End-of-Course Evaluation Information and Process

Evaluation Options for 05-06

The literature shows that there are three primary methods to improve response rates on end-of-course evaluations:  1) send reminder notices, 2) offer a small incentive, and 3) most effective, make evaluation a part of the course.

Send Reminder Notices
As part of the centrally administered option, two email reminders will be sent to the students through their university email accounts.  These will be sent on Monday, December 5, and Monday, December 12.  However, faculty are encouraged to remind their own students of the importance of the evaluations and encourage their participation through whatever communication channel you have established for your course.

"Currently, the principal problem with online evaluations is a potentially low response rate.  Response rates to online faculty evaluations have ranged anywhere from 23 to 92%, with the higher response rates associated with surveys that used one or more reminder messages." (Dommeyer, et al., 2004)

Offer a Small Incentive
The literature stated that small incentives will boost the response rates from students.  An example that was provided was one-half of one percent grade enhancement.  If this is something you are considering, make sure you inform your students of the date they need to have the evaluation completed by in order to receive the incentive.  I would suggest by the end of classes, which is Sunday, December 11.  This will provide you enough time to request the list of students who completed the evaluation prior to the end of the session on Friday, December 16.

Dommeyer, C. J., Baum, P. Hanna, R. W., & Chapman, K. S. (2004) "Gathering faculty teaching evaluations by in-class and online surveys:  their effects on response rates and evaluations"  Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 29, (5) 611-623.

This study compares student evaluations of faculty teaching that were completed in-class with those collected online.  The two methods of evaluation were compared on response rates and on evaluation scores.  In addition, this study investigates whether treatments or incentives can affect the response to online evaluations.  It was found that the response rate to the online survey was generally lower than that to the in-class survey.  Additionally, the study found that online evaluations do not produce significantly different mean evaluation scores than traditional in-class evaluations, even when different incentives are offered to students who are asked to complete online evaluations.

Make Evaluation Part of the Course
The most effective method to maintain high quality response rates is to make evaluation part of your course.  By simply administering a mid-semester course evaluation and providing the results and your plan of action based on their feedback to the class, will dramatically improve response rates at the end of the year.  This is because it addresses students' primary complaint about course evaluation - no one looks or even cares about what I have to say about the course.  If you show them that their feedback is important, studies show that they will provide that feedback to you.

Chen, Y. & Hoshower, L. B. (2003) "Student evaluation of teaching effectiveness: an assessment of student perception and motivation."  Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 28, (1) 72-88.

Over the past century, student ratings have steadily continued to take precedence in faculty evaluation systems in North America and Australia, are increasingly reported in Asia and Europe and are attracting considerable attention in the Far East. Since student ratings are the most, if not the only, influential measure of teaching effectiveness, active participation by and meaningful input from students can be critical in the success of such teaching evaluation systems.  Nevertheless, very few studies have looked into students' perception of the teaching evaluation systems and their motivation to participate.  This study employs expectancy theory to evaluate some key factors that motivate students to participate in the teaching evaluation process.  The results show that students generally consider an improvement in teaching to be the most attractive outcome of a teaching evaluation system.  The second most attractive outcome was using teaching evaluations to improve course content and format.  Using teaching evaluations for a professor's tenure, promotion and salary rise decisions and making the results of evaluations available for students' decisions on course and instructor selection were less important from the students' standpoint.  Students' motivation to participate in teaching evaluations is also impacted significantly by their expectation that they will be able to provide meaningful feedback.  Since quality student input is an essential antecedent of meaningful student evaluations of teaching effectiveness, the results of this study should be considered thoughtfully as the evaluation system is designed, implemented, and operated.

Spencer, K. & Schmelkin, L. P. (2002) "Student Perspectives on Teaching and its Evaluation."  Assessment & Evaluation in higher Education, 27 (5) 397-409.

The research on student ratings of instruction, while voluminous, has had minimal focus on the perceptions of the students who do the ratings.  The current study explored student perspectives on course and teacher ratings as well as some issues related to teaching effectiveness and faculty roles.  It was found that students are generally willing to do evaluations and to provide feedback, and have no particular fear of repercussions.  However, they have little confidence that faculty or administrators pay attention to the results, and do not even consult the ratings themselves.  The students view teaching and advising as the most important roles that should be played by faculty, yet project that faculty, while also viewing teaching as the most important, would rank research about the more student-interactive advising.  Canonical correlations among various scales reveal a strong emphasis on such issues of the importance of faculty respect for student views.