Comments from students on course evaluations

[the-tenure-track-prof]

I am a new assistant professor and just finished my first semester. I`ve taught 3 graduate-level courses and one undergraduate level. I`ve just received the course evaluation scores for each course and there were not as bad as I thought it might be. In two courses I`ve received an overall average of 3.6/4, one is a graduate course and one is an undergraduate course. In the two other courses, the course evaluation scores were 2.8 and 2.7 out of 4. The comments from all courses were reasonable and a mixture of compliments and suggestions but nothing too negative. When I`ve reviewed the comments in the master`s level course that was problematic (the hybrid that I didn't know that it was hybrid and that had more enrolled students than the number that I was told the course will have). I`ve read negative comments from a group of students that sounded personal to me and nothing really about the course per se. There were other evaluations from students who said that they enjoyed the course, they think that other students were very harsh with their judgment on the professor (me) and that the course is important and that I am very bright.
What stood out to me is not only the harshness of some comments but also outright lies in broad daylight of interactions that never happened (such as I forced a student to come and see me when the student had to be at work- NEVER HAPPENED and it is against my very core values to ask a student to do that). Another lie was that I play favors in grades. All students in this course with no exception got an "A" because I was forgiving in grading which I am reconsidering now. What am I missing??
I taught in other research universities before I arrived at this teaching university and I remember reading one comment from a student back then that was a false claim. But now I read a couple of false comments of events that never happened and some harsh judgment and personal attack on my character and on me as a woman. I am honestly feeling hurt. I have invested so much in preparations (200 hours) before the semester even started. My question is: did this happened to anyone here in this forum?. How do you understand students` vicious comments? Any insights would be appreciated.

[polly_mer]

Students are people.

Sometimes people are unhappy.

When some people are unhappy, they lash out with vicious, cruel, and even outright lies on items.

SPADFY* means no individual ever has the same experience as some other individual.  I remember one student review comment that was "Polly is not only the worst teacher I've ever had, but she is also the worst person I've ever met".  Because we were given unedited handwritten comments, I know exactly who wrote that comment. 

Yep, I'm a terrible person for being unable to meet at the last minute just before homework was due on Tuesday morning, even though I had office hours (that his best friends regularly attended) before the weekend and recitations at which people could ask questions on Monday afternoon.

Yep, I'm a terrible person for having boundaries and answering emails only twice per day (and not between 1800 and 0900 before the homework was due at 0800).

Yep, I'm a terrible person for not accepting anything late when I post the answers immediately and return every graded assignment promptly enough that one can use the graded assignments to help on the next assignment in this very cumulative class.

Yep, I'm a terrible person for running my own classroom, even as a young woman in engineering, instead of letting the loudest, biggest men dictate how things ought to be based on what they want to get a good grade without demonstrating they can do the problems and apply the principles.

To return to what you could do, read through the comments and disregard the 10% most positive and 10% most negative.  Look carefully for patterns.  Even if you don't agree (how could they say I wasn't well organized when I'm the queen/king of planning and communicating the plan?), think about what you can do differently so that people who aren't you will have a different perception.  These fora are often pretty good about helping new faculty think through practices that are student-friendly while still upholding standards.


*Some People Are Different From You

[fourhats]

Don't lose heart; we all seem to ignore the 95% of positive comments, and dwell on the few negative ones. Evaluations are ways for unhappy or disrespectful students to lash out. When I was first starting out, as a TA, I recall getting evaluations (negative) from students who weren't even in my class. Later, as a tenured professor, I found that some students' mothers were filling them out for their kids! (It was the parent who told me, and bizarrely thought that was all right.). It's hard to be on the receiving end.

It might help if you met with your chair and have something put in your file about the discrepancies between what some of the evaluations claim, and the actual experience.

[the-tenure-track-prof]

Thank you for sharing your experience. While I am still navigating through students' comments and responses, I am starting to see patterns in the courses that I`ve reviewed thus far. You`ve mentioned something interesting though it sounds simple which is "when people are unhappy they lash out". There were so many factors involved in making this course challenging for me including not being informed that it is a Hybrid course while the students were informed that it is Hybrid, bigger class size than anticipated, and age-wise a very heterogonous class.
But on the other hand reading comments from a few students who horrible things, lies and called me names are new to me and I`ve never thought that students do such a thing.
A student said, "lose the professor" as if the student is talking to another person. From other harsh comments, I know who is the student that made these comments. Since this was a student who I called for a meeting early in the semester because he didn't attend classes, and his papers didn't address the assignments questions, I could see from the writing that it is him. Other students claimed that I`ve forced her to come and see me during office hours regardless of her work hours. This is simply put never happened with any student in any of my courses.

