Spring Break
64 percent response rate on Web course evaluations
Administrators said the old system of handwritten
by Anya Bergman
News | 1/15/08
Posted online at 5:08 AM EST on 1/15/08
/ Last updated at 7:23 PM EST on 1/15/08
The first trial of online course evaluations last semester garnered a combined overall response rate of 64 percent from the College of Arts and Sciences and the graduate and professional schools, Provost Marty Krauss announced in a campus-wide e-mail Dec. 12.
The College of Arts and Sciences had a response rate of 63 percent, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 52 percent, the Heller School for Social Policy and Management 70 percent, the International Business School 72 percent and the Rabb School of Continuing Studies 55 percent, Krauss wrote in her e-mail. The course evaluation period ran from the end of November until the start of finals Dec. 12.
Krauss said that moving evaluations online was "inevitable." In previous semesters, students filled out handwritten forms in class.
Assistant Provost Richard Silberman said that there was a sense among administrators that moving to an online format complements "the way things are moving," and that the school would eventually use this system anyway.
"It got harder and harder to justify using 20,000 forms each semester," Silberman said. He said sorting, scanning and processing the forms was very time-consuming. Krauss said putting more resources into paper was a waste of money, and that the University's scanner was breaking.
Silberman said that another problem with the handwritten evaluation was that it took months for professors to get results from the paper forms, and they wanted to be able to take students' comments into consideration for future courses. The evaluations are "one way to know you're really reaching students," he said.
A pilot program for online evaluations ran last spring with about 80 courses, Silberman said, explaining that the online evaluations now include all courses and physical education classes, as well as forms for Teaching Assistants. The new system ran smoothly from a technical standpoint, except for a few students who were timed-out prematurely from the onehour given to complete a form, he said.
The College of Arts and Sciences had a response rate of 63 percent, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 52 percent, the Heller School for Social Policy and Management 70 percent, the International Business School 72 percent and the Rabb School of Continuing Studies 55 percent, Krauss wrote in her e-mail. The course evaluation period ran from the end of November until the start of finals Dec. 12.
Krauss said that moving evaluations online was "inevitable." In previous semesters, students filled out handwritten forms in class.
Assistant Provost Richard Silberman said that there was a sense among administrators that moving to an online format complements "the way things are moving," and that the school would eventually use this system anyway.
"It got harder and harder to justify using 20,000 forms each semester," Silberman said. He said sorting, scanning and processing the forms was very time-consuming. Krauss said putting more resources into paper was a waste of money, and that the University's scanner was breaking.
Silberman said that another problem with the handwritten evaluation was that it took months for professors to get results from the paper forms, and they wanted to be able to take students' comments into consideration for future courses. The evaluations are "one way to know you're really reaching students," he said.
A pilot program for online evaluations ran last spring with about 80 courses, Silberman said, explaining that the online evaluations now include all courses and physical education classes, as well as forms for Teaching Assistants. The new system ran smoothly from a technical standpoint, except for a few students who were timed-out prematurely from the onehour given to complete a form, he said.
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