Course evaluation average point- is it good or bad?

[the-tenure-track-prof]

I am a new assistant professor and I just finished my first semester of teaching. I have had 4 courses and total number of 111 students. There was a lot for me to learn this semester especially t learn the new student population.
I`ve encouraged students to complete course evaluations to learn about what went wrong and what was good. There were some students who complained about me to the chair that I am too strict and the assignments are vague although I used the same assignments as a professor who taught the class last year- somehow when I present the assignment some (not many) said that my assignments are vague which honestly surprised me because it has been the assignments for years and used by many prfoessors who taught the same course.
The average score of all course evaluations was 3.02/4. The raw results and average score for each course will become available for viewing within 2 weeks. I am worried and honestly kind of hurt but I know that I am also new although I taught in R01 universities in the past this is a teaching institution and students are very different from the population that I used to teach.
Is this course evaluation score good or bad?. if this is an average for all courses, then it means some courses I scored below 3 which makes me wonder what went wrong. I really worked hard and put 200 hours of preparation of classes and assignments prior to the start of the academic year and almost 20 hours a week into communicating and meeting with students, correcting papers, reading and revising course material and posting slides online.

[polly_mer]

Talk with your chair and any mentors you have in the department. 

Certain classes tend to be ranked low every time, regardless of who teaches them, due to the expected mismatch between what the students want (often an easy course with no standards to check a box for their requirements) and what every competent faculty member will provide (often a rigorous course that requires students to participate in their own education to even earn a C).  Thus, even if the average is a 3.5, it's entirely possible that one of the intro classes that functions as a weeder will be a 3 (at best) most terms and you're doing fine.

[Parasaurolophus]

Whether it's good or bad sort of depends on your department, what their scores are like, and how they think about their scores. Honestly, it's probably fine. And even if they're relatively low to start, that makes it easier for you to demonstrate a good trajectory/significant improvement in your tenure file.

I`ve encouraged students to complete course evaluations to learn about what went wrong and what was good. There were some students who complained about me to the chair that I am too strict and the assignments are vague although I used the same assignments as a professor who taught the class last year- somehow when I present the assignment some (not many) said that my assignments are vague which honestly surprised me because it has been the assignments for years and used by many prfoessors who taught the same course.

I suspect this may have to do with how you're presenting yourself to the students. So, for example, if you present as apologetic, too sympathetic, too hesitant, if you change material around, etc., students can often read that as disorganization, weakness. And, conversely, if you don't grant extensions, accept late work, etc., then that can make you seem too unsympathetic. If previous professors were men, and you're not, that might make some difference. Students tend to be more... forgiving... of men than they are of women. And a woman who's being strict is perceived much more poorly than a man who's being strict.

One thing that might help is to sort of explain to students why things are organized as they are. Just give them a sort of meta-commentary, especially for stuff that might seem alien to them. So, for example, I always explain to my students that the reason I don't want to see their names on their assignments is that I'm trying to grade them as fairly as possible, and I don't want my perception of their work to be influenced by what I think of their classroom performance. I explain all my formatting requirements in a similar way. They really appreciate that, and I think that in addition to bolstering their trust in my judgement, it helps them to feel included in the evaluation process.

I really worked hard and put 200 hours of preparation of classes and assignments prior to the start of the academic year and almost 20 hours a week into communicating and meeting with students, correcting papers, reading and revising course material and posting slides online.

Try less hard, going forward. That's a ton of time to put in, and the rewards (if there are any) won't be commensurate. Teaching will suck up as much time as you're willing to put into it, but sinking more time into it doesn't necessarily translate into higher-quality instruction. Students almost never notice whether you've cut corners or gone the long way around.

[polly_mer]

One thing that might help is to sort of explain to students why things are organized as they are. Just give them a sort of meta-commentary, especially for stuff that might seem alien to them. So, for example, I always explain to my students that the reason I don't want to see their names on their assignments is that I'm trying to grade them as fairly as possible, and I don't want my perception of their work to be influenced by what I think of their classroom performance. I explain all my formatting requirements in a similar way. They really appreciate that, and I think that in addition to bolstering their trust in my judgement, it helps them to feel included in the evaluation process.

A key word here is "might".  Some students perceive explanation as BS because they don't listen to the explanation.  Instead, those student wanted something else, the answer is no, and the reason behind the "no" matters not one whit.  Some students are quite annoyed at having to deal with multiple ways of doing things and the person who "creates the most work" will always lose.

One of my favorite recent papers pointed out that students learn more by being in more active classrooms, but many dislike the experience so much that they will give lower ratings to the objectively more effective teachers.