My question is: how do I address in front of my chair the false claims made by students about events that never happened when I submit my Faculty Annual Review that include the component of teaching?.

Students are people.

Sometimes people are unhappy.

When some people are unhappy, they lash out with vicious, cruel, and even outright lies on items.

SPADFY* means no individual ever has the same experience as some other individual.  I remember one student review comment that was "Polly is not only the worst teacher I've ever had, but she is also the worst person I've ever met".  Because we were given unedited handwritten comments, I know exactly who wrote that comment. 

Yep, I'm a terrible person for being unable to meet at the last minute just before homework was due on Tuesday morning, even though I had office hours (that his best friends regularly attended) before the weekend and recitations at which people could ask questions on Monday afternoon.

Yep, I'm a terrible person for having boundaries and answering emails only twice per day (and not between 1800 and 0900 before the homework was due at 0800).

Yep, I'm a terrible person for not accepting anything late when I post the answers immediately and return every graded assignment promptly enough that one can use the graded assignments to help on the next assignment in this very cumulative class.

Yep, I'm a terrible person for running my own classroom, even as a young woman in engineering, instead of letting the loudest, biggest men dictate how things ought to be based on what they want to get a good grade without demonstrating they can do the problems and apply the principles.

To return to what you could do, read through the comments and disregard the 10% most positive and 10% most negative.  Look carefully for patterns.  Even if you don't agree (how could they say I wasn't well organized when I'm the queen/king of planning and communicating the plan?), think about what you can do differently so that people who aren't you will have a different perception.  These fora are often pretty good about helping new faculty think through practices that are student-friendly while still upholding standards.


*Some People Are Different From You

[AvidReader]

As a young female in humanities, I always expect one or two personal attacks in my feedback. Sometimes there are outright lies, as you note, a la "forced me to attend office hours during work" or --in my case-- "never provided the directions for any assignment" (only hard copies in class and digitally on the CMS).

I don't have to write a response to my comments (yay! adjuncting! a positive thing!) but, if I did, I would likely say something like "Out of 100 students last fall, one noted in course feedback that I 'never provided the directions.' Since each student was given these in class and on the CMS, to combat this confusion in future semesters I will have students do X. In your instance, I'd say something like "one student seems to have felt forced to attend office hours, which goes against everything I believe about teaching, so in future semesters, I will make sure that I reiterate my meeting scheduling policy [quoted from my syllabus] once a month to avoid confusion." If it's a lone comment, I would expect my administrator to be able to read between the lines (only one student had this issue) but I would cover myself by providing a solution (which may or may not be something I already do!)

Also, a tip for next semester: I've gotten the best feedback in the past when I've talked to students about course evaluations and given them suggestions for things that would be helpful. As "lose the professor" upthread shows, students don't really know their audience or the purpose of the evaluation. Thus, in the weeks when my evaluations usually become available, I mention them as an order of course business: "This week, the university sent you a link to a course evaluation, which you can fill out anytime between now and [date]. As you know, you can always address course concerns with me via email/in office hours, but the evaluations give me a better sense of which parts of the course are and aren't working for all the students and not just my outgoing ones. I do read your comments, and I always think about ways to improve my classes before I teach them again. Based on past evaluations, here are some changes I made this semester, and it would be helpful to know how they worked for you . . ." I still get the odd personal comment, but my more thoughtful students often provide very detailed constructive feedback on the areas I've noted, which makes the evaluations somewhat less frustrating.

AR.

[polly_mer]

My question is: how do I address in front of my chair the false claims made by students about events that never happened when I submit my Faculty Annual Review that include the component of teaching?.

Chairs and others who will get any copies are also experienced readers of reviews.  AvidReader used the term "lone comment" and that about right.  One false claim will be ignored as being an unhappy student lashing out.  If something truly egregious happened even as a one off, then that student should have either been in the chair's office within a week or filed a formal complaint.  One mention at the end of the term in the comments is someone who is angry and lashing out.

