Written by Ashley Rosenbaum
Teacher evaluations have been instrumental in helping professors find out what they are doing well and how they could improve since the 1970s.
The Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs Marty Spears was one of the people in charge of the teacher evaluation process. A committee of faculty and administrators determined the questions that are place on the evaluation.
“The current teacher evaluation instrument was developed in the 1990s by a committee composed of faculty and administrators,” Spears said. “Changes would have to be made by a committee of faculty and administrators.”
The teacher, department chair, dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs see the completed evaluations.
“The results of the teacher evaluations are not released until after the semester is over, at which point the teacher, department chair, dean, and the VP for academic affairs all have access to the results,” Spears said.
These results are included as part of the annual review process for faculty and are discussed with their immediate supervisor, normally the department chair or dean.
The teacher evaluation system that was done via e-mail began last year. The responses were higher with the paper system than the electronic system.
“The response rate on paper was very high, as expected, since everyone who is present in class that day completes one,” Spears said. “In our first year online [last year], we had a 43 percent response rate. This is much lower than with paper, but it compares favorably to other institutions in their first year online. A big emphasis is being placed this year on improving the response rate, and we are hopeful that students will take the time to respond at a better rate this year.”
The testing office decided to switch from paper evaluations to online evaluations for various reasons.
“There are pros and cons to any method of evaluations,” Spears said. “Some of the pros associated with an online evaluations system are: 1) It frees up class time at the end of the semester, which is always valuable to the teachers; 2) It is green and saves literally tons of paper; 3) It is much easier to manage than the paper process, which is incredibly complicated and requires hundreds of hours of work from the Testing Office workers; 4) It gives administrators the option to easily customize some questions for specific courses or areas of study.”
Although not many students have responded yet, Spears is hoping for a fifty percent response rate. The rate is currently 23 percent, which is about what Spears said he expected.
“This is a busy time of the semester, and many students are waiting until they have time,” Spears said. “We would encourage them to make the time because it is very important feedback to the feedback to the teacher’s administration.
Spears said there are many reasons that students should fill out a teacher evaluation, including the knowledge teachers can gain from feedback.
“Almost any teacher who has been evaluated can give specific examples how they have used the feedback to improve their teaching and/or courses,” Spears said.
