The+Skinny+on+Course+Evaluations

= The Skinny on Stevenson’s COURSE EVALUATION Process:=

With course evaluation time almost upon us, we thought it might be helpful to review Stevenson’s course evaluation process. As you know, students complete their course evaluations online. Stevenson went to online course evaluations in the fall of 2006; but the system used then proved to be inefficient and time consuming. So in the fall of 2009, we contracted with a company called EvaluationKIT for the processing of online course evaluations.


 * BLACKBOARD: ** One of the reasons that EvaluationKIT was selected is its ability to integrate with Blackboard. Faculty can easily access response rates (even during the evaluation open period) and obtain evaluation results by signing in to Blackboard and clicking on the box on the left titled, “My Course Evaluations”. It is important to know that, because EvaluationKIT works through Blackboard, your course Blackboard sites must be turned on. If you do not use your Blackboard site and do not turn it on, it will be turned on for you before the end of the semester so that students can complete their evaluations.


 * WHERE AND WHEN DO STUDENTS GET THE COURSE EVALUATIONS? ** Course evaluations are available to students two weeks before finals week for traditional semesters. Course evaluations close to students the day before finals begin. Students receive an email before the evaluations are open to let them know it will soon be time to complete the evaluations. Students then receive an email the day the evaluations are open to them. This email also contains a link that will take students directly to their evaluations to complete. (Course evaluations for the 10FSEM semester open to students on 11/21/2010 and close on 12/05/2010.)


 * WHAT ABOUT NON- RESPONDENTS? **Non-respondent students will get a reminder email approximately every day during the open period. Faculty who have non-responders in their class will also get reminder emails.


 * FACULTY REPORTS: ** Instructors can check response rates on Blackboard throughout the process before the evaluations have closed to students, as long as there are at least 2 respondents. Approximately four weeks after semester end, you can access course evaluations through your Blackboard account. You will get an email letting you know that they are available. It is strongly recommended that you download and save evaluations (which are in pdf format). With the current evaluation software, faculty will be able to access evaluations through Blackboard for approximately 2 years; but it is your responsibility to save and manage copies of your own course evaluations.


 * WHERE IS MY EVALUATION? ** You sign into Blackboard and click on My Course Evaluations but your course isn’t there! This may be because either your response rate was below 45% or there were less than 5 students enrolled in your course. (Anonymity may be compromised if under 5 students so courses with low enrollments are not evaluated.)


 * A LITTLE ABOUT RESPONSE RATES: ** The system will not release evaluations if the response rate of your class is less than 45%. (Anything under 65% may not be a good representative sample and should still be viewed cautiously.) WHY? Respondents are self-selected. The goal of a representative sample is to have the sample be as much like the entire population of the class as possible. Typically, the students who do complete the evaluations are either the ones that liked the class the most or the ones that liked it least. Also there is evidence that shows that females respond more often than males and the “best” students respond more often than lower performing students. Any open-ended questions are even more open to bias as usually only students who feel that they have something important to them to say will respond.


 * WHY WOULD MY STUDENTS BOTHER DOING THESE? ** All students who complete their evaluations are put into a drawing and several prizes are given at the end of the semester.

Incentive ideas faculty can use:


 * Remind students that they will be entered into a drawing for gift cards if they complete their evaluations.


 * Assure students that even though they can get to their evaluations through Bb, in no way do you have access to them.


 * Assure them that you will not get the results until after grades are posted.


 * Let them know that you take these seriously and you do make changes based on their feedback.


 * Have departmental competition to see which classes can get the best response rates.


 * Some instructors will give extra credit points to everyone if the class gets above a certain response rate.


 * If your class is in a computer lab or if you can reserve one sometime during the time the evaluations are open to students to have them do it during class


 * Or ask students if they have laptops they can bring to a specific class and give them time to do them.


 * Include evaluation open period (2 weeks before finals) on your syllabus. Ask students to look for the emails from assessment@stevenson.edu.


 * NOW WHAT? ** The general idea behind course evaluations is to use them to improve teaching and document teaching effectiveness. The Faculty Response to Student Evaluation Data form is used to address course evaluation ratings and should be completed and submitted to your direct supervisor. The form can be found on the Stevenson.edu website in the Faculty Evaluation Materials section of the Center for Excellence in Teaching site. Course evaluations are only one part of faculty evaluation and of your teaching / promotion portfolio.

Click here to see the list of questions on the evaluation instrument

If you have any questions about the course evaluation process, please contact The Office of Institutional Research and Assessment at 443-334-2831 or 2181.