Student Evaluations of Teachers

[John Cole]

Guys, give me a little help, please.

This year I am on a faculty committee responsible for designing student evaluation forms. I have a few questions. First, how seriously do you take these forms? Do you use evaluations as revenge against teachers you don't like? Or give high marks to teachers you do like? Do you feel you are always capable of evaluating teachers and what they do? Do you rush through these just to get them done?

Do you use Rate My Professors? If so, are you more candid on this site than on evaluation forms?

Overall, would you prefer to answer more questions or fewer?

Thanks.

[XXXNoahXXX]

I had one professor who was tenured and he told us "im tenured. im not going anywhere. don't bother checking off boxes or anything, just put down some comments on how you think i could improve the course."

I liked this approach.


In general, other than at the extremes, only the comments end up being useful.

[yellowjack]

A ton of classmates incorrectly correlate the difficulty of the course with a professor's ability to teach, clarity in speaking, helpfulness, responsiveness to questions, etc. The comments should have the most weight, but I'll bet there are students who are just out to get professors because "they failed him/her" and are taking it personally.

[Misfire]

On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend this professor to a classmate?

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...5/b3969090.htm

[rja87]

I can't see many people taking it seriously, if they failed they'll give a bad review, if they did well it will be good etc, I always just try to get through it quickly and never bother adding any comments, if people take the time to write a positive comment it's probably a real response but otherwise I wouldn't read much into them.

[lastchance]

I agree with everyone above. The most useful responses you will get are the general "would you want to take another class with this prof" junk, and the specific comments. Do not create a long questionnaire with many multiple choice type answers.

Ask for comments, throw in a general overall satisfaction score (or some crap like that), and maybe something about difficulty.

[Misfire]

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I can't see many people taking it seriously, if they failed they'll give a bad review, if they did well it will be good etc

[/ QUOTE ]

No necessarily. I had an easy-A class, but the professor didn't teach us a goddamn thing==total waste of my time and money. So many of us complained about the prof that she got fired. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[xSCWx]

I take the evaluations seriously. Some questions that come to mind are along the lines of:

Was the workload for the course reasonable for the credits earned? (this question should probably have a scale that aims more towards "too much" or "too little")

Were the expectations of the class clearly outlined by the syllabus? (it is really annoying when profs don't follow the syllabus)

Would you take a class with this prof again?

[bluef0x]

I use SacRate.com, myspace.com, and pickaprof.com before enrolling in courses. The main criteria is that the teacher doesn't flunk 50% of the class and isn't boring, since that will lead to missing a lot of class and basically daydreaming during the classes I do attend. I like to be engaged and interested.

I read all the comments on the teacher and I usually get a good feel of him/her. Most people are very honest on the reviews... you see a lot of "Tests are hard, but he's very fair. Gives out study guides, if you do the work- you'll be rewarded. Really learn a lot if you apply yourself." Basically full descriptions of the teacher. You can also weed out the awful reviews since they usually say "X IS A STUTTERING IDIOT THAT FAILS EVERYONE! ONE DAY HE CARRIED A BATTLEAXE IN ONE HAND AND AN EAGLE HEAD IN THE OTHER" (pretty sure that's exactly how one review was)

I've loved EVERY class since utilizing all 3 sites.

As for the evaluations, I find that they don't mean much. I usually fill in the bubbles and right a sentence on something that can be improved.

[John Cole]

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I've loved EVERY class since utilizing all 3 sites.

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I find this most helpful.