Student response rates for course evaluations raised 21 percent after the university introduced incentives last semester.
Students who do not complete their course evaluations will have a hold put on their account and will not be able to view their official transcripts May 8, when they are released. The hold will last two or three days.
“[Course evaluations were] something that was seen as optional even though it is very useful for the university and instructors,” said James Jones, the director of the office of research and academic effectiveness.
Only 49 percent of students filled out course evaluations for Spring Semester 2012.
Despite the increase in responses last semester, Jones said he has mixed feelings about providing incentives for students.
“Whenever you introduce anything that is an incentive, typically you always worry are people just filling them out because of the grade hold and will that make the ratings any different,” Jones said. “So that’s always a concern. Ideally, everyone would just fill them out, but obviously that’s not going to happen.”
Mahesh Daas, the chair of the department of architecture and planning, said he supports the new incentives.
“I think whatever incentives they can provide that encourage students to provide feedback is good,” Daas said. “[Course evaluations] are absolutely important. All of my colleagues take them very seriously. What they provide matters in very real ways.”
Jones said the evaluations have two main functions: they provide instructors with feedback about their course and are taken into account when departments decide on promotions, salary changes and tenure.
“We just provide reports to faculty and department for them to use as they see fit,” Jones said. “How that’s used will vary from department to department. Some departments put more emphasis... on how much weight to give student ratings.”
If a course has four or more students enrolled, students can evaluate it online. Evaluations are shared with the chairperson of each department and the instructors who were evaluated after final grades have been submitted.
Darren Wheeler, a political science assistant professor, said in the political science department, the evaluations are used as part of their teaching assessment for potential promotion and tenure and to help determine rankings for merit pay.
Wheeler said student evaluations are just one aspect of the decision and these assessments also take into account evaluations by the department chair, teacher’s portfolios and peer evaluations.
Since he first came to Ball State in 2009, Wheeler said the evaluations have been especially helpful in adjusting to a new school.
“I use them individually to assess what students like and what they don’t like, what went well and what didn’t go well,” Wheeler said. “I’ve often found that students collectively have the capacity to give useful feedback, especially if I am teaching a course for the first time or if I am using a textbook I haven’t given.”
Dan Waechter, chairperson for the journalism department, said his department also uses the student evaluations for annual assessments, and they are typically included in promotion or tenure requests and salary calculations.
Daas said he goes a step further and reviews each evaluation he receives, looking for patterns and problems.
“We look for [if there] has there been a consistent delivery of materials, have there been any unusual changes in terms of faculty majors,” Daas said. “If there are any major changes, I discuss them with the faculty members.”
James Ruebel, the dean of the honors college, said he also reviews the evaluations and talks to faculty members if they should continue to teach honors courses or make other changes.
“For honors teaching they are absolutely critical because our entire honors college is devoted to the success of undergraduate students, we don’t have another internal goal,” Ruebel said. “If there was a disaster, say there was a faculty member abusing students, we want to know that and stop that.”
Since teachers do not apply for tenure or promotions through the honors college, they are only used for feedback about courses.
“If you have good things to say, fill it out. If you have bad things to say, fill it out,” Wheeler said. “We actually do use them for stuff. We don’t have you fill them out and then stick them in a drawer and don’t look at them. I know students worry about that sometimes.”
