact of a Learner-Centered, Mid-Semester Course Evaluation on Students" by Carol A Hurney, Nancy L. Harris, Samantha C. Bates Prines, & S.E. Kruck
• "Use of Small Groups in Instructional Evaluation" by Joseph Clark and Jean Bekey
• "Small Group Instructional Diagnosis: A Method for Enhancing Writing Instruction" by Darsie Bowden