Getting the Most from Student Evaluations

With the end of the term nearing, evaluations are on the horizon. While they can be stress-inducing for many educators, they have the potential to be useful tools for gathering insight on how to best meet students’ needs. Depending on your teaching context, evaluations may be pre-designed and in other situations may be designed entirely by the educator. Below are 3 key points to consider when designing or administering evaluations. 

Ready! 

Prepare the evaluation, or gain a thorough understanding of what has already been designed. 

1. Determine the type of evaluation and what information you will gain. Mid-term evaluations, for example, are ideal for improving throughout the remainder of the current term and have the added benefit of being leveraged for explaining instructional choices and changes. End-of-term evaluations are great for learning what can be improved for the next term. The data can also be discussed next term for explaining higher-level instructional choices including syllabus inclusions and exclusions. By presenting the data, students can have an understanding of how their feedback is used. 

2. Create the questions or understand the question types that have already been determined. Svinicki & McKeachie (2011, pg. 341) suggest using two types of questions: those dealing with the learning goals, and those addressing specific behaviors. If there are questions that do not fit either category, discuss it with your program or evaluate the question itself.

3. Decide when it is to be delivered. Administering an evaluation during class time has the benefit of increasing participation likelihood, getting you more comprehensive data. Another consideration is around grading; administer an evaluation after grades have been submitted for end-of-term to ensure anonymity and no retroactive punishment, even if unintentional.

Set! 

Prepare your students for completing the evaluation by giving useful context. 

1. Talk about the why with your students and how their feedback and insights can be used for future benefit to them, you, and the next group of students. You can also share with them if the evaluations are used for hiring decisions, to include in your own professional portfolio, for evaluating course changes and updates, and any other purpose. Depending on the timing, you can even have 1:1s built into your plan for having candid conversations with students about the general findings to gain more detail about their experiences.

Action! 

Prepare results and actions based on feedback. 

1. Focus on the results. You can leverage the results in the current term by showing general stats to students and either inform them of upcoming changes or invite discussion on changes that can be made for improving their learning experience. The results can also be shown the next term to demonstrate how instructional choices are made.

2. Focus on the changes that can be made now, for the future, and let go of changes that cannot be made. Due to a myriad of factors, some curricular components cannot be changed, and it is Changes

Resources:

Gayeski, D., O’Brien Richardson, P., & Brookfield, S.(2022). Get the Most Out of Your End-of-Term Surveys. Harvard Business Publishing Education. https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/get-the-most-out-of-your-end-of-term-surveys 

Getting started with end-of-semester course evaluations: Center for teaching innovation. Getting Started with End-of-Semester Course Evaluations | Center for Teaching Innovation. (n.d.). https://teaching.cornell.edu/resource/getting-started-end-semester-course-evaluations 

Svinicki, M. D., & McKeachie, W. J. (2011). McKeachie's teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (13th ed.). Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.