|
Basic Questions to Consider
-
How
to use responses?
How can student responses to course evaluation
surveys be most useful?
To whom? For what purposes?
-
What kinds of information?
What kinds of information should be collected as part of student
course evaluation activities?
-
Who controls access, use?
Who should control access to that information and the purposes for which it is
used?
[e.g., info collected solely to enable faculty member to improve a
course vs.
info collected to be used in promotion and tenure decisions by
academic deans]
-
Evaluating courses or faculty?
To what extent is the process more correctly labeled
"course evaluations" vs.
"faculty evaluations"?
-
Obstacles?
What are the institutional challenges and other obstacles to using student
course evaluations to help improve teaching and learning?
-
Pre-Requisites?
What are the
important resources and pre-requisites for success?
-
Roles for administrators, leaders?
What are the
most effective roles for administrators and other academic leaders in designing,
improving, and implementing student course evaluation programs?
-
How widely should student ratings be used?
How widespread is the use of student ratings?
-
Validity?
Are student ratings of teaching really valid?
How do we determine validity anyway?
-
Evidence pro and con?
Are there two sides to the student ratings
story … that is,
is there equal evidence “pro and con”?
-
Caution!
What are the things to be most careful about
in developing a student ratings system?
-
Corruptible?
Can any ratings system be manipulated or corrupted? If so, how? Why is this
a concern?
-
Students as consumers?
Some would say that using ratings of teaching
treats students as consumers, and that lowers standards.
Do you agree? Why/Why not?
-
Measure learning?
Do student ratings measure learning? If not,
what should we be doing instead?
-
Students write comments?
Would having students write out comments be a
better idea than having them complete typical rating forms?
-
Response rates
Are online student rating response rates
lower than paper response rates?
Is it true that low online rating response rates result in lower ratings for
a course?
-
Perceived advantages? Lower costs?
Why are some institutions already switching to online
student course rating systems?
What are the perceived advantages?
Do online rating systems cost less than paper rating systems?
-
More specific questions about online student rating systems:
-
What are the basic questions that should be asked when
designing or revising a student rating system?
What is the best place to start, in developing an evaluation/ratings
system?
-
What kinds of information should be collected via
student rating forms?
-
How can student rating results be used to help faculty
members improve their teaching?
-
Are online ratings less reliable and less valid than
paper ratings?
Click
here
for other Dangerous Discussion topics and questions for faculty, administration
and staff- especially, about Teaching, Learning, and Technology.
Back to Top of Page |
|
Discussion -
Sample List of Issues and Factors
that Influence
Decisions about Student Course Evaluations
Click on each of the following for more explanation
below
Which of these factors
needs more explanation?
Which are most important to you?
Which are most relevant at your institution?
What needs to be added to or removed from this list?
Back to Top of Page
[The following is based
on some of the work done in a TLT Group Flashlight
BeTA workshop held at Northern Arizona University on May 21, 2005]
Usefulness of Student Course Evaluations
-
How important and
useful are student course evaluations at your institution now?
Does this answer change if the question is re-focused only on a
particular division or department?
What would change this answer?
-
In what ways can measuring students' views on their learning experiences (via course evaluations)
improve learning? Are there some kinds of teaching/learning that
cannot be improved by student course evaluations? What are the
characteristics of those kinds of teaching/learning? [Teachers?
Learners?]
-
Are there some kinds of
student feedback not worth collecting or reporting? What are the
characteristics of those kinds of feedback?
-
How can student course
evaluations avoid interfering with other measures of student competencies
in achieving course objectives?
-
How can online student
course evaluations avoid being too quantitative rather than qualitative?
Back to Top of Page
Access
to and Uses of Results
-
What kinds of conflicts
might there be about sharing the results of student course evaluations?
Deciding who gets access to which data? In what formats? For
what purposes?
Is it important to provide differentiated access to the results for
administrators, faculty, students, or others?
-
To what extent is the process more correctly labeled
"course evaluations" vs. "faculty evaluations"?
-
In what ways is it
appropriate or useful to make assessment processes in general and
student course evaluation processes in particular available to the
public?
-
In what ways is it
appropriate and useful to be able to examine correlations of student
course evaluation data with other institutional data?
Back to Top of Page
Obstacles and Incentives
What are the incentives and disincentives for faculty members and
students to
participate conscientiously and effectively in student course evaluation
programs?
To share instructional resources including course evaluation questions and
the resulting data?
-
Faculty Preparation:
To what extent and in what ways are faculty members well-prepared or
ill-prepared to participate effectively in a student course evaluation
program? (Trained or certified in teaching and related assessment
techniques?) To make effective use of the results of a student
course evaluation program?
-
Fear and Discomfort:
To what extent are Individual faculty members afraid of or uncomfortable
about: change, ambiguity, extra work without compensation, facing
evidence of professional inadequacy or the need to improve teaching,
lack of meaningful or thoughtful responses from students... ?
Are there questions that some people would prefer NOT to have students
answer? Why?
-
Promotion or
Punishment: To what extent and in what ways do tenure and
promotion decisions, union rules, faculty senate agreements, etc.
support or conflict with successful implementation of a student course
evaluation program?
To what extent do faculty members fear that assessment will be used by
"them" to punish "us."
-
Institutional
Resources and Support: To what extent and in what ways are institutional resources
adequate to support faculty and students for committing extra time and
effort to making a student course evaluation program succeed?
Back to Top of Page
Responsiveness of Students
To what extent and in what ways are students
well-prepared or ill-prepared to participate effectively in a student course
evaluation program? (Trained in learning and related assessment
techniques?)
What are the incentives for
students to respond thoughtfully and usefully to course evaluation surveys?
Back to Top of Page
Institutional Resources
and Administrators' Roles
What are the important resources and pre-requisites for
successful development and implementation of a student course evaluation
program?
How are various "stakeholders" able to
influence the development and implementation of a student course evaluation
program? (students, peer faculty members, graduates, administrators, employers, regents/board
members, legislators, populace...)
How can efforts to launch
or improve a student course evaluation program avoid some of the common
problems that any major institution-wide educational reform might encounter?
E.g., how can the program:
-
Encourage optimism that
THIS large change will be successfully begun and sustained;
-
Ensure adequate
resources (money, time, staff, community, ...) to support the
achievement of the stated objectives;
-
Build trust among key
stakeholder groups (administration vs. faculty vs. ....).
Back to Top of Page
Other New Issues: Course Ownership, etc.?
Back to Top of Page |
