At the end of Winter Quarter, most students are looking ahead to spring break, but reflecting on the past 10 weeks is key when filling out course evaluations.
Think how the course has progressed
said Phyllis Bernt, chair of Faculty Senate. Think about the course in total.
Although the process differs by department and school, evaluations usually are viewed by a department chair and are considered when a faculty member is up for promotion or tenure, Bernt said. Faculty members also read their own evaluations.
Evaluation forms differ among disciplines, but most include questions about grading policies, feedback on assignments and the way material is presented.
All forms include a comments section, but some remarks, such as criticism of a professor's clothing, are not productive, Bernt said. She added that faculty members sometimes do act on suggestions from evaluations.
I read mine very carefully to give me a sense of what has worked and what hasn't Bernt said.
David Ingram, a physics and astronomy professor and chair of Faculty Senate's Educational Policy and Students Affairs Committee, said evaluations have a profound effect.
In his lecture courses, he has slowed down his presentation and began using the chalkboard more after reading evaluations criticizing him for moving through material too quickly.
If a faculty member continually gets negation evaluations, he or she might be assigned to teach a different course, Ingram said.
Every course is evaluated at the end of each quarter, a continual process that some faculty members would like to see extended to administrators, Ingram said.
I don't think anyone who works at the university is evaluated at such a repetitive rate he said.
OU President Roderick McDavis, Provost Kathy Krendl and college deans are evaluated, but some faculty members wonder why more administrators are not, Ingram said.
Some departments have moved from paper to online evaluations, a trend that could go universitywide in the future.
An OU committee focusing on online evaluations has discussed the benefits and drawbacks of a new system, but no plans have been made, said Susan Sarnoff, a member of the committee and of Faculty Senate's Educational Policy and Student Affairs Committee.
The best way to do this would be to do it rather broadly
she said, adding that a blanket form that allows departments to add questions would also be most cost-effective.
Online evaluations protect student anonymity by eliminating handwriting, but these evaluations also run the risk of a low response rate, Sarnoff said.
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Bethany Furkin
