Guest Blogger: Bill Donohue
Why should students complete
course evaluations every semester? Are they even looked at? Are the questions
even producing worthwhile information? Both students and faculty members appear
to have asked themselves these questions from time to time. The low response
rates for the course evaluations the last few semesters have led some to
believe that students do not care much for the end-of the semester opportunity
to give feedback on their instructors and courses. Others think they care, but don’t
feel that their voices are heard. Technical glitches haven’t helped matters.
So what are we to do? Over the
last year, the Committee on Assessment and Evaluation has been considering
different options. Soon, all faculty will be asked to participate in a survey about
the course evaluations, which means that now is a good time to start thinking
about what we really want to accomplish with the instructor/course evaluation.
In my research on how to revise
the Instructor/Course Evaluation
instrument, I came across this
report from the Hanover Research Council. The report addressed some key
questions about course evaluations:
- Can and should one survey instrument be used for all courses?
- What standard questions should be asked?
- Should students be required to complete course evaluations?
- Who should see the course evaluation results?
- Should all courses be evaluated every delivery cycle?
- Should evaluations be administered online or in paper format?
Here are my thoughts on the
matter:
Can and should one survey instrument be used for all courses? I
have heard enough from faculty who teach lab courses to believe that a separate
evaluation is needed from the standard form every course currently uses. The
committee would like to develop a lab specific evaluation. Beyond that, we need
to decide where we draw the line. A mixed survey that has some standard
questions and some course specific questions may be doable and valuable in the
age of assessment and learner outcomes.
What standard questions should be asked? Overall evaluation, difficulty of
course/workload, teaching effectiveness, perception of volume of learning…
Should students be required to complete course evaluations? No. The major limitation would be
the seriousness of the reposes if it is required. I would not want my tenure or
promotion decisions to depend on how seriously a student took the evaluation if
they were quickly filling it out so they could see their grades.
Who should see the course evaluation results? The faculty person being
evaluated, the chair, and whomever the faculty person authorizes, such as PTS.
Beyond that, generalized results for the University community would be beneficial.
Those results could inform actions, such as CETL workshops, and demonstrate to
the students that we take those evaluations seriously.
Should all courses be evaluated every delivery cycle? I don’t see a reason to stop our
current practice of evaluating at least every course offered each semester. A
question raised in the report is should the courses be evaluated more than once a semester. Facilitation
of a mid-semester evaluation would be beneficial. I’ve liked it when I have
done that, and some structure might get me to do it more often.
Should evaluations be administered online or in paper format?
Online. Especially if we are going to have a mix of standard and custom
questions. The major drawback, of course, is participation. But I have had some
encouraging conversations about how we can increase our response rate even
before we have a conversation about incentives or requirements.
What is your response to one or
all of the questions about course evaluations?
Q: Can and should one survey instrument be used for all courses?
ReplyDelete(Sorry for a long answer) Ideally, a separate instrument for Math makes sense to me although not sure if practical (question of "can" we). Math teachers have such disadvantage regarding unpopularity of the subject they teach. The survey questions could be different and also the math faculty ratings should not be compared with ratings of faculty in other disciplines (maybe Natural Sciences, but not sure about that either when used to determine their tenure and promotion). I teach (or try to teach) computer science (both theory and technology or practice related to it-- as a colleague recently referred to as an example of “the praxis”). As a disclaimer, I might have some bias in this since most of my undergraduate work and interest was in mathematics and not in computer science which was my main area of graduate studies.
Over the years I noticed that in one particular class (Computer Organization) in which I cover some math on Number Systems; my ratings have been lower than in other major CSC courses I taught. This is not to suggest that all math teachers are struggling with their ratings or their own popularity. I am also sure there are some great Computer Scientists who have more success than I in teaching Math within their CSC course contents and it would be nice to learn from them (important part of assessment). Although we can always cherry-pick examples of those who were “successful” in teaching math; in reality, most problems associated with teaching mathematics are as complex as abstract algebra or topology and not related to individual teaching and it is unfair how the math teachers are unappreciated by not only students, but also by some other faculty and administration.
Sorry, but I am about to mix this with the question of Liberal Arts Education. In spirit of Liberal Arts Education, it would be helpful if faculty from other fields would consider teaching math across curriculum just as we are asked to teach writing across curriculum. I certainly have found great appreciation for English teachers whenever I have to teach technical writing in my writing emphasis courses (always out of my comfort zone for obvious reasons: English is not my first language and for the first 14 years of my education I wrote from right to left with a different set of alphabet and as is obvious, I still have issues with my own use of punctuation marks when writing in English and always at risk of mixing up words:-). I hope other faculty, particularly in humanities and social sciences who might not have had the opportunity to teach math in their classes can find a better connection with math faculty by including more mathematics in their own classes related to their subjects!
Ali B.
I have seen research that suggests evaluations are dependent on discipline and are adverse to quantitative fields. What would a math specific evaluation look like? Would a mixed standard and math specific evaluation be helpful at all? Of course, student evaluations should not be the sole judge of teaching effectiveness.
