A couple of weeks ago, Brian offered some strategies for getting the most out of your evaluations. But I have two even more basic questions:
- When do you give the evaluations (partially inspired by Kelli Marshall on Twitter), and
- When do you read them?
(Actually, at my school they’re not called evaluations at all, but student opinion surveys. I don’t think that’s typical, though.)
Giving Evaluations
First, let me again refer to Brian’s post. The goal here shouldn’t be, how can I avoid bad evaluations, but rather should be, how can I extract useful information from them. I tend to give evaluations early, to try to avoid too much end-of-semester panic. The only hard-and-fast rule I have is that I don’t give evaluations on a day that something is due, or that they’re getting something back. The grading scenario is just too worrisome for everyone.
Reading Evaluations
Usually, I look at evaluations on two occasions: when I’m writing up an application of some sort (promotion, tenure, teaching award), or when I’m teaching a class again. One thing I never do is read them when I get them–usually, I’m a little too sensitive at the end of the semester. I’m frustrated by work–my own every bit as much as my students’–that doesn’t live up to expectations, and so I tend to overpersonalize them. (This is especially true of good evaluations: If I read them too early, I just take them on face value and risk missing out on politely-worded advice on tweaking certain assignments.) Usually, when I have to re-teach a class, enough time has passed that I can take them for what they are.
How do you handle the timing of evaluations? What do you do with ‘em when you get them? Let us know in comments!
Image by flickr user Adrian Purser / CC licensed
6 Comments
I give them out on a day in the last couple of weeks when I suspect that most of the class will be there. Since my deadlines for assignments are usually weekends by email, I don’t have to worry about the grading scenarios that Jason mentions. I am giving them out today because it’s the day I’m assigning the final project off the course. I had sixteen out of twenty in the first class and am hoping for a full set in my later class.
When I get them back, I take them and type up all of the responses. I do this because I want to include representative comments in my annual review, and it helps me group them and see what consistencies there are. Having them typed up also helped immensely when I went up for tenure and when I applied for the university teaching award.
As an administrator, I get the evaluations for all adjuncts in my program. I take them and read them. Yes, I read all of them. I then type up a letter that summarizes key trends and give the letter and the evaluations to the adjunct. This helps with issues of hiring and also adjunct teaching awards. It also helps me when writing reference letters for adjuncts when they apply to PhD programs and/or jobs.
I tend to give them as late in the semester as I can (avoiding the last day). This way, the students have completed most of their work and they have received most of it back. They then have a good sense of their grade. Additionally, during the last several class sessions, I ask students reflection questions: “What has this assignment taught you?” or “What have you learned in this course that will help you in the rest of your academic career?” (and similar type questions). I believe that if students can identify how the course has been helpful to them and if they can identify the tools they’ve gained (whether those are a part if course objectives or not), the student can see the value in the course. If students can then see the value of what we have done, they do tend to evaluate the course more positively. I write this, then I realize that it might seem that I’m baiting students to reply in a positive manner. Well, yes and no. I want the evaluations to be good, but I ask the questions without regard to evaluations. I ask students to reflect throughout the term, not just at the end.
As an adjunct, I had no say in when my evaluations were done. In fact, I wasn’t told until the evaluator/projector knocked on my door in the middle of my lecture each time.
My institution recently moved to an online evaluation system, so everything is now centrally controlled. Evaluations are now collected in the week before final exams, online. E-mail reminders encourage students to participate.
Many of my colleagues give self-designed mid-semester evaluations as well, tailored to the specific needs of the course.
My college also conducts evaluations online at the end of the semester, so I have no control over when or if my students complete them.
Oh, I like that idea! I would’ve loved it as a student as well.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ethan Watrall and Traci Gardner, Teaching Commons. Teaching Commons said: Evaluations: When to Give ‘Em, and When to Read ‘Em – http://shar.es/aEFHR [...]