Work in Progress: Enhancing Teaching and Learning in a First-Year Course Through the Dual Lens of Student Reflection and Feedback

This work-in-progress paper describes an attempt to enhance a first-year Introduction to Civil and Environmental Engineering course through insights gained from the dual lens of student self-reflection and course feedback. The motivation for the study was to gain a more holistic view of the first-year learning experience beyond what standard course feedback can reveal, and to use this information to improve future course offerings. Rather than evaluating the effectiveness of specific course components, the scope of the study was to identify general areas where students may need additional support. To collect this information, students were asked to submit a brief write-up reflecting on their learning journey, focusing specifically on how they learned and what they would have done differently during the semester. End of semester course feedback was also collected using the standard format followed by the university. A thematic analysis of student responses from self-reflection and course feedback identified distinct and common perspectives. The course feedback focused more on teaching style and instructor support, along with common themes such as course value, enjoyment, design, learning resources, and assessments. In contrast, self-reflection provided insights into students' self-regulation such as time management difficulties and procrastination that influenced the learning experience. Self-reflection also revealed themes related to student preparedness such as use of available resources, peer interactions and study strategies. These preliminary findings suggest that course feedback and self-reflection offer complementary insights, and when considered together, can more effectively inform instructional changes. Future work will explore the implementation of instructional interventions such as structured support for time management and increased opportunities for peer collaboration, which will be evaluated by scaffolded self-reflection activities.