Highlights For:
Course Evaluation FAQ
General Questions
When is the change happening?
How is the change being managed?
When is the evaluation period?
Won’t students know their grades before completing evaluations? Won’t instructors be able to see some evaluations before assigning grades for the class?
Student Questions
What are the benefits of participating in the online course evaluations for students?
What will the online course evaluation be like for students?
How will students be encouraged to complete the online evaluations?
You mean I can’t see my grades if I don’t fill out an evaluation?
How will the online course evaluation system protect student anonymity?
Instructor Questions
What are the immediate benefits of moving to the online evaluation system for instructors?
What are the long term benefits of moving to the online evaluation system for instructors?
Why are the questions different from those used in the Fall evaluation?
Who will see my teaching evaluations?
How will the future of the general course evaluation form be determined?
General Questions
We are fully converting to the new system in the spring term of 2009.
Are all schools and courses at Penn changing to the new system?
The School of Medicine and the School of Law are keeping their own online evaluation systems, but are expected to provide data about their course evaluations to create one integrated source for information about teaching evaluations. The School of Dental Medicine, the School of Veterinary Medicine, and Biomedical Graduate Studies will be changing in the future, but are not participating in the spring implementation. All other schools will be using the new system in the spring.
How is the change being managed?
An advisory group of faculty and students met several times in the fall to decide some of the policy and procedural issues associated with the change to the online course evaluations. In addition, a team of administrators from across the university has been working on the technical aspects of changing from a pencil and paper method to an online course evaluation system.
To test the new online system, the project team conducted a pilot project at the end of the Fall 2008 term. The pilot evaluated 107 courses and 113 instructors. There were 2,281 students invited to participate and of those, 1203 students participated. The project team learned a great deal about email reminders, the selection and listing of courses, and student attitudes that is informing our work in the spring term.
When is the evaluation period?
For courses ending on April 28th, the evaluation period begins April 20th and ends on May 15th.
The majority of the courses end on May 12th, the evaluation period for this group of course begins May 1st and ends on May 24th.
Won’t students know their grades before completing evaluations? Won’t instructors be able to see some evaluations before assigning grades for the class?
No. Students must complete or opt out of all their evaluations before viewing their grades (see below). Instructors will not be able to see reports on their course evaluations until after the grade submission period is over.
Student Questions
What are the benefits of participating in the online course evaluations for students?
There are three main reasons students should complete their evaluations.
- Strengthen teaching at Penn-Instructors use the course evaluations to improve their teaching.
Each instructor receives a compilation of the responses and the comments to use in evaluating their own teaching and planning future courses. - Make Penn Course Review even better-The student editors of the Penn Course Review use course evaluations to write the guide choosing classes. So, the greater numbers of evaluations and better quality comments will lead to more detailed information next semester when students are selecting courses.
- Assess instruction-Colleagues, department chairs, Deans, and the Provost use student reviews as a part of the tenure and promotion process. Teaching excellence matters in deciding whether a professor gets promoted and student evaluations are an important part of evaluating a professor’s teaching abilities. For adjunct faculty and graduate student teachers, evaluations are used by department administrators and supervisors to improve performance and make hiring decisions.
What will the online course evaluation be like for students?
Students will log onto the course evaluation system by clicking a link on the Penn portal, Penn In Touch system, or by clicking on a link in a reminder email. They will use PennKey authentication to confirm their identity. Once logged on, the evaluations will be completed by clicking answers to the questions and by typing answers to the open-ended questions. Students will have the option to save and come back later to complete.
Most evaluations have approximately 22 questions (more if you have additional questions added bt the instructors) and weestimate it will take five to ten minutes to complete.
How will students be encouraged to complete the online evaluations?
Students will receive an announcement via email to let them know once the course evaluations are available. If they do not complete the evaluation, they will receive an email reminder or two until the evaluation period ends. In addition, there will be an advertising campaign to encourage students to complete their evaluations including ads on Facebook.
During the evaluation window which lasts from the last week of the semester until about a week after exams, students who have not evaluated their courses will be prompted to do so when they check their grades.
You mean I can’t see my grades if I don’t fill out an evaluation?
No. Students may still access your grades without completing an evaluation. When students who have not completed all their course evaluations go online to check their grades through the Penn In Touch system, they will be prompted to complete their evaluations. However, the evaluation system will have an OPT OUT option for each evaluation. Before viewing grades during the evaluation period, students must either complete their evaluations or opt out of their evaluations.
How will the online course evaluation system protect student anonymity?
Although each student uses Pennkey authentication when logging onto the system and the system uses that information to present the proper courses to evaluate, the student’s name and PennID are not stored with the evaluation record.
Each instructor will receive a report compiling the information from all the evaluations in a course. However, those reports do not present information that could identify an individual. Similarly, a department or school may create reports about an instructor’s or program’s teaching evaluation. Those reports will never present information that could identify an individual. As a general rule, courses with two or fewer students and independent study courses will not be evaluated. Each school will manage the process of selecting which courses are evaluated through the system.
Instructor Questions
What are the immediate benefits of moving to the online evaluation system for instructors?
There are two:
- Instructors will no longer need to take class time to have students complete course evaluations.
- Instructors will receive reports on their evaluations more quickly. After the course evaluation period is over, instructors will be able to log into the evaluation system and see a report about the evaluations including basic distributions for each question and all student comments.
What are the long term benefits of moving to the online evaluation system for instructors?
One of the most important reasons for collecting student feedback is to help instructors strengthen their teaching. After the new system is in place, the capability for instructors and departments to add their own questions to the form will be put in place.
Why are the questions different from those used in the fall evaluation?
A GSE committee of faculty and students revised the evaluation form and it was adopted during the fall of 2008. The spring 2009 term will be the first time it will be used for all courses.
Who will see my teaching evaluations?
As is the case now, instructors and program or school administrators will receive reports about course evaluations. This will not change. The evaluation data will be placed in the data warehouse where it will be available to school and departmental administrators.
How will the future of the general course evaluation form be determined?
One advantage of the online course evaluation system is the flexibility of the questionnaire. Faculty in the different schools and programs will be able to develop questions tailored to their own curricula. In addition, individual instructors will be able to develop their own questions and include them in the questionnaire for their courses.
For more information about the new Online Course Evaluation system, please contact:
Jim Siantz, 215-746-2053.
Visit the University of Pennsylvania Web site