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Course Evaluations on the Web:Our experiences
Jacqueline Andrews, SUNY New Paltz
Donna Johnson, SUNY Ulster
Lisa Ostrouch, SUNY New Paltz
Julie Rao, SUNY Geneseo
Agenda
Overview of history of course evaluation New Paltz transition Evaluating online courses Year 3 of being online Questions & discussion welcome
throughout
General History of Student Course Evaluations
1920s at the University of Wisconsin Since 1960s, used by higher education
administration in decisions for tenure and promotion
Traditionally, in class on paper. Referred to by acronyms SEI, SET, SOI,
etc.
General History of Student Course Evaluations
Late 1990s, a few test online administration (ca 2%)
% of institutions implementing online systems is on the rise – medium is the message
Research
Most common concern with online course evaluations: response rates.
Though most research has shown lower responses rates, there is much research that suggest improvement
In addition, some research suggests response rates are lower in only some courses
Research on Response Rates
Factors that seem to affect response rates: Technical difficulties Access to open computers Students’ use of multiple e-mail addresses When and how the availability of the course
evaluation is announced When and how the importance of the
evaluations are addressed Reminders Incentives
Research on Response Rates
A study at the Northern Arizona University showed the professors who posted information about course evaluation on a class discussion board produced the best response rates.
In another study, NAU, found an average 32% increase in response rates when instructor followed these instructions:
1) Announcement with location a few weeks prior to the end of class 2) an explanation of the how the evaluations are used 3) one reminder to complete the evaluation one following the initial announcement by e-mail
In addition, NAU switched from Evalajack to Survey Monkey.
Schools Currently Using the On-line Format
Brigham Young University has a site called OnSET, which is dedicated to information on on-line student evaluations.
Fabulous site: http://OnSET.byu.edu
Examples of Schools Using Online Format to Some Degree
University of Idaho University of Virginia Northwestern University Bates College Yale Clemson University University of Cincinnati UCLA Columbia Penn State
University of Michigan Syracuse Cornell University North Carolina State Ohio State University of Delaware University of
Massachusetts Lehigh University Palm Beach Community
College
Commercial Software
In-house programs or vendor product BYU’s OnSET site listed 10 commercial
providers. They include Evaluation Kit, OCE, Web
eVal,and Class Climate from Scantron and others.
History of Course Evaluations at New Paltz
Fall,1969, 42 questions 1972 to 1976 college-wide procedure ETS for the scanning and reports 24 questions
History of Course Evaluations at New Paltz
1990s, responsibility for scanning and administering reports switched to the Office of Institutional Research.
Results on carbon paper that needed to be separated.
SEI desk attended 7am-9pm.
History of Course Evaluations at New Paltz
Early 1990s a Task Force on Teaching was formed in order to examine and revise the course evaluation form
Recommended a form with 22 questions, still used today
In 2004, 1 survey given to students and 1 to faculty regarding course evaluations
History of Course Evaluations at New Paltz The Current Process
Labels are printed for each course Packets (course/sec) are made up for each course Packets are delivered to Liberal Arts & Sciences – individual departments Business – Dean’s office Engineering – Dean’s office Education – Dean’s office Fine & Performing Arts – Dean’s office Packets are returned to Institutional Research
History of Course Evaluations at New Paltz The Current Process
Each packet is matched to a header sheet Each packet is scanned Scanned packets are uploaded Reports are searched for trouble areas “Cleaned” data sent to Computer Services Reports generated Packets returned to faculty with an individual report
summary and department summary. Chairs and deans receive a copy of each faculty report,
summary, and Department Summary
The Current ProcessPros Cons
Done in-class - good response rates Very time consuming
(preparation before and after administration)
Students feel anonymous Takes 4-6 weeks for faculty to get results
Lots of room for error (scanning errors, student errors-using pen, etc., illegible comments, handling errors: students can tamper with data or forget to return, people often put forms in a packet for the wrong class, etc)
Students may be apathetic and just fill in anything
Costly (cost of forms, bins, envelopes, work hours, scanner)
Bad for the environment (uses lots of paper)
OnlinePros Cons
Immediate results Lower response rate (effects of use of incentives?)
Far less room for error (no lost forms, scanning issues)
Has to be done on the students’ time (unless technology allows for in-class)
Far less time consuming Anonymity concerns
Far less costly (no scanner, paper forms, much less work hours,etc.)
Green- no need for paper
More student comments
Flexibility for questions/scales
Students who take the time to do them have an opinion
New Paltz Experiment
SUNY New Paltz conducted 2 on-line pilots with the vendor OCE
Summer 2008, all on-line SEIs were conducted for all courses
Spring of 2008, School of Business and School of Science and Engineering
New Paltz Experiment
Comparison of the mean scores of the paper and on-line versions of the SEI to determine whether or not there were statistically significant differences between them.
We calculated a mean SEI score using all the questions on all the SEIs for each school.
We used ANOVA testing to compare means.
New Paltz Experiment Results
The results of the significance scores were inconsistent.
Several of the tests showed significant differences between the mean scores for paper between years.
It is unlikely for the mean scores of on-line SEIs to be significantly different, at the statistical level due from the paper scores, due to the change in format.
These results are consistent with the current body of research of online SEI.
