Transcript How anonymous student evaluations help you become a better teacher by Bruce Ravelli Mount Royal College Calgary, Canada e: [email protected] w: ravelli.ca https://www.toofast.ca.

How anonymous student evaluations
help you become a better teacher
by
Bruce Ravelli
Mount Royal College
Calgary, Canada
e: [email protected]
w: ravelli.ca
https://www.toofast.ca
Teaching evaluations and you
Session overview
• Why evaluate your teaching?
Costs/Benefits
• What does the most recent research
tells us about student evaluation of
teaching (SET)?
• How mid-semester evaluations (MSEs)
make you a better teacher.
• Demonstrate TooFAST software.
Why evaluate your teaching?
Costs
• Student venting.
• Lack of student accountability.
• Students may not appreciate, nor
understand, the reasons why you
teach the way you do.
• Time and energy required to
conduct assessments.
Why evaluate your teaching?
Benefits
• Demonstrates your desire to become a better
teacher.
• Helps you determine where you are and where
you are going.
• Reinforces your commitment to address student
concerns while they are still your students.
• Validates your belief that your course can be
improved with honest and sincere student input.
• Invigorates your teaching by making you more
reflective and reflexive.
• Improves your formal end-of-term evaluations.
Recent Research Findings
1. Student assessments have been
shown to be valid and reliable (but, still
some controversy).
2. Students are motivated to complete
evaluations when they are intended to
improve teaching but are not
convinced they are taken seriously or
lead to much change.
3. Course grades do not appear to
influence a student’s evaluation of
instruction.
Recent Research Findings
4. No significant rating differences exist
between full and part-time faculty.
5. Students in junior level classes are
most interested in relevancy of class
materials, appropriateness of
workload and grading fairness.
6. Students in senior classes focus on
ability to speak up in class and to
safely voice their opinions.
Recent Research Findings
7. Some recent research
investigating the influence of
Ratemyprofessor (RMP) found:
• Around 85% of students had
visited the site, 36% had
evaluated an instructor and 71%
had avoided an instructor based
on her/his ratings (these numbers
should continue to rise).
Recent Research Findings
• Over 90% of students believe that
RMP ratings are equal to or more
honest than formal SET scores.
• RMP ratings appear to be
significant predictors of
instructor’s performance as
measured by formal SET results.
Recent Research Findings
8. Faculty who conduct MSEs are
viewed more positively by their
students and are rewarded with
higher scores at the end of the
course.
Our potential as teachers
Teachers who
evaluate
Quality
of
Teaching
Teachers who
lose interest
Teachers who do
not evaluate
Time
(From Peter Seldin’s Improving College Teaching (1995))
How MSEs improve teaching
By using mid-semester evaluations you
begin to “own” them and use the results
to improve your teaching.
Using your own evaluations allows you to
ask the questions you want, when you
want to ask them, and by doing so
improve your teaching and your courses.
Research confirms those who use MSEs
have higher year end SEI scores.
Types of MSEs
1. 3X5 recipe cards completed in class.
2. E-mail/discussion boards.
3. Present questions in class – request
typed responses by next class.
4. Student advocate.
5. Peer review/course colleague.
6. Videotape a lecture.
7. Review previous evaluations with
class.
8. Online survey software.
Advantages of online evaluations
1. Completely anonymous.
2. Ability to ask the questions you want,
when you want to ask them.
3. Evaluations/Results available 24/7.
4. Results are instantaneous, compiled
automatically and only available to
you.
5. Confirms to students that you want to
hear from them, while they are still
your students.
Advantages of TooFAST
TooFAST
1. Is a free, secure, open-source tool cosponsored by Mount Royal, Carleton
and eCampus Alberta.
2. Is hosted on our own server (located in
Calgary, Alberta) and is not subject to
the Patriot Act.
3. Places no limits on the number of
questions you ask or how many
evaluations you send out.
4. Requires no administrative support or
infrastructure.
Demonstration of TooFAST
Home Page:
• Instant sign-up
• Take a Tour feature
• Survey Search
• Twitter/Developer Repositories
• Terms of Use/Privacy Policy
Users Window:
• Create a survey
• View all passwords /Change
passwords
Demonstration of TooFAST
Management Window:
• Add/modify/cloning surveys (question
database)
• Selecting question formats (be sure to
“submit” to save changes)
• Linking to your survey
• Adding a preamble to the survey
• Notification once a survey is completed
• One survey per respondent
• Viewing results (online, pdf, etc.)
Final Reflections
For me, the benefits of MSE far outweigh any of
the costs.
As the research suggests, teaching evaluations
are valid, reliable and send a clear message to
our students that we practice what we preach.
My experience suggests that by asking your
students to comment on your teaching, you open
a wonderfully rewarding conversation about the
entire teaching and learning process.
Our work with colleagues using the TooFAST
software has been the most rewarding activity of
my career.
Selected References
Barlow Hills, Stacey., Naegle, Natali., Bartkus, Kenneth R. (2009). How Important
Are Items on a Student Evaluation? A Study on Item Salience. Journal of
Education for Business, 84(5), 297-303.
Brown, Michael J. (2008). Student Perceptions of Teaching Evaluations. Journal
of Instructional Psychology, 35(2), 177-181.
Brown, Michael J., Baillie, Michelle., Fraser, Shawndel. (2009). Rating
RATEMYPROFESSORS.COM: A comparison of online and official student
evaluations of teaching. College Teaching, 57(2), 89-92.
Chen, Yining., Hoshower, Leon B. (2003). Student Evaluation of Teaching
Effectiveness: an assessment of student perception and motivation.
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 28(1),71-88.
Coladarci, Theodore., Kornfield, Irv. (2007). RateMyProfessors.com versus
formal in-class student evaluations of teaching. Practical Assessment,
Research & Evaluation, 12(6), 1-15.
El Hassan, Karma. (2009). Investigating substantive and consequential validity
of student ratings of instruction. Higher Education Research &
Development, 28(3), 319-333.
Landrum, Eric R. (2008). Are There Instructional Differences Between Full-time
and Part-time Faculty? College Teaching, 57(1), 23-26.
Seldin, Peter. (1995). Improving College Teaching. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing
Co.
Spencer, Karin J., Pedhazur Schmelkin, Liora. (2002). Student Perspectives on
Teaching and its Evaluation. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education,
27(5),397-409.