Policy on Student Evaluation of Teaching

Downloads

• Sample Course Evaluation (pdf) (i.e., what students see when they evaluate)
• Sample Section Evaluation (pdf)

The Policy

The following policy was developed by the the School Deans and Department Chair with the Registrar’s Office consent since 2006.

The Online evaluation of teaching has three major goals:

• Provide information to instructors about how effectively their teaching is encouraging student learning and to help them improve their teaching;
• Provide information to students to help them select courses wisely;
• Provide information about the overall quality of courses for administrative review (i.e., salary setting, promotion, curriculum development).

Evaluation of teaching should be carried out in a number of ways including evaluation by the instructors themselves, by peers, and by students.

1. Each time it is offered, every course must undergo student evaluation of teaching done by faculty, other instructors, and teaching assistants (understood to include all section leaders). Summary reports of such evaluations are available 72hrs after the process is closed for input. Exceptions to this requirement:
   • Certain GSB and School of Medicine lecture series courses, as well as independent study, activity, internship and thesis/dissertation courses are not evaluated
2. The relevant department chairs, program heads, and deans also receive the evaluation summaries with the exception of first-time courses given on an experimental basis.
3. The exact content and nature of any instrument used for course evaluation shall be determined by the Dean of each School in consultation with the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and representative faculty from that school. The Dean may also consult with the Provost and the Advisory Board.
4. In general, course evaluations should include:
   • Evaluative questions about the course and instruction addressing such topics as intellectual content, organization, motivation, interactions, procedures for assessing student work;
5. The Dean of the school is responsible for informing instructors about the methods of administration, the uses of the results of the evaluation, and the importance of the evaluation process.
6. The uses to which the evaluations will be put should be stated clearly and simply on the evaluations themselves.
7. Evaluations should be conducted in such a way as to encourage a high rate of return and thoughtful responses from students. The instructor should encourage the students in class to evaluate their classes.
8. The evaluations should be conducted the way that assures student confidentiality.
9. Reports
   • Faculty will have access to qualitative and quantitative summaries for own courses and evaluation summaries for the teaching assistants in those couses.
   • Teaching assistants will receive a quantitative and qualitative evaluation summaries for their sections.
   • Department chairs, program heads, and deans will have security access to qualitative and quantitative evaluation summaries.