Issues with going online at New Paltz! Differing POV: OIRP, faculty, faculty
governance, Deans, Provost, President Hard for each to see the POV of the other Reducing the OIRP work load is not a driver for
any of these groups except OIRP Lack of consistent other means of evaluating
teaching puts a heavy weight on the SEIs
Assumptions at New Paltz
Harder courses and tougher graders get lower SEI scores
Current way of doing it is perfect Students will not go online to complete
an SEI SEIs are easy
The facts about SEIs
A one semester analysis found no relationship between grades and SEIs
The current way is familiar. It is methodologically suspect. SEI scores are so uniformly high that it is unlikely the questions are valid or reliable.
Students will go online to do the SEIs if they think it is useful to do so.
Here’s that OIRP workload thing again- SEIs take up way too many hours! We handle more than 50,000 sheets of paper multiple times during the year. Surely there is something more useful we could be doing for the college.
More SEI facts
That workload thing – 30% increase in student responses, i.e., pieces of paper from fall,1998 to fall, 2008
Get
Immediate results Flexibility in questions Ability to add their own questions each
semester Comments in a file – no need to read
handwriting Access to their own data all the time Their class time back
Give up
Comfort zone with the present setting Time to do things now unfamiliar:
Need to be involved in the process to secure a decent response rateActive participation in analyzing the data
Get
Ability to do an SEI on their own time Use of a familiar medium – online; no
more golf pencils The class time back Anonymous responses – no handwriting
to be recognized
Possibilities for increasing response rates
Hard (hard to sell) waysHold something of value like gradesFaculty award something for completion (timing tricky)Faculty put on syllabusFaculty talk about during the semesterFaculty state how much they value student opinions often
Possibilities for increasing response rates Soft (maybe still hard to sell) ways
Pop-ups – every time log onto site (intranet or Blackboard), there is a reminderDirect route to the survey for those who have not completed (intranet)Email reminders from OIRPEmail reminders to faculty from OIRPIncentivesPaper reminders
Where we hope New Paltz is going next:
In-house software Offer faculty a choice Not be constrained by the existing 22
questions Weight the scale in favor of online Hope to get to a tipping point wherein
95%+ are online
Where it likely New Paltz is headed next: Summer pilot (few have opted out) Work out the kinks with the software Work with the faculty governance system If possible, test the Academic Affairs Committee questions Revise the questions Work with the faculty governance system Perhaps offer a choice to faculty with the 22 questions in the fall Perhaps offer a choice to faculty in the spring with the new
questions Work with the new Provost Work with the work group in evaluation of teaching to put SEIs
in context Work with various ways of ramping up response rates Get to a place wherein MOST of the SEIs are online
Where we started . . .
Tried using Microsoft Sharepoint in Fall 2007 & Spring 2008 Mailed logins & passwords No portal No Standardized student e-mail account No luck & possible new expense item
Then we tried . . .
Angel Survey through course management system in Fall 2008 Still mailing logins & passwords Still no portal No standardized e-mail accounts No luck BUT better controls and no additional costs
How we’ve changed & why
Switched to using e-mail contact in Spring 2009
Now have a portal All students now have SUNY Ulster e-
mail & are enrolled in Angel classes Reasonably good response rate - 55% No added costs – all electronic
Student Evaluation of Instruction for Online Courses
Use 0 – 5 frequency scale Items examples, “Instructor . . .”
Is well organized Enjoys teaching the course Explains materials clearly Is fair in dealing with students Shows commands of the subject matter Is able to answer questions clearly &
concisely
Each course survey can have individual open and close dates attached to it, that allows for a reasonable period of time for students to participate. I send a separate email to them letting them know when the survey is open and encouraging their participation in the process. Most of our students use Angel to access at least some of their course materials in their regular classes.
One thing that is invaluable is that I have authority to create my own course roster. I use Banner to extract a class roster of ID’s and names, and then Batch Enroll the class into my Student Opinion class. So my “class” shows up automatically as one of the courses they are enrolled in once I add a student to the roster.
I create an Access database for each course that needs to be analyzed from a standard shell where all of the questions are predefined along with the proper answer weighting.
A standard report format is used to print reports. I just have to add the individual Course title, instructor name and number of students that participated.
How we got here
Push from both students & OIR to go online with SOFI – Student Opinion of Faculty Instruction
Committee of faculty, administrators & students chose to go with Online Course Evaluations
Piloted Spring 2006 Fall 2006 live for all courses
Where are we now?
Response rates have gone down Refining what courses go into the
system All courses loaded -> some department opt
out of having labs included Music lessons frequently excluded due to
low number of students enrolled Only 1 load a semester??
Reporting Results
System summarizes instructors’ SOFI scores Summary reports available over the web
for faculty to view own & others’ results Chairs, Deans & students also can view
reportsComments only available to faculty to
whom directed
Student Initiatives
Promote using SOFI results in course scheduling
Introduce SOFI process at orientation with new students
Advertise in student newspaper Pre-registration & once evaluation period
opens Mention changes & responsive
Faculty Initiatives
Challenge is getting to use system Loading courses earlier to give more
time to review, add questions, ask questions
Exploring return to paper reports Trial doing in class on laptops Workshops, workshops, workshops
Include presentation as part of new faculty orientation, Promotion & Tenure workshop, TLC workshop
Recommended