Our Course Evaluation form consists of 23 multiple choice questions regarding class presentation, discussion, assignments and instructor strengths and weaknesses. In addition, it contains 4 open ended questions about the most and least valuable aspects of the course and the instructor.
Paper Version
- The instructor should receive the envelopes containing blank forms directly from their departments.
- During the final class, the instructor should set aside 15-20 minutes of class time for students to complete the course evaluations.
- A student volunteer should collect and return the evaluations immediately to room 113 Zankel (or the Main Hall Security Desk if after 5:00 pm).
- Staff from the Office of Institutional Studies will pick up the envelopes with the completed forms.
- The forms will be revised, scanned and analyzed to obtain individual summaries. The summaries will then be inserted inside the envelopes.
- We will return the envelopes to their respective departments. The envelopes are then organized by a) faculty, b) part time, and c) instructors and adjuncts. Faculty’s envelopes go directly to faculty; while the envelopes for part time faculty, instructors, and adjuncts stay in the department for revision.
When using the paper version, our office keeps a summary of the 23 multiple choice questions. We do not keep the qualitative data (the 4 open ended questions) because those are in the original forms that we send to the departments.
The new Online Course Evaluation
We are currently developing a more efficient way to do course evaluations, incorporating the technological advances that our College offers. Some of the advantages of the online version are:
- The data pre-processing is minimal, and requires less data manipulation, which might translate into more “accuracy”.
- The results are generated faster than the paper version- almost automatically after the system finishes getting the data.
- The summaries contain both qualitative and quantitative information, and those summaries will be available at any time.
- Given that the summaries are electronic links, they will be available at any computer with internet access, thus avoiding the extra copies of course evaluations for revision. *
- No paper is needed, so not only will we save resources (paper and ink), but we will also be helping to protect the environment.
- No physical storage is needed.
* The link will ONLY be sent to the instructor and respective department chair in order to protect instructor’s privacy.
