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University faculty often receive course evaluations from students, but it is rare that these evaluations are used to improve teaching methods or course design (Golding & Adam, 2016). This reluctance is often due to instructor perceptions of course evaluations as lacking validity and reliability, but according to a study done by Benton and Cashin (2014), students’ evaluations are credible and are a great source of information that can be used to improve course quality (McDonnell & Dodd, 2017).

Regardless of instructor agreeance with evaluation results, it is vital that instructors remember that the essence of the evaluation process involves trying to understand the student’s point of view in order to create a better learning environment for students (Golding & Adam, 2016). Additionally, increasing the number of evaluations conducted, such as using multiple throughout the semester to continuously improve the course, further improves class ratings and exam scores (McDonnell & Dodd, 2017). When instructors adopt the stance that course evaluations are an opportunity to improve courses and decidedly use this as an opportunity for changes to be made, better-quality teaching arises (Golding & Adam, 2016).

Link to example artifact(s)

Pre and Post Test Semester Survey
  • Instructor: Dr. Tadayuki (Tad) Hara, Rosen College of Hospitality, UCF
  • Course Title: HFT4732 – 0V61 Spring 2011 Tourism Impact Analysis

A sample report of the semester end survey File:SemesterEndSurvey HFT4732V-mode-2011SP.pdf

This semester, I used the anonymous survey twice in my course (V-mode) and you can get fairly good response rates (27/33 = 81%) to get a feel of how the course has been perceived up to that point. You can also add short comments portion, to which students in distant learning setting would surprisingly type up something to express their opinion. I guess anonymous setting helps. When negative comments are found, we can see it as a sign that it (anonymous survey setting) is working.

Semester Course Evaluation
  • Instructor: Dr. Baiyun Chen, CDL, UCF
  • Course Title: EME6062 – Research in Instructional Technology

A sample course evaluation questionnaire File:CourseEvaleme6062.pdf

I used anonymous survey in Webcourses to collect feedbacks and suggestions from students at the end of the semester. Students received bonus points to fill out this survey. So far, 40 out of 43 completed the survey and gave me valuable suggestions for future course revisions. They also appreciated the gesture of asking for their feedbacks and making changes.

Weekly Formative Course Evaluation
  • Instructor: Dr. Brenda Thompson, College of Education, UCF
  • Course Title: EDH6305 Teaching and Learning in the Community College

A sample of the course evaluation survey File:ModuleEval.pdf

Weekly Formative Course Evaluation
  • Instructor: Dr. Kelvin Thompson, College of Education and Human Performance, UCF
  • Course Title: EME5050 Fundamentals of Technology for Educators
    • Weekly questionnaire implemented using Google Forms to reinforce to students true anonymity of responses.
    • Consistent questionnaire items from week to week based upon areas of instructor concern (e.g., social presence, students accessing weekly podcast, etc.).
    • First item on questionnaire (modified version of “muddiest point”) changes weekly for variety.

A sample of the weekly questionnaire [http://bit.ly/sample_feedbackform]

Link to scholarly reference(s)

Benton, S. L., & Cashin, W. E. (2014). Student ratings of instruction in college and university courses. In M. B. Paulsen (Ed.), Higher education: Handbook of theory and research (pp. 279–326). Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8005-6_7

Golding, C., & Adam, L. (2016). Evaluate to improve: useful approaches to student evaluation. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education41(1), 1-14.

McDonnell, G. P., & Dodd, M. D. (2017). Should students have the power to change course structure? Teaching of Psychology44(2), 91-99.

Survey share (2011). Course evaluation questions. http://www.surveyshare.com//surveytemplate/surveyacademictemplate.html

Citation

Chen, B. (2015). Collect student feedback using course evaluations. In B. Chen & K. Thompson (Eds.), Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository. Orlando, FL: University of Central Florida Center for Distributed Learning. https://topr.online.ucf.edu/course-evaluations/.