2008 Woodie Awards
Course evaluations change amidst debate
First half becomes less structured, back becomes departmental specific, some disagree with changes
Josh Currie
Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: News
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On Oct. 19, 2007 the Faculty Senate approved all seven motions to revise the evaluation of courses and faculty that were presented by the Senate Committee on the Evaluation of Teaching.
According to Mark Lewis, associate professor of computer science and chair of the Senate Committee on the Evaluation of Teaching, the new course evaluation forms will be instated in fall 2008 after continuous discussion since the 2004-2005 Faculty Senate created an ad hoc Committee on the Evaluation of Teaching.
The new version was approved only after several revisions were presented and repeatedly remanded to the senate over the years. The new form is completely transformed with significant changes made to both sides of the evaluation sheet.
According to Lewis, the front side will include the usual questions about year and major, but it will ask only one open-ended question and will provide no opportunity for students to provide any numerical evaluation of the course. The form's sole question reads "Considering your selections above, please comment on your experience in this course."
On the flip side, each department will be allowed to ask questions that are appropriate for its class types.
"They [departments] can ask questions that really apply to their courses and what they think the students should be getting from the courses," Lewis said.
According to Richard Butler, professor of economics, the four years spent on updating the evaluation form have been done with the goal of getting the most constructive responses.
"Since teaching, as we say, is our number one priority… we need to have some way of distinguishing good teaching from not so good teaching," Butler said. "It certainly seems to me that the people who see us teach every single day would have a great deal of value to contribute to that and that it would be very important for these forms to be designed in a way that would reveal that."
According to Butler, course evaluations shape the way in which courses and professors are critiqued and, ultimately, the kinds of people who teach students.
According to Mark Lewis, associate professor of computer science and chair of the Senate Committee on the Evaluation of Teaching, the new course evaluation forms will be instated in fall 2008 after continuous discussion since the 2004-2005 Faculty Senate created an ad hoc Committee on the Evaluation of Teaching.
The new version was approved only after several revisions were presented and repeatedly remanded to the senate over the years. The new form is completely transformed with significant changes made to both sides of the evaluation sheet.
According to Lewis, the front side will include the usual questions about year and major, but it will ask only one open-ended question and will provide no opportunity for students to provide any numerical evaluation of the course. The form's sole question reads "Considering your selections above, please comment on your experience in this course."
On the flip side, each department will be allowed to ask questions that are appropriate for its class types.
"They [departments] can ask questions that really apply to their courses and what they think the students should be getting from the courses," Lewis said.
According to Richard Butler, professor of economics, the four years spent on updating the evaluation form have been done with the goal of getting the most constructive responses.
"Since teaching, as we say, is our number one priority… we need to have some way of distinguishing good teaching from not so good teaching," Butler said. "It certainly seems to me that the people who see us teach every single day would have a great deal of value to contribute to that and that it would be very important for these forms to be designed in a way that would reveal that."
According to Butler, course evaluations shape the way in which courses and professors are critiqued and, ultimately, the kinds of people who teach students.
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