Evaluation season is upon us

At the end of each semester, many students dread their upcoming finals. Many instructors dread the ratings and comments that students provide as evaluations of the course. But fear not - student course evaluations can be our friends!

The purpose of end-of-term evaluations is to give students a chance to provide constructive feedback about the course and the instructor's approach to teaching it. These comments can be used for a variety of purposes, such as RPT (retention, promotion, and tenure) reviews. My hope is that they are also being used to inform future offerings of the course, the instructor's teaching, and students' decisions about course selection.

Now of course, to be able to use student feedback in this way, students need to be motivated to provide feedback, and educated as to how to provide feedback that will be useful to instructors. How often have you seen "This course is great!" (or "This course sucks!"), but have had no idea what was so great (or so awful)?

Having an open discussion with students about what comprises quality feedback may help improve the utility of end-of-term student course evaluations (for both the instructor and future students). You can also provide students with practice, through midterm evaluation opportunities and asking students to evaluate one another's work in class. (After all, this is a great educational opportunity, and the ability to provide useful feedback will likely come in handy for students in the future.) It also is beneficial to let students know how the evaluations will be used, and what the implications are for students like themselves. One of this year's TA Scholars, Tim Edgar, worked with CTLE team members Darrell Coleman and Jill Stephenson to create a project designed to help instructors with some of these issues.

So once you get feedback, what do you do with it? How do you interpret the results? How do you make sense of all those written comments, many of which seem to contradict one another? Well, we're hosting a workshop on May 29 (with a repeat on June 5) that will help you answer some of these questions. You can learn more and register to attend (for free!) here. Look here for a video of the workshop a few weeks after it has been presented.

And how do student course evaluations help students? Currently, students can access evaluation results to help them make decisions about course selection. Unfortunately, sometimes these can be hard to find and to interpret, so many students prefer to use services such as RateMyProf.com. (Read what students have to say here.) But we are doing something about it! Stay tuned for news about how a working group comprised of students and faculty are planning to address the problem, and put student course evaluation results to better work for all of us!

Photo courtesy of Gideon Burton.

Timely, constructive feedback - it's not just for students!

Most instructors know that it's important to provide students with feedback on their performance early in the semester, so they have time to improve. But how many of us actually solicit feedback on our performance as teachers?

It's important that we get feedback on our teaching so we can continue to grow as instructors and provide our students with the best learning experience possible. There are several sources from which to pull - we can ask students to tell us what they think, ask our colleagues to observe our classes or review our materials and offer advice, and we can seek out those trained in teaching and learning in higher education (such as the consultants at CTLE) to consult with us and provide guidance.

So how should we respond to feedback once we get it? First, look for themes, and try not to take negative feedback personally. If only one person says they hate the way you dress, this is not very useful feedback. But if many of your students, and your colleagues, suggest that your lessons are disorganized, this is something to which you likely want to attend. Unfortunately, students usually won't be able to tell us how to fix the problem. However our colleagues can provide examples of approaches they've tried, and teaching consultants can offer ideas, workshops, and resources to help.

Some general advice, if you plan to change something based on feedback you've received, is to leave the structure of the course (e.g., course requirements and grading) untouched until the next time around, and to only change a few things rather than attempting a major overhaul mid-semester. Try to identify the one or two most important issues that could be addressed by making minor adjustments (e.g., incorporating more activities or discussion to liven up a long lecture class).

Finally, make sure that you let students and colleagues know that you appreciate their comments, even if you are not going to make all (or any!) of the changes they've suggested. For students, you can summarize the comments, touching on the major themes that arose, and let them know what you will be doing to address any concerns. If you are not going to make a suggested change, provide an explanation (e.g., I won't be grading on a curve, because I think it's important that you meet the course standards rather than be compared to one another, and for some grading on a curve could actually hurt their grades).

Did you know?

The Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence provides a wide variety of free and confidential services to help instructors at the University of Utah assess their teaching effectiveness, and we will also consult with you to help you interpret the feedback you receive and make decisions about how to make adjustments to your course. Review details and request services on our website.