To: Faculty Council
From: Sub-Committee on Student Evaluation of Instruction
Date: May 10, 2001

 

  1. The committee addressed the issue of concern, by some faculty members, over the student evaluation of instruction.
    1. The committee has met three times
  2. The committee determined and began to investigate several areas which are causing concern.
    1. What is the purpose of the student evaluation of instruction and is the purpose being accomplished?
      1. What is the purpose of the questions on the back? Are the open-ended comments really useful for teacher improvement? If so, why do they need to be typed by someone else rather then being directly given to the instructor?
      2. Returns on the evaluations are not timely enough for the class in which they are given.
      3. How much financial overhead is involved in typing the written responses?
      4. There have been incidences of the completed forms in envelopes being left in classrooms and of students getting in groups and discussing what they were going to put on the evaluations.
      5. There have been incidences of the completed reports going to the wrong instructor and of filled out forms from previous semesters being found in the envelopes by a class monitor administering the evaluations
    2. What is the law regarding student evaluation of instruction?
      1. Is student anonymity really a legal issue?
      2. What are the legal issues that faculty could raise based on psychological stress, etc. caused by the comments on the evaluation?
      3. Why are third parties reading the forms and interpreting them? Sometimes graduate students?
    3. What are the minimum requirements from CHE concerning student evaluation of instruction?
    4. Are the questions and the results valid for evaluation of instruction?
      1. Some questions aren’t relevant for some courses
    5. Why can’t faculty members keep the raw materials in their own personal files (have no written comments)?
      1. Is the implication from the administration/CHE that faculty members are so unprofessional that they will retaliate against students ?
    6. What role does (did) faculty governance have in the changes in the development, administration, and use of student evaluations of instruction?
  3. The committee recommendation: it is imperative to continue this committee and its study until all questions have been answered.