[the-tenure-track-prof]

Thank you so much. I can relate to many of the examples that you used about accepting late work, not explaining everything in detail. I can see how the students that I am teaching now is very different from the student population that I used to teach in the past. One issue that I`ve faced with especially graduate students is that whenever I asked if there are any questions about the assignment or anything else they almost never ask questions but then later students do one of two things: they email me to ask about more instructions and that can be about if the references page goes beyond the page limit by one line, is that ok or not?. I also was surprised that some graduate students didn't know how to pick a topic for their class presentations. Retroactively, I realized that it is better to give them less choice and to ask them to send me a page describing their topic and to get my approval before they start working on their presentations. It didn't occur to me that I would ask a grown-up graduate student to send me a summary of their topic for approval first because I wanted to show respect to their independent thinking and creativity which I thought they will appreciate.
Some professors here call the students "babies" and it seems to me that they are used to be given more instructions and less choice in their assignments.
I am aware to never take students comments too personal. Lessons learned.
Thank you all for your support.

[the-tenure-track-prof]

"Some students perceive explanation as BS because they don't listen to the explanation. "- THIS IS SO TRUE. Why is that??. If someone explains something to me, I am grateful and I am likely to invest even more in the task at hand.
Why if you explain and repeat something step by step to students, they don't listen and then ask questions the night before the due date about what I`ve just explained repeatedly in class.? Any idea why this happens?
How to overcome this problem?. Shall I give them less choices with their assignments?

One thing that might help is to sort of explain to students why things are organized as they are. Just give them a sort of meta-commentary, especially for stuff that might seem alien to them. So, for example, I always explain to my students that the reason I don't want to see their names on their assignments is that I'm trying to grade them as fairly as possible, and I don't want my perception of their work to be influenced by what I think of their classroom performance. I explain all my formatting requirements in a similar way. They really appreciate that, and I think that in addition to bolstering their trust in my judgement, it helps them to feel included in the evaluation process.

A key word here is "might".  Some students perceive explanation as BS because they don't listen to the explanation.  Instead, those student wanted something else, the answer is no, and the reason behind the "no" matters not one whit.  Some students are quite annoyed at having to deal with multiple ways of doing things and the person who "creates the most work" will always lose.

One of my favorite recent papers pointed out that students learn more by being in more active classrooms, but many dislike the experience so much that they will give lower ratings to the objectively more effective teachers.

[Hegemony]

My experience is that the more times I teach a course, the better I get at it.  I start to understand with more clarity and detail which parts are difficult for them, which assignments make sense, what I could do better...  No matter how much time I put into it, the first time is always a bit rough, because I'm trying everything out.  The second time is better.  By the third time through, I feel as if I have the basics of the course set up well, and from then on it's largely tinkering with little individual pieces.  In short, I wouldn't conclude that you are doing anything "wrong," or that, conversely, something is wrong with the students.  You're just at the beginning of a long process.  Staying conscientious and humble will serve you well, and things will get smoother.  It doesn't sound to me as if you're a poor teacher.  But also, things will get better with time.

[Caracal]

Thank you so much. I can relate to many of the examples that you used about accepting late work, not explaining everything in detail. I can see how the students that I am teaching now is very different from the student population that I used to teach in the past.

It didn't occur to me that I would ask a grown-up graduate student to send me a summary of their topic for approval first because I wanted to show respect to their independent thinking and creativity which I thought they will appreciate.
Some professors here call the students "babies" and it seems to me that they are used to be given more instructions and less choice in their assignments.

Be careful of paying too much attention to professors grumbling about students and certainly don't adopt insulting views about them. I've found that while it is true that student populations do vary, a lot of the changes one has to make are fairly small. It is sometimes just about taking more time to explain an assignment in class, or providing a sample to give students a sense of what you are looking for.

A student's ability to select a topic on their own isn't about how "grown up" they are. It is about their preparation and confidence. You may have gone to a school where students were expected to come in with those skills, or quickly acquire them without a lot of guidance, but that doesn't mean your students are "babies" just because they can't do that yet. Your job is to teach them how to do that. That might mean narrowing the list of things to choose from, or it might mean having them write a proposal and come talk to you about it. And yes, this is the sort of thing you can only learn from actually teaching the course and seeing how something doesn't work.

[KiUlv]

A 3/4 average in my institution for a first semester professor would be pretty good. Even if it's not so great in your institution, your response to it and how you take the input and make changes to your teaching is what the powers that be are looking for in my institution. You can start off poorly, but they are more interested in your trajectory. If you have a mentor, I'd be asking these questions of them (or other, more senior and trusted faculty at your institution).

[polly_mer]

My experience is that the more times I teach a course, the better I get at it.  I start to understand with more clarity and detail which parts are difficult for them, which assignments make sense, what I could do better...  No matter how much time I put into it, the first time is always a bit rough, because I'm trying everything out. 

One thing that I noticed as I taught the same class for different student populations is that where the students got stuck or needed additional information varied a lot.  My first year of teaching, I was a true believer in Just-In-Time Teaching strategies (good reference at https://www.teachhub.com/just-time-teaching-strategies) and an inverted classroom.  Things were OK, but not nearly as good as when I had the experience on where the students were going to get stuck so I could just plan for certain activities or reminders or what have you that were Just-In-Time from the students' standpoint. 

