Student
(and other)
Course Evaluations
Response Rates, Relevance and
Results
Kathleen Norris
knorris@plymouth.edu
Plymouth State University, NH

Student Course Evaluations are standard in
higher education, but what are their best uses?
Response rates continue to be used as a
measure of their effectiveness, but are
response rates as relevant as they were when
every instructor handed them out in person at
the end of every course? What questions can
students actually answer about their courses
and instructors? How important should they be
in determining eligibility for tenure and
promotion? This roundtable session will
explore the challenges and successes we’ve
had in the construction and use of student
course evaluations, and raise questions about
the use of other forms of course evaluation
(self, peer, supervisor, instructional designer) in
place of, or in addition to, student course
evaluations.
Student Evaluations

Standard in Higher Education



Used for Tenure and Promotion
Electronic versions are now common
Questions about

Course Evaluation design: Student ability
to answer some questions

Importance of Response Rates as a
measure of “success” in an online survey

Validity of using them heavily for T&P
Concern with Response
Rates Dominates

Course Evaluation Task Force

Drop in Response Rates after moving to
an online evaluation format

Survey of areas of evaluation interests for
students, faculty, department chairs,
deans
Survey Results

Students want to comment on:

Instructor’s engagement with, and delivery
and assessment of, course content

Instructors’ relationships with students:
were they professional, accessible, caring

Value of the course content, texts,
assignments
Survey Results

Faculty want students to tell them


what works, and doesn’t work, in a course


student growth/understanding
about course alignment with syllabus and
curriculum
about their communication with students:
quality, timeliness
Survey Results

Department Chairs, Deans, Admins want
students to provide information about

the effectiveness of the instructor to help
them with course assignment, tenure and
promotion decisions

potential need to update the curriculum,
value of certain courses


changing interests of students
demand for certain courses, types of
activities
Redesign Evaluations?

Clear direction from students about what
information they want to provide

If evaluations asked students questions they
could, and want to, answer, might response
rates go up?

Task Force designed Feedback Frenzy and
pushed out various encouragements to
faculty to try to increase response rates, (but
did not revise the survey based on student
feedback)

Response Rates remain the goal!
Feedback Frenzy Event
Should we be talking about:

Preparing higher education instructors and
professors to teach (teacher training)?

Preparing department chairs, deans, admins
to coach, support, teaching (teacher
development and evaluation training)?

Online survey standards for response rates,
online survey development?

Paradigm shift in thinking about the ability of
students to evaluate teaching, and use of
Student Evaluations in instructor evaluation?
Final Thoughts

See selected list of resources on Course
Evaluation in Higher Education.

The use of student course evaluations
continues to be relevant in the assessment
of higher education courses. However, with
the addition of online and hybrid courses,
and online evaluations, we need to examine
this practice and the paradigms that drive it,
to ensure that the evaluations are
meaningful.

Thank you for participating in this
discussion!