Herald Editorial: Online evaluations provide benefits for students, university

Course evaluations, those end of semester- last class tasks are here. How to handle? Write what’s really on the mind and risk the teacher knowing who you are by your handwriting — a professor you might have in the future? Or, give high marks to the teacher you personally like (whether or not the professor was organized or intellectually stimulating in class)?

Whatever you say, just do it!

This semester, however, some students will be doing evaluations online. Four of the university’s colleges are participating in a pilot evaluation run. Students in the College of Aviation, Education and Human Development, Health and Human Sciences, and the Hayworth College of Business will only do course evaluations electronically. Another way, besides newsprint, that paper is more quickly becoming the dinosaur of communication. Next year online evaluations will be standard protocol for all courses, and the new system has many benefits.

First, going green will certainly eliminate paper waste, which is one of the reasons for the change, according to Kathy Springsteen who heads up the project in Institutional Effectiveness. Another is cost savings. At 13 reams of paper a year, plus all the staff time in handling the volume of paper evaluations, the department will save $40,000 a year — that’s 60 percent of the current budget for administering and gathering paper evaluations.

Students are the recipients of time flexibility, greater confidentiality, and have their records will be sent and stored off-campus with an outsource company, OJC Technology in Illinois, and instructors still see results a month after they turn in final grades.

Go ahead. Be honest. Help the university by providing real feedback. And make the comments you need to provide teacher and course improvement.

Handwriting cannot be determined online. This is often a huge concern for students who fear that recognition of their handwriting may reveal their identity and contaminate relationships with that professor in a future class or when it comes time for a letter of recommendation. It thwarts constructive comments (even the most constructive comments might not be forgiven for an egotistical teacher who thinks she/he knows who sent them).

Seriously, even the teacher with a huge ego who kills the spirit of learning in a classroom needs to be called out. These online evaluation reports from OJC will go to the teacher (after grades are in), but remember administrators get to see them, too. Speak up! It will be totally anonymous.

An exception, Springsteen said, would be a homicidal threat that OJC would track and report.

The technology is there for OJC to do what’s necessary to comply with the law, but WMU won’t have access to tracking anyone’s response just for interest or curiosity.

Another benefit is time. No more waiting for all your classmates to finish an evaluation after you are done. Or, no more rushing through when you have more to say and feeling the rest of the class is just staring at you, hoping you’ll hurry up.

The online pilot evaluations for these four colleges come directly to your WMU e-mail, and OJC made it easy. If you have more than one class in the pilot colleges, all your evaluation links are included in one e-mail. You have the luxury of doing these on your own time. Take as much or as little time as you need to communicate your opinion.

Not every question is necessary to answer, just like the paper forms. A student response without comment can take as little as 10 minutes.

And time is open, too. The first evaluation e-mails went out more than a week ago. The deadline is April 24. In total, you have a two-week window, with 24/7 access in which to do an online evaluation. Midway through this two-week period, you get a reminder.

Are they mandatory? No. But filling them out gives you the chance to give perspective on your own experience. Did you learn? Did you enjoy the process? Did you get what you expected for the financial expense?

If you would not recommend the teacher to others, provide the details for your reasons. Enough of the same comments might motivate the teacher to change (or the administration to generate some action). After all, college is supposed to be a “learning environment.”

And if your professors were fabulous, show your gratitude. You’ll feel better for it and they’ll appreciate your response.

It’s your turn to grade the professor. Just do it and say what you think — online.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=16890

Posted by heraldstaff on Apr 18 2010. Filed under Editorial, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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