Student evaluation form

[hamburger]

Hi, my department never shows me students' evaluations even they are supposed to. Some places require it as part of job application. A colleague mentioned that he asked his students yo do his own. What questions should I ask?

[hamburger]

Hi, my department never shows me students' evaluations even they are supposed to. Some places require it as part of job application. A colleague mentioned that he asked his students yo do his own. What questions should I ask? At the end of the course, shall I ask them to fill in the answers on a piece of paper or send it to me by email to proof that it is legit?

[dr_codex]

A few thoughts:

1. Formal evaluations are often needed for job applications. Sometimes you don't get the full set, but just the statistics and a comment or two.

The big advantage for employers is that these often include comparisons with other benchmarks (department mean, department average, and the like). The downfall for teachers is that they often include information that's important to the institution but irrelevant for the instructor. They also often phrase questions in ways that students are poorly placed to judge, and, and many places where I've taught, they are filled out long before the courses are complete. (Instructors sometimes game the system based on the last point, grading generously until forms are completed, and hammering students on final exams and assignments.)

I only take these seriously when evaluating teaching portfolios when they are complete sets, include comparisons and/or benchmarks, and have all the accompanying transcribed comments. Otherwise, they are way too easy to cherry-pick, and I'd rather get my information in other ways. One exception: a job candidate submitted 25 (of 25) full-page, hand-written reflections on a course; they were thoughtful, glowing, and provided a lot of insight into how the course operated and what it covered. That was gold, and I'd never get anything comparable out of my own students, even if I paid them.

Your institution should be gathering these for accreditation, and you probably have an affirmative right to see them. Any union shop would require that they be shared with you.

2. Personal surveys are probably not going to carry much weight, except as an indication of your practices as an instructor. They are along the lines of non-confidential letters of recommendation from students: it's a huge red flag if you cannot get any of this, but nobody's going to pay a lot of attention to the contents.

However, personal surveys are far more useful in getting feedback about one's own courses. Which assignments worked? Which assigned readings sucked? How much did they actually do? What were the 3 best/3 worst things?

Such surveys are even more useful when you give them out around the mid-point, as a kind of "how's my driving?" exercise. Students are much more likely to fill out a survey that will influence their own classroom experience. Given some of your other posts, you might not want to open up this kind of dialogue. I don't always do it, but it's very helpful in reflecting upon a course the next time I offer it.

Some of my colleagues use their own student feedback forms in their professional evaluation packages. A few are pretty transparent. ("How do you love me? Let thee count the ways...") If you're looking for positive feedback, it's not hard to phrase questions that elicit it. And if you're collecting them, you'll be able to select the answers that provide evidence to support whatever case you're trying to make. But don't be shocked if people don't take self-generated feedback very seriously.

3. Finally, think long and hard about what you actually want a survey to do before you take the time to design it, and before you ask students to take the time to complete it. My college suffers from "survey fatigue", and if I asked a class to do another one, I'd get pretty thin responses, if any. (Our current practice is to require students to complete their course surveys through our LMS; they cannot access course content until they do, so most of them just click-click-click in 1 minute, and the results across the board are garbage. Caveat lector.)

dc

[marshwiggle]

Hi, my department never shows me students' evaluations even they are supposed to. Some places require it as part of job application. A colleague mentioned that he asked his students yo do his own. What questions should I ask? At the end of the course, shall I ask them to fill in the answers on a piece of paper or send it to me by email to proof that it is legit?

If you want honest responses, you have to make it anonymous for the students. If you want positive responses, make them identify themselves.

[dr_codex]

Hi, my department never shows me students' evaluations even they are supposed to. Some places require it as part of job application. A colleague mentioned that he asked his students yo do his own. What questions should I ask? At the end of the course, shall I ask them to fill in the answers on a piece of paper or send it to me by email to proof that it is legit?

Just to add:

Neither of these is going to prove that the evaluations are "legit". There are lots of ways to skew an election, and if you're the one manning the poling station, it's always going to be assumed that some answers aren't going to be counted. Sorry, but that's the way it is.

If you do go the email route, you're opting not to have any anonymity. Anonymous feedback is judged differently. Whichever route you take, inform students if their comments are not confidential, and/or if you will read them before all grades are in.

[downer]

From everything you have said about the school where you teach, it seems like a place with low academic standards and questionable treatment of faculty. If you are applying to another local school, the chair at the department will very likely be aware of this. The fact that you want to leave there could work in your favor. If you are applying further away, then probably the places you apply will not have heard of your school.

Providing home made student evaluations will not help your application. It is also not clear how you are going to get a good letter of recommendation from your current school either. There is no indication that they place you in high esteem.

So basically you should think about your next job as starting over.

[Ruralguy]

I'm afraid I have to agree. If staying in academia, its probably a do-over, meaning probably starting as an adjunct or visiting faculty. That doesn't sound great, but if the OP takes it seriously, it might not be a bad opportunity. However, as Polly_mer would likely say, now is definitely time to think about opportunities outside of academia.

[syz]

In my institution the evaluations are shared with the faculty.

[Parasaurolophus]

Any chance you're friendly with the department staff and can ask them to point you to the filing cabinet containing your file?

(My institution is a bit lackadaisical about evals too, though not that bad. They're conducted in-person by our admin staff and they aren't required for every class, meaning that I have to specifically request that someone come in to run an eval for every class I teach.)

[hamburger]

My students know their scores already but I have not entered their final scores into the system. They can calculate themselves but I want to get their forms first before I upload their grades. If I upload first, probably no more than 3-5 will reply. Since they know their scores already, they don't need to be afraid of me lowering their scores for negative feedback. In this case,  do I still need to make it anonymous? Can I just ask them to fill in the form and once I have received the form by email, I will upload their individual scores?

[Hegemony]

At my place it would be considered highly unethical to try to see evaluations before the grades have been uploaded.  It opens you to the understandable charge that you wanted to see whether they rated you well before determining their final grades, and might be punitive toward those who rated you badly.  I believe at our place, doing this would be considered a violation of academic conduct.  I strongly advise against it.

[downer]

What you need to ask yourself is: do I feel lucky? Maybe you will get away with it. Roll the dice!

[hamburger]

At my place it would be considered highly unethical to try to see evaluations before the grades have been uploaded.  It opens you to the understandable charge that you wanted to see whether they rated you well before determining their final grades, and might be punitive toward those who rated you badly.  I believe at our place, doing this would be considered a violation of academic conduct.  I strongly advise against it.

No, they all know the grades for all assessments already. They can calculate the final scores themselves. Thus, even they rate me rubbish in the survey, I cannot lower their grades or else they will complain about me.

[Hegemony]

This may be true in a practical sense, but it is standard practice never to have access to evaluations until final grades have been submitted.  Even if you are as honest as the day is long, the violation of standard practice looks sketchy to anyone who finds out about it.  I urge you not to do it, however honestly you intend it.  Trust me when I say it will look bad, and people will not care about your justifications. 

[hamburger]

This may be true in a practical sense, but it is standard practice never to have access to evaluations until final grades have been submitted.  Even if you are as honest as the day is long, the violation of standard practice looks sketchy to anyone who finds out about it.  I urge you not to do it, however honestly you intend it.  Trust me when I say it will look bad, and people will not care about your justifications.

Thanks. So the safest way is to ask them to fill in next semester (if I still teach there)?
How about I submit the scores to the department now and ask the students to fill in on the next day?