Knowing the pattern and making minor tweaks was far more useful than having that panicky moment of realizing that the students weren't literate enough to learned that velocity/acceleration/distance have science meanings, weren't numerate enough to be able to enter expressions into the calculator, or hadn't done any of the prep work so that today's cool activity would need 20 minutes of lecture before we could do an activity that kindergarteners successfully complete as the capstone for their unit on the topic.

Changing institutions to new student demographics meant moving where some of those activities occurred, dropping some intro activities, and adding other intro activities.  Just as one cannot successfully start the day by telling a toddler to stop touching the wall and put their shoes on immediately prior to the 1530 trip to the store and then expect that all during the day, the wall will remain untouched and the shoes will magically go on at 1527, students who are still struggling with the basics often need more structure (where do hands go instead of the wall?) and reminders that are closer to the time (starting at 1500, give a reminder every 5 minutes that we're going to put on our shoes soon and go to the store).

Yes, it seems like grad students should have a better handle on basic tasks that some people mastered in high school.  However, if your students generally don't come in with those skills, then your job is to help them learn those skills.  Knowing and accepting that situation makes everyone's lives easier.

[the-tenure-track-prof]

"students who are still struggling with the basics often need more structure"- Very true.

These students don't know the basics of scientific writing such as when to start a new paragraph even. Use words such as "I feel" where they are asked to discuss a topic scientifically and provide evidence to their argument. I`ve read papers that made me really wonder what did they learn at the undergraduate level classes. I am now rethinking my teaching method, and how to rebuild class activities with more explicit instructions even for each assignment because I notice that they like group work in the classroom. Thank you all for your contributions. You made me consider new teaching methods.

[KiUlv]

One issue that I`ve faced with especially graduate students is that whenever I asked if there are any questions about the assignment or anything else they almost never ask questions but then later students do one of two things: they email me to ask about more instructions and that can be about if the references page goes beyond the page limit by one line, is that ok or not?. I also was surprised that some graduate students didn't know how to pick a topic for their class presentations. Retroactively, I realized that it is better to give them less choice and to ask them to send me a page describing their topic and to get my approval before they start working on their presentations. It didn't occur to me that I would ask a grown-up graduate student to send me a summary of their topic for approval first because I wanted to show respect to their independent thinking and creativity which I thought they will appreciate.

I've had similar experiences with grad students. I feel like some of them have required so much more explicit instruction that I feel like I need to give. Very few questions during class or after/before class, but the emails come all over the place! I don't want to tell someone exactly how many references they need (when I say "at least x number," that seems more than reasonable to me) or exactly what headings they should use within their own lit review.

I tried to have a central place on our online system where people could ask questions that may apply to everyone (i.e., questions about assignments), but that failed miserably in both classes. Realistically, it was the minority of students who needed such hand-holding, but it took up a lot of time.

[the-tenure-track-prof]

The examples that you brought up are very similar to my experiences with graduate students including the facilitation of online system where they can post questions.
I`ve asked myself several times lately why graduate students dont ask questions in class but they open up if it is in a private journal. I`ve noticed then that they dont ask questions in front of each other and this could mean that they are afraid that asking questions may hurt "their image" in front of their classmates and/or be judged by other students. They would prefer to not clarify the assignment and push it aside as long as they can until the night before the due date and then they start sending tons of emails.
I did try to create an online private journal page in the online system to allow them to write questions that only me can access. It seems to work but many students still show poor basic academic skills and scientific writing skills and this fact changes everything in my opinion including the material, textbook and methods of teaching that I need to reconsider and to adapt and meet them where they are at.

One issue that I`ve faced with especially graduate students is that whenever I asked if there are any questions about the assignment or anything else they almost never ask questions but then later students do one of two things: they email me to ask about more instructions and that can be about if the references page goes beyond the page limit by one line, is that ok or not?. I also was surprised that some graduate students didn't know how to pick a topic for their class presentations. Retroactively, I realized that it is better to give them less choice and to ask them to send me a page describing their topic and to get my approval before they start working on their presentations. It didn't occur to me that I would ask a grown-up graduate student to send me a summary of their topic for approval first because I wanted to show respect to their independent thinking and creativity which I thought they will appreciate.

I've had similar experiences with grad students. I feel like some of them have required so much more explicit instruction that I feel like I need to give. Very few questions during class or after/before class, but the emails come all over the place! I don't want to tell someone exactly how many references they need (when I say "at least x number," that seems more than reasonable to me) or exactly what headings they should use within their own lit review.

I tried to have a central place on our online system where people could ask questions that may apply to everyone (i.e., questions about assignments), but that failed miserably in both classes. Realistically, it was the minority of students who needed such hand-holding, but it took up a lot of time.

[the-tenure-track-prof]

On a different note, I am new to course evaluations. Other than myself who at the university have access to the course evaluation results?. Thanks.

[Caracal]

On a different note, I am new to course evaluations. Other than myself who at the university have access to the course evaluation results?. Thanks.

Totally dependent on university policies.