The chair and tenure committee tend to look for patterns and what the professors are doing to address the patterns.  AvidReader gives a good template.  My template was along the lines of "The fall students in <Class> indicated a perception of Y.  For the spring, I did X to help the students with Y and saw no comments related to Y.  The spring students, though, did mention Q and I plan to <whatever> for fall to address Q".

People who want you to succeed should be looking for you to address patterns and doing continuous improvement.  You don't have to address every pattern every term, but showing a willingness to grow and change is usually good.  Again, talk with your local mentor regarding which pattern should have highest priority to meet expectations where you are.

[Parasaurolophus]

Sometimes it happens. It happens more to women, and more to people who are new to an institution. Just work on what you can/what seems reasonable to you, and as long as your numerical trajectory is upwards, it won't be a problem. It may also be worth perusing the Jedi Mind Tricks thread (both here and on the old forum) to get a sense of the sorts of things you can do to lead students to the kinds of conclusions and comments you want while making them think they're doing it all on their own.

Also, FWIW, here's probably how the "forcing" happened:

• You have office hours on Monday and Wednesday from 11h00-13h00.
• You wrote "see me" on an assignment.
• Stu Dent had to work on Monday and Wednesday of week 5, the week after they got the assignment back.
• Stu Dent didn't try to contact you.
• Presto, you forced them to miss work.

[Caracal]

I'm with you that the false claims on evals are the ones that really get to me. I think for me those ones highlight the bizarre nature of course evaluations. Other negative comments, I can see as just someone's experience of the course. My ideal course is somewhat freewheeling, some students experience that as disorganized. Fair enough, I can live with that. I get much more hung up however, on comments that accuse me of things I didn't do. The one that bothered me the most this last semester, was a student who wrote that I was "lazy" and didn't bother reading through long in class essay exams. Obviously I don't do that and it pisses me off that someone gets to write that. However, I think the thing about these kinds of comments is that it is pretty obvious to anyone reading what is going on. Your student who claimed you made him meet at some certain time, obviously isn't managing their time well and is blaming you for their scheduling issues. My student who thinks I don't read longer essays is pretty clearly someone who thinks they ought to get credit just for volume, and also doesn't know how to take feedback, or if they don't understand the feedback go talk to the professor. Instead, they obviously decided the only explanation for them not getting As was that I wasn't bothering to read their brilliant writing.

This stuff is mostly about immaturity and I think that is pretty obvious to anybody reasonable reading the comments. The frustrating thing, of course, about evaluations is that you always worry about someone unreasonable reading your comments, but we can't do much about that...

[apostrophe]

Take heart, OP. As others have noted, this kind of thing happens. Two things will improve--this new group of students will get used to you, and you will get better at teaching them (from prep time to enduring their unprofessional comments).

I recommend talking to your chair and your mentor briefly for FAR tips (if you don't have an assigned mentor, now is a good time to start finding one). Your FAR might not be the place to address student comments and doing so might draw undue attention to your negative reviews. At my current university, the FAR is mostly a balance sheet of hours spent. No one cares about it beyond ticking boxes. The reviews are a part of the tenure packet, however, at which stage "improvement" (even if you are already good, see above) will matter. It might be helpful to make some notes now of the positives and the negatives.

Also, check the jedi mind tricks thread on the old fora. Sometimes just adding "and upon request" to your scheduled office hours will help students feel appropriately nurtured.

[writingprof]

All students in this course with no exception got an "A" because I was forgiving in grading which I am reconsidering now.

Yes, reconsider it.  The only reason to be "forgiving" in one's grading is to buy their love.  If that doesn't work--if they're going to complain anyway--you might as well grade properly.

