"Dr. Reaction guarded the class too hard."
Ah, course evaluations.
The time of year when we get to see our students' perceptions of our teaching. Personally, I find course evaluations extremely useful.
But really what I live for are the typos. Students fill these suckers out at the end of the semester. They are exhausted, so occasionally the wrong word gets substituted. Even better when this changes the meaning of the sentence.
So yes, apparently I guarded the class a bit much this semester. I had a feeling building that moat was a mistake.
What was your best eval response for 2010?
Showing posts with label evals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label evals. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Taming the Talons
I'm pretty low maintenance. I rarely wear makeup. I usually teach in jeans, and I often wear t-shirts to lab.
I'm equally low key about my nails. I never get manicures (only once in my life!), and I never wear polish. I just buff them once a month, and I'm good to go. I let them grow until they click on the keyboard, and then I cut them pretty close to the pink part. Let me toot my own horn here: I have good nails. The beds are nice and pink, and the tips are very white. If I had yellow fingernails, perhaps I would put more time into them.
Some of my (female) colleagues spend quite a lot of time and upkeep on their manicures. I find painted fingernails distracting. I inwardly roll my eyes at bright red talons. Not sure why. But I do. Do I think that they are unnecessary? Absolutely. Is it unprofessional for a woman to paint her nails? It shouldn't be.
Students comment about professorial attire all the time. I wonder where they stand on decorated digits?
I'm equally low key about my nails. I never get manicures (only once in my life!), and I never wear polish. I just buff them once a month, and I'm good to go. I let them grow until they click on the keyboard, and then I cut them pretty close to the pink part. Let me toot my own horn here: I have good nails. The beds are nice and pink, and the tips are very white. If I had yellow fingernails, perhaps I would put more time into them.
Some of my (female) colleagues spend quite a lot of time and upkeep on their manicures. I find painted fingernails distracting. I inwardly roll my eyes at bright red talons. Not sure why. But I do. Do I think that they are unnecessary? Absolutely. Is it unprofessional for a woman to paint her nails? It shouldn't be.
Students comment about professorial attire all the time. I wonder where they stand on decorated digits?
Saturday, April 24, 2010
How to get useful feedback on evaluations
As some of you have pointed out in the comments on previous posts, there is one not-so-secret way to get useful feedback on student evaluations. The (not really a) secret? Tell your students how important the evaluations are to you.
Perhaps some of you already do this yet your students are so awful and jaded that they still give you unhelpful feedback. Although knowing that I rate as a 4.4/5 for availability is useful, what I really look for are specific comments about teaching style, content, office hours, etc. These comments give me the most talking points for my tenure report.
A few days before I plan to hand out the evals I explain to the class who exactly reads them and what they do with them. Here at PermaU, first the head of the department reads them, then the dean, and then me. If there are any issues (good or bad), I will have a meeting with them, but that doesn't typically happen. I tell the students this, honestly telling them that for right now, I am the only one who will really use them. I explain that I really need honest responses in order to adjust my teaching in future semesters. I especially emphasize that if I am doing something that they like, that they should mention that in the comments so that I keep doing the same thing in future semesters.
Many of my colleagues complain that they get very few responses in the short answer portion of the evaluations, and some say that if they are doing an okay job that their students won't make any comments at all. I think their students just think that evals are only places to report problems not comment on successful practices. By emphasizing to my students that both "bad" and good feedback is useful, I think that students feel that the time they spend filling out the evaluations is well spent. (..and it doesn't hurt that positive feedback is good for my ego!)
After all, if you know that something you are doing doesn't matter, would YOU put time into it?
Perhaps some of you already do this yet your students are so awful and jaded that they still give you unhelpful feedback. Although knowing that I rate as a 4.4/5 for availability is useful, what I really look for are specific comments about teaching style, content, office hours, etc. These comments give me the most talking points for my tenure report.
A few days before I plan to hand out the evals I explain to the class who exactly reads them and what they do with them. Here at PermaU, first the head of the department reads them, then the dean, and then me. If there are any issues (good or bad), I will have a meeting with them, but that doesn't typically happen. I tell the students this, honestly telling them that for right now, I am the only one who will really use them. I explain that I really need honest responses in order to adjust my teaching in future semesters. I especially emphasize that if I am doing something that they like, that they should mention that in the comments so that I keep doing the same thing in future semesters.
Many of my colleagues complain that they get very few responses in the short answer portion of the evaluations, and some say that if they are doing an okay job that their students won't make any comments at all. I think their students just think that evals are only places to report problems not comment on successful practices. By emphasizing to my students that both "bad" and good feedback is useful, I think that students feel that the time they spend filling out the evaluations is well spent. (..and it doesn't hurt that positive feedback is good for my ego!)
After all, if you know that something you are doing doesn't matter, would YOU put time into it?
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Is it really that crazy?
Although we (profs) would all hope that our students would be reasonable on evaluations, there will always be exceptions. I think Anon brings up a good point in the comments on my last post: tenure committees will ONLY have the evaluations, not necessarily the whole reason(s) behind the comment.
It might sound insane that a student would complain about lack of availability just because of a missing cell number (but not actually mention the cell phone part).
But consider this: a colleague at my previous institution got reamed on her evaluations the semester she returned after maternity leave. Over and over, students commented about her office door being shut during working hours.
The reason her door was closed, at scheduled times, for 20-30 minute stretches? She was pumping. Try explaining THAT in a tenure packet.
It might sound insane that a student would complain about lack of availability just because of a missing cell number (but not actually mention the cell phone part).
But consider this: a colleague at my previous institution got reamed on her evaluations the semester she returned after maternity leave. Over and over, students commented about her office door being shut during working hours.
The reason her door was closed, at scheduled times, for 20-30 minute stretches? She was pumping. Try explaining THAT in a tenure packet.
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