Update on student evaluations for department classes (addition to Exec Committee minutes)

Joe was very enthusiastic, both at the Exec Committee and in a separate meeting about this yesterday, and most of the other faculty were enthusiastic as well. The hope at this point is to have evaluations in place for classes at the end of this semester, with perhaps some tinkering to be done before a more final system is in place for the spring semester.

We expect this will be an online system. The reasons for doing this are multiple – easier data collection, no need to rely on individual professors to actually go through with paper evaluations, etc. There will be some details for us to work out with Joe before we confirm it will be online, so there’s still a chance we’ll end up doing paper evals.

Our expectation regarding access to the results is this: all students will have access to the numerical data resulting from the evaluations; the EO and the faculty member (as well as potentially the DEO) will be the only ones with access to the written comments – this is probably necessary to get some faculty on the Exec Committee to agree with it, which we will need.

Joanna, Aleta, and I will be putting together a more formal proposal and draft evaluation for the next Executive Committee meeting (either October or November).

For now, we would like your input on 1) questions – for both the numerical and written response components of the evaluation – that you would like to see on evaluations for courses and 2) any general thoughts/suggestions you have. Please feel free to either discuss on the list or email jointly myself, Joanna, and Aleta off-list if you prefer.