The first is from Christopher Richmann, associate director of the Academy for Teaching and Learning at Baylor University. “I generally don’t pay much attention to the details of our institution’s administration of evaluations (I don’t have a traditional teaching role where my job or promotion is dependent on them), so I was surprised when a colleague told me that our course-evaluations system closed for students before students had taken their finals,” Richmann writes.
“This especially disappointed my colleague, because he told me this in the context of happily reporting to me how much his students had loved (and learned so well from) his nontraditional final. It is a scenario-based role play in a Space Weather course, somewhat along the lines of ‘Reacting to the Past.’ After he told me how great the final exam went, I ignorantly said, ‘Well, I hope that shows up in students’ evaluations of the course.’ To which he replied, ‘It won’t, because evaluations had already closed.’
“I’m not sure if this timing issue is common across institutions. But at least in this instance, it reveals another assumption that is baked into course evaluations: Exams are pure assessment; they are not learning experiences. But on top of that, it’s not even internally consistent: One of our questions on the evaluations asks students to rate how well the course’s assignments and assessments measured their learning. Yet we ask them to do this without the information regarding what is usually the most high-stakes assessment?! It’s like we are actively trying to make the ‘data’ from these instruments as invalid as possible.”
The second comment comes from Susan Canon, director of institutional effectiveness and assessment at St. Olaf College. “I read with interest your Bad timing? note in Teaching. At St. Olaf College, we don’t use course evaluations for pre-tenure, tenure, and promotion reviews for precisely that reason,” Canon writes.
“As you say, students are better positioned later to describe whether or not a course had provided good preparation for what they did next. My office elicits responses from students and alumni specifically about the course(s) they took with a candidate, but at least one semester after they have completed the course — and up to three years later. Students reflect on their learning in the course(s) in the context of other courses they have taken, and their overall education, and the contributions that faculty member made to their learning. Especially for the pre-tenure reviews, it allows for a different perspective than their end-of-course feedback surveys (which they also need to do), and they receive a letter of guidance from their chair to offer suggestions for continued growth and development as an instructor, using, in part, the feedback from the students and alumni.
“That feedback is then placed in the context of peer reviews of teaching, as well as the rest of the content of the review dossier. And the candidates do get to read the student and alumni responses, so they also have that direct feedback for their own edification. While instructors do need to submit a certain number of end-of-course feedback survey results to their department chair, those are used more for the purpose of improving course content and instructional practice, rather than higher-stakes evaluation purposes.”
I’m fascinated by alternative models for evaluating teaching. If you know of one, please share it with me: beckie.supiano@chronicle.com
Learning assistants
If you’re curious about how colleges are using undergraduate learning assistants, a new resource on the University of Virginia’s Teaching Hub offers a good overview. In a LinkedIn post about the collection, Derek Bruff, associate director of UVa’s Center for Teaching Excellence, also points to a podcast episode in which he interviewed its curator, Katie Johnson, interim director of the learning-assistant program and a professor of mathematics at Florida Gulf Coast University, and one of her LAs.
I spent some time watching learning assistants in action at the University of Central Florida earlier this semester. ICYMI, the resulting story, on how they help make large courses feel more personal, is here.
Seeking dynamic profs
Do you know of a particularly compelling professor who teaches one of your college’s most in-demand courses? We’re looking for a few of those people for The Chronicle’s podcast, College Matters, which is running a summer series focused on popular courses.
If you know of a great candidate — or you are one yourself — please fill out this form to tell us. Our colleagues have just a few slots to fill and are looking for pitches that wow them.
Thanks for reading Teaching. If you have suggestions or ideas, please feel free to email us at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com or beckie.supiano@chronicle.com.
—Beckie
Learn more at our Teaching newsletter archive page.
