Course evaluations

There are several times throughout the academic year, that every instructor can, and most likely, will lose sleep. Not the "I have to get my finals graded so I can't go to bed" times, no, the "I'm in bed tossing and turning" nights. Those would be the two times per year that students get an opportunity to evaluate their professors, and the annual academic assessment that is performed at the end of each academic year. Student evaluations are deemed especially important, as they reflect how one performs on one's core duty: teaching. The results from these evaluations are compared to other instructors, other colleges, and other universities, and kept on file pretty much forever. If you want to make any kind of promotion, or argue for a raise, or get tenured, your evaluations need to be nothing short of perfect. In short, they're a big deal.

Deep in my heart, I know I do my very best as an instructor to present the appropriate material in an understandable yet interesting manner. I try to keep my materials current and up-to-date (no outdated powerpoint slides from 1997 for me), I read numerous publications making sure I'm not missing anything, and I attempt to make it all entertaining for my students too. Call me the anecdote queen, but I struggle to find applicable, funny and at times self-deprecating stories for every difficult concept. Consequently, my students know probably far too much about my personal life or days in college. But it seems to work, and I am not one to shy from whatever works. But in spite of all of that, and the fact that I have received numerous favorable evaluations in the past few years, I still worry. Am I good enough? Am I covering everything I should? Do the students get it? Can I get them to care? Do they like it? Am I asking too much? Too little? So when the time for course evaluations rolls around, I get a little nervous.

Last year, my first year here, I wasn't even aware that this school had an evaluation system in place until I received four big fat envelopes in my mailbox. Instructors were asked to appoint a student proctor during one of the last classes before finals, leave the room, and then the idea was that all the students would fill out a paper survey right then and there. Although I had all but forgotten about the evaluations by the time another fat enveloped made its way into my mailbox a few months later, the students seemed to be very satisfied. The statistics looked very good, and a few students had even bothered to write out some comments. To this day, though, I'm still not sure if the "Very hot" comment referred to the topic of the class, my outfits, or the classroom temperature, but either way, I figure it's a good thing.

This year, the administration decided to change the system to an online evaluation. Because state law prohibits schools from forcing students to participate in the evaluation, I expected the worst. Because if there was no incentive of any kind to fill out the survey, who but the students who had a bone to pick, would go online and fill out a tedious questionnaire? How representative would the sample of students taking the survey be? In spite of complaints of this nature directed at the faculty senate, it was to no avail. Internet technology is the future, and thus evaluations, like everything else from grading to obtaining parking permits to changing your home address, had to be completed online.

I had pretty much forgotten about the evaluations, again, until I found a very slim envelope in my mailbox today. Very slim. Out of my seven classes, only two students had filled out the questionnaire. Two. So much for adequate feedback. I feel fortunate though; a co-worker of mine had one student take the time to review his class. What would happen if those two students absolutely hated your class? Would that count against you, or would the fact that thirty other students did not complain work in your favor? I'm not sure, and fortunately for me, I don't have to worry about that. These students were happy and satisfied. They even took the time out to write brief comments, which really made my day. Student one wrote; "She is the only teacher in our department who knows how to teach! It's a big difference from reading off a powerpoint...I think she is a wonderful teach and wish our department had more like her!". The second student put; "She is an amazing professor. I enjoy all of her classes even though they are difficult. I really feel like I'm getting my money's worth with her. I like that her classes are challenging which forces me to think critically."

What can I say? Dr. DixieChick is blushing and very happy. I must be doing something right somewhere. And I guess I'm going to be allowed to stay on for another semester!