[the-tenure-track-prof]

Thank you all for these great tips!. Avidreader thanks indeed for sharing your teaching experience here. All comments were really eye-opening and now I can start gradually see the big picture in this situation. I`ve went over the comments one more time to see patterns also to be able to write the teaching section in my Faculty Annual Report (FAR). I`ve noticed that out of 111 there were 4 students who stated that the assignments or instructions were not detailed enough for them. I already know now that I have to address this issue in my FAR. I have noticed that there were two bizzare comments one came from 3 students who stated that I dont accept different opinion than mine and because of that the student ddint open his mouth in class so the grade will not be reduced. These students are all in the same class where I granted A to all of them thinking that I would like to encourage them and show them that they are more than a grade. The other comment that came from 2 students staed that class presentations took 5 classes, the other student said it took half of the semester. In reality, there were two courses with the same cohort of students who I met with twice a week for a total number of 6 hours which in my opinion is a lot for a student to have with one professor.
As a new faculty who just arrived at the department I didnt know that I will have the same cohort in both classes twice a week. I also had a big class of graduate students (23 students). I can understand the illusion that the students had that the presentations went on for a long period of time when in reality it was only 3 weeks but 23 presentation by 2 which means 46 presentations in 3 weeks in two courses with me. I cant believe that graduate students can say things so inaccurate and to say the class presentations took the majority of the semester (unless the 2 students are knowingly lying). How can I address this in my Annual Report or with my chair?

[the-tenure-track-prof]

Avidreader thanks indeed for sharing your teaching experience!.
I`ve gone over the comments one more time to see patterns also to be able to write the teaching section in my Faculty Annual Report (FAR). I`ve noticed that out of 111 there were 4 students who stated that the assignments or instructions were not detailed enough for them. I already know now that I have to address this issue in my FAR. I have noticed that there were two bizarre comments one came from 3 students who stated that I don't accept different opinions than mine and because of that the student didn't open his mouth in class so the grade will not be reduced. This is the exact opposite of what I say directly and indirectly, in class and in my feedback to students which in essence that you are entitled to your opinion no matter what as long as it doesn't put others or you in danger.
These students are all in the same class where I granted A to all of them thinking that I would like to encourage them and show them that they are more than a grade. I wonder how on earth what I said was so misunderstood or is this also a lie.
Another issue was another comment in the course evaluations that came from 2 students out of 111 stated that class presentations took 5 classes, the other student said it took half of the semester!. In reality, there were two courses with the same cohort of students who I met with twice a week for a total number of 6 hours which in my opinion is a lot for a student to have with one professor.
As a new faculty who just arrived at the department, I didn't know that I will have the same cohort in both classes twice a week nor I could say no to the assigned courses since I was brand new faculty. I also had a big class of graduate students (23 students). I can understand the illusion that the students had that the presentations went on for a long period of time when in reality it was only 3 weeks (23 presentations by 2 which means 46 presentations in 3 weeks in two courses with me). I can't believe that graduate students can say things so inaccurate and to say the class presentations took the majority of the semester (unless the 2 students are knowingly lying). How can I address this with my chair and my FAR?

As a young female in humanities, I always expect one or two personal attacks in my feedback. Sometimes there are outright lies, as you note, a la "forced me to attend office hours during work" or --in my case-- "never provided the directions for any assignment" (only hard copies in class and digitally on the CMS).

I don't have to write a response to my comments (yay! adjuncting! a positive thing!) but, if I did, I would likely say something like "Out of 100 students last fall, one noted in course feedback that I 'never provided the directions.' Since each student was given these in class and on the CMS, to combat this confusion in future semesters I will have students do X. In your instance, I'd say something like "one student seems to have felt forced to attend office hours, which goes against everything I believe about teaching, so in future semesters, I will make sure that I reiterate my meeting scheduling policy [quoted from my syllabus] once a month to avoid confusion." If it's a lone comment, I would expect my administrator to be able to read between the lines (only one student had this issue) but I would cover myself by providing a solution (which may or may not be something I already do!)

Also, a tip for next semester: I've gotten the best feedback in the past when I've talked to students about course evaluations and given them suggestions for things that would be helpful. As "lose the professor" upthread shows, students don't really know their audience or the purpose of the evaluation. Thus, in the weeks when my evaluations usually become available, I mention them as an order of course business: "This week, the university sent you a link to a course evaluation, which you can fill out anytime between now and [date]. As you know, you can always address course concerns with me via email/in office hours, but the evaluations give me a better sense of which parts of the course are and aren't working for all the students and not just my outgoing ones. I do read your comments, and I always think about ways to improve my classes before I teach them again. Based on past evaluations, here are some changes I made this semester, and it would be helpful to know how they worked for you . . ." I still get the odd personal comment, but my more thoughtful students often provide very detailed constructive feedback on the areas I've noted, which makes the evaluations somewhat less frustrating.

AR.