Evaluations could become shorter and be online
A shortened version of the teacher evaluation form will be proposed by the Faculty Evaluation Committee to the Faculty Senate before its meeting in April, committee chairman Michael Lyons said.
Lyons, a political science professor, said most professors are in favor of the shorter evaluation forms. He said the majority of professors find the current evaluations too long and redundant. Lyons said the proposed evaluation will have fewer questions.
“You don’t need that many questions,” Lyons said. “You just don’t. You’re not getting any new information by asking new questions.”
Lyons said although there would be fewer questions, no important information would be left out of the evaluation.
“What the shorter evaluation does, it consolidates the form down to a total of 10 questions,” Lyons said. “Eight are close-ended questions where the students pick a response. They say ‘I agree or disagree’ or ‘I’m somewhere in the middle.’ Two questions will be where students get to write whatever they want about the course and can go into detail. The committee feels strongly that we need to give students that open opportunity.”
Shane Krebs, an adjunct professor in the department of journalism and communications, said he thinks shortening the form could be a good thing as long as the questions on the evaluation are worded right and continue to elicit helpful information.
“As long as there is improvement, change is good,” he said.
The shortened evaluation hasn’t yet been approved, Lyons said, but the majority of USU professors like the idea, and he said he hopes the new form will be adopted soon.
There has also been some interest in putting the evaluation online, Lyons said. He said the University of Utah has already implemented an online evaluation, and USU will research the success of the school’s program before seriously considering putting their own evaluations online.
Nathan Christensen, a junior in Asian studies and a transfer student from the University of Utah, said he participated in the school’s online evaluation program while he attended the university.
“They were really easy to take,” Christensen said. “I really liked the way they did evaluations. Plus it’s easy to access.”
Christensen said University of Utah students can’t see their grades until they complete the online evaluations. That way, he said, every student is required to fill out the forms.
Lyons said he sees potential problems with online evaluations, including deciding what USU will do to require students to complete the evaluations and figuring out how the students will be able to access the online form. Lyons said, however, if USU does work out the problems and decides to put evaluations online, it won’t be for several years.
“Personally, I have reservations about going online,” he said. “I think a great deal will depend on what we learn from the University of Utah and other schools who have also gone online. Ultimately, the final say with whether we put evaluations online or not will lie with the Faculty Senate and administration.”
Three groups of people benefit from using teacher evaluations, Lyons said. He said professors use the evaluations to improve their teaching methods. Administration also uses the evaluation responses in their promotion and salary increase decisions. Lastly, Lyons said the information is available to help students select which courses to take.
“Overall it’s a process that’s valuable to the university, and no one thinks we should discontinue it,” Lyons said. “We just want to try to improve it a little if we can and at least make it less of a burden.”
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