Spring 2022 Course Evaluations

on the personal opinions of the professor. Additionally, specific students missed class several times. It was unclear if their lack of attendance affected their grade when scheduled to perform. The lack of an attendance policy was unfair to other students who attended every class and made sure to be in attendance when they were scheduled to perform. 5. Performances and tasks were unorganized. The workbook’s tasks often had many different parts that Judge Giles would not want students to do. Sometimes Judge Giles wanted students to do specific tasks. Judge Giles did not communicate when she wanted specific things to be done. Instead, she would only specify at the start of class. This disorganization was highly stressful for students. Students walked into class not knowing what was assigned. Judge Giles should take the time to communicate to students beforehand or, better yet, detail the syllabus. If Judge Giles has such a problem with the workbook’s fact patterns, she should take the time to develop her own. 6. Judge Giles posted unrealistic time metrics in the syllabus. The syllabus posted times on how long the performance should be in the syllabus but ended up being not required. This mistake confused students. Judge Giles disregarded these instructions. For the first few students who attempted to use the entire 8 minutes as instructed, she would reprimand them. If Judge Giles is not evaluating the student on if they utilize the entire time as listed in the syllabus, then the time should be deleted. 7. Judge Giles did not instruct how to prepare for the trial or provide clear instructions. The grading of this class is half left to the final trial. For such essential tasks, Judge Giles did not provide instruction on how to prepare. Before the first final trial, the class was left to the last cohort to practice impeachment. Because of this, the first group to go is highly disadvantaged. Again, grading on the final trial is also a mystery. Judge Giles has not provided any details on how she will be evaluating each student and the team as a whole. I found the syllabus confusing without dates or names. If she would wait until after the exam to provide feedback, the course would be far more effective and she could teach much more in less time. She needs to write down her thoughts as they occur and then give the feedback after because the way she does it now makes it hard to complete the exam and you lose sight of what you needed to get done. I think the cases/materials could have a bit more "meat" to them. Sometimes cases were too bare bones to do an effective trial and a little too much ad-libbing. It would be helpful to have a10-15 minute introduction to each major roles (opening, direct exam, etc.) the class before we took on assignments. To save class time, we could video some of our "performances" outside class and then spend class assessing the strengths and areas of improvement we see in the videos. Have every student give 2 substantive comments on (1) a strength and (2) something that could be better. As a class, we might assess a few excerpts of really good attorneys in court. It’s useful to actually "do" the various roles, but I’d suggest that Judge Giles give only a few comments on each student’s "performance" to save time.

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