Student Questions on Instructor Evaluations

Billy Joe Mills and I met with the higher-ups in the Measurement & Evaluations department of the Center for Teaching Excellence to talk about the proposed new student core questions for the ICES evaluations of instructors. The meeting went surprisingly well. My concern was that we were going to have to face the choice of having to remove the question regarding political bias by instructors due to hostility on the part of the faculty, who would choose not to use the student questions at all on their evaluations because they didn't like the question.

Instead, we were met with an overwhelmingly positive reception and the only changes that were suggested were ways not to water down or remove questions but improve them. There were only a few wording changes suggested, all of which I think are better for the student body than our original proposal. The current proposal for the new student questions, which will start appearing on Spring 2006's instructor evaluations, is the following (all of which are ranked on a 1 to 5 scale from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree"):

1. The required texts and other materials were effectively utilized in the course.
2. The instructor was respectful of differing beliefs on race, religion, or politics.
3. Grading procedures for the course were fair.
4. The workload for the course was appropriate for the credit received.
5. The instructor was accessible to students.
6. The instructor explained material clearly.

We will also be receiving access to the results of the two global questions:

1. Rate the overall effectiveness of the instructor.
2. Rate the overall quality of the course.

Student questions 2 and 4 are the only ones with significant wording changes. Surprisingly, the workload question aroused more controversy among faculty than the political question (the original wording of the workload question being "The workload for course was light/heavy."). The faculty didn't want students selecting classes motivated by their laziness, but by whether the workload was fair given the level of the course, which I think is fair.

The Measurement & Evaluation guys we spoke to assured us that faculty would not refuse to use the student questions because of the political question (or any other question, for that matter). Faculty instead agreed that political bias was a legitimate concern among the student body and we have every right to address it. The wording change that did occur (originally it had read "The instructor imposed a political ideology in class") only served to make the question more easily understandable to students and poses the question in a more positive tone so that it fits in better with the other questions.

I'm more than happy with the way the administration and faculty have received this effort. I can't think of a single significant issue that students would be concerned with that isn't in some way addressed in these questions. Of course, these final word changes will need to be approved by the Academic Affairs committee and any discussion on the matter is welcome either here on the blog, at ISS meetings, or at Academic Affairs meetings.

--Brian Pierce