But a number of readers have also pointed to the lack of substance on their campuses around how instructors are assessed on their teaching. And if teaching isn’t meaningfully evaluated, what incentive is there to improve it?
There are several elements to this challenge. The first is that many campuses depend largely, if not exclusively, on student course evaluations when it comes to measuring instructional quality. And often those evaluations are not particularly well designed or substantive.
We have written a lot about this challenge over the years. Here’s one story from Beckie on how the University of Southern California attempted to overcome some of the common problems found in evaluations, such as being poor measures of learning and prone to bias.
But even when course evaluations are better designed, I’m not sure any teaching experts would argue that they should be the exclusive measure of whether a faculty member is an effective teacher. That brings us to the second element of the challenge: What else can a college do?
Several readers offered suggestions, such as to include classroom observations, peer evaluation, and teaching portfolios — in which, say, an instructor describes their teaching philosophy and classroom practices, along with evidence that they are working to strengthen their teaching.
A number of colleges have begun creating such frameworks. Perhaps the most notable is a project known as TEval, or Transforming Higher Education — Multidimensional Evaluation of Teaching. The rubrics used by participating institutions include a broad array of activities that contribute to high-quality teaching, such as mentoring and advising, involvement in a teaching community, creating an inclusive class climate, running well-designed courses, and fostering an engaged classroom.
Of course, these far more-detailed teaching reviews require a significant culture shift, not to mention a lot of work from the faculty members being evaluated and those doing the evaluation. As one reader put it: “More elaborate systems get back to resources and time.” And on many campuses, both are in short supply.
I’m going to continue digging into this question and would like to hear your thoughts. If you could design your own teaching evaluation, what would you want to include? And what would you want to get rid of? Write to me at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com, and your ideas may appear in a future newsletter.
Growing interest in online classes
The pandemic pushed everyone online. Now, it turns out, traditional undergraduate students are interested in staying there — at least part of the time. This is according to the latest Changing Landscape of Online Education report, more commonly known as CHLOE, produced by the nonprofit group Quality Matters and Encoura’s Eduventures, a higher-education-market research firm.
The authors surveyed more than 300 chief online officers. According to my colleague Emma Hall, who wrote a story on the findings:
“Eighty-one percent of the administrators surveyed reported that enrollment of traditional-age undergraduates in in-person courses stagnated or declined between the fall of 2021 and the fall of 2022, the time period examined. Meanwhile, 56 percent of them said that enrollment in online or hybrid classes grew. The report defines traditional-age undergraduates as younger than 25 years old.”
But here’s the problem: Faculty members seem less enthusiastic about the prospect of continuing to teach online. Some feel they can’t teach as effectively nor do their students learn as well. According to the CHLOE survey, only 22 percent of chief online officers said most of their full-time faculty have experience designing online courses. And few colleges have mandatory student orientations for online learning.
These are issues I’d like to explore more. And I want to hear from you. If you are relatively new to the format, what has your experience been with online and hybrid teaching? Did you receive the necessary training and online support to be an effective instructor? Did your students also receive the appropriate training and support to be effective online students? Do you like teaching online? Do you feel students learn as much as in in-person classes? Write to me at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com, and your experiences may appear in my future reporting.
Thanks for reading Teaching. If you have suggestions or ideas, please feel free to email us at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com or beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com.
— Beth
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