November 1, 2001-Vol33n9: SA publishing evaluations

SA publishing evaluations
Online effort seen as helping support teaching excellence

By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor

The undergraduate Student Association has begun publishing online evaluations of courses offered by the College of Arts and Sciences, a move that CAS administrators say is helping the university support excellence in the classroom.

Data from 750 undergraduate courses offered by the CAS during Spring 2001 are searchable by course and instructor on the SA Web site at www.sa.buffalo.edu. The "UB Teacher Evaluations" page is based on two questions from the University at Buffalo Course and Teach Survey (UBCATS) given to students taking courses in CAS: "I would recommend this course to other students" (Question 9) and "I would recommend this instructor to other students" (Question 10).

In future semesters, additional course evaluations will be available to students as they register.

The timing of the page is particularly appropriate, notes Peter Gold, associate dean for general education in the CAS, because students are preparing now to register for courses for the Spring 2002 semester.

"Teaching improves when faculty get helpful feedback from both colleagues and students, and when students show teachers that they take learning seriously," Gold says. "SA has helped UB to support excellence in the classroom by joining the project."

The SA project dovetails with other efforts already under way to improve the quality of teaching at the university.

Gold and other members of the Faculty Senate Teaching and Learning Committee are working with the Provost's Office on a pilot project to be conducted in the spring in which students will fill out course evaluations online. The ultimate goal, Gold says, is to implement online course evaluations campus-wide by Fall 2002.

Online evaluations, say Gold and Ronald Gentile, chair of the Teaching and Learning Committee, would help counteract what have been "uneven responses" received from students and the "unclear norms" of the paper evaluations now used across a wide variety of disciplines.

The new system will make it easier for faculty members, as well as broader groups, to download information from the evaluations, Gold says.

He adds that an online evaluation system should save time that could be better spend improving students' response rates.

The Teaching and Learning Committee also worked with the Provost's Office to re-establish an entity on campus dedicated to helping instructors improve their teaching.

The new Office of Teaching and Learning Resources, staffed by Jeannette Molina, assistant vice provost, provides a forum for faculty members to talk about teaching, offering a wide variety of programs and workshops aimed at helping instructors improve their craft.

For example, the office, in conjunction with the Teaching and Learning Committee, will present a workshop on Nov. 9 during which two winners of the Chancellor's Awards for Excellence in Teaching will help participants expand their instructional repertoires.

Administrators are confident these efforts will enhance the quality of instruction at the university that they believe already is highly competent.

A summary of Spring 2001 UBCATS evaluations prepared for CAS department chairs by Gold—a document covering 1,134 courses sections and more than 26,000 individual responses—indicates that students generally are pleased with the quality of teaching, administrators say.

With a "5" being the highest mark, a "3" neutral and a "1" being the lowest mark, the average score among all CAS instructors was a 4.02 for Question 9 (I would recommend this course to other students) and a 4.18 for Question 10 (I would recommend this instructor to other students).

Gold noted that overall, despite individual differences among courses and instructors, "the inescapable conclusion is that students are positive about faculty and undergraduate courses in the College of Arts and Sciences."