DeleteAlso, is there much literature on teaching math across the curriculum at the college level? How prevalent is the approach? I would love to learn more. Perhaps you could do a workshop on the topic.
Bill
On the topic of teaching math across the curriculum, I went to an AAC&U workshop on integrated curricula a few years ago; one of the sessions was by an English professor who had embraced using math in her English courses. She didn't really use math, but rather had the students interpret and write about articles that included graphs or other types of charts with numbers. For me, it was a great lesson in understanding the outsider point of view when it comes to interpreting numbers - regardless of what the numbers represent. I would love to be part of trying to achieve more math integration across our curricula. If we want a true liberal arts education, our students should graduate confident in their ability to interpret and question numerical data found in financial, scientific and other types of reports and news.
DeleteThanks for your reply Bill. Regarding Math across the curriculum, I would definitely understand the hesitation to start such undertaking at our university. Internal resources can be wasted if not done carefully, but it could also be opportunity for grants for those who may be interested. As to your questions, MATC is not nearly as common as WATC in colleges, but Anna showed a good example of such an approach by the English professor. Also a good study on MATC was done at Dartmouth College in 1995 followed by an evaluation in 2000 (Jane Corey was the evaluator). Several Faculty members from math and humanities participated in that project. Interestingly, the evaluation has a section called “Don’t be afraid to teach math.” Designing specific courses in humanity and social sciences with embedded math would be great, but until we have the resources, my suggestion for now is a more economical approach (and it does not require an expensive workshop by me :-) I think it would be wonderful to have one “mathematics day” per semester during which several or all teachers in humanity and social sciences teaches a chosen topic in math related to their discipline (for the entire class), other than the math they usually cover. If they prefer, they can get the topic from the math department, perhaps from MAT 106 professors. For example in Psychology, they already cover statistics, so they perhaps can cover another relevant branch of math! English teachers can go over some of the wording used on general math test questions, etc. I loved math since I was young, but even in my own native Persian language, understanding of the wording used in some math problems was an obstacle for me initially.
DeleteRegarding a different survey, yes, I do think a mixed standard and math specific evaluation could work better particularly for the comment section. Of course, it is best for our math faculty to assist with creation of the survey questionnaire, particularly since the only time I taught an official math course was at another university over 25 years ago and I could be way off, but some of the questions that come to my mind are:
Q1: Did your level of interest in mathematics increase after this course?
Q2: Do you find the mathematics you learned in this class beneficial for your future?
Q3. How would you rate your focus level in listening to a math lecture compared to lectures in other courses?
Q4. Did you find the homework assigned in math for this class helpful?
Q5. Did you receive help or tutoring in math for this class?
C1: Can you give an example of the most important math topic you learned in this class (fill in)?
C2: Can you give an example of the least important math topic you learned in this class (fill in)?
C3. Other than the teacher, can you think of another reason why you like or dislike this class? If yes, please explain.
I admit that some of the questions above with a little twist can be applied to other disciplines.
Ali
Sorry I meant: "several or all teachers in humanity and social sciences teach"--also ignore other typos:-)
DeleteA survey regarding the current course evaluation instrument should be coming out very soon...and we will reach out to you for feedback on the revision.
DeleteBill
I saw the survey this morning. I am not very much concerned about the questions there. What I'm concerned is many students (75% and above) do not take interest to evaluate teachers on-line in math courses. In the past, paper evaluation foreced students to participate.
DeleteRanjan Naik
Math
The response rate is closer to 40% than 25%, but your point is well taken. Tiffany Lee, the new director of Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Research, and Planning (OIERP), shared some simple ways to increase the response rate with the committee. While that office has a lot on their plate, with buy in from some key sectors across campus, Lee's ideas will increase the response rate, no doubt. Our concern with the survey instrument is the quality of data for use in various decisions such as promotion and tenure as well as improving teaching and learning at LU.
DeleteThanks Bill. We are hoping to see at least 50% or more students participating in their courses.
DeleteRanjan Naik.
Math
Yes the major drawback, of course, is participation in our on-line survey. Some efforts to increase the number of students participating is needed if we want to use it.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with what Professor Barimani wrote "Math teachers have such disadvantage regarding unpopularity of the subject they teach.". He has been here at the Lincoln for over 30 years and earned a distinguished teaching award in the past.
Ranjan Naik
Math
Thank you Dr. Naik for your kind words. I also like to thank James for his kind words about me on previous topic. I never felt deserving of the distinguished award you mentioned, but was honored to receive it and thought others deserve it much more. I had my struggles in teaching over the years and never felt comfortable as a "teacher," particularly in the field of computer science which did not come naturally for me. If I reach mediocrity in teaching by the time I retire in a few years, I'll be very impressed with myself!
ReplyDeleteAli Barimani
As a reminder, a survey regarding the current questions on the course evaluation has been sent to your email. Please respond to assist with our revision!
ReplyDeleteSo sorry, I do not see the email in my inbox. What was the subject title of the email?
DeleteAli