Leveraging Course Evaluations for Continuous Improvement

First, acknowledge that the students are in the class with you when you are teaching and are therefore in an excellent position to provide feedback that no one else can give.  Are you doing everything you can to create a mutual culture of respect and accountability for assessment in your classroom? Upon meaningful reflection, If you find that the feedback you are receiving lacks clarity or leaves you with more questions than answers, there are steps you can take to train them up to give quality input that you can use.

Next, take time to process the information that you are receiving. Be mindful of distractions, perceptions, and your own biases as you approach your evaluations. I suggest you complete an evaluation of the course yourself, as a self-reflective exercise, as to what you expect to see from both your perspective as the instructor, and that of the students. When you compare your evaluation to that of the students, look for differences and similarities.

Take your course evaluation in perspective. Did you garner a high response rate that make the results generalizable? Aim for a response rate of at least 75% of the class enrollment. Utilize techniques that are ethical and appropriate and encourage meaningful feedback from students.

For quantitative feedback, consider how you compare to peers in your department and division. Look at the distribution of scores for each question. Where are the highs, lows, and outliers? How might you explain each with evidence from your teaching?

In examining qualitative feedback, analyze using value labels and/or themes. For example, you might look at positive, negative, and neutral comments. More specifically to organization/clarity, knowledge/understanding, instructor-group interaction, instructor-student interaction, enthusiasm, assignments, workload, etc. Where are the comments reflective or contradictory of quantitative data?

In both the quantitative and qualitative data, you may find trends over time (semester to semester) and patterns that indicate how you are changing or staying the same. Do not be alarmed if you try something new and there is a learning curve. Make a note of this in the UB Course Evaluation SmartEvals system or your records to historically archive this information. Innovation often presents as variance in the data. 

Once you have analyzed the data and know what it says, it is time to reflect on the data for continuous improvement of teaching effectiveness. What are your strengths and areas of weakness and how can these become opportunities in the future? For course development, what were your goals, and did you meet them? How did you meet them, and how well? For teaching behaviors, how satisfied are you with what you did and the feedback you received? Where there any new trends to address? Consider discussing the feedback and your reflection with a mentor or peer for their perspective(s). 

Finally, it is time to act and potentially make changes. Prioritize opportunities to change. You might not necessarily make changes to the lowest area, or the easiest area to change, but the most important area for improving your teaching effectiveness to you, your course, and your students. Focus on behaviors and base it on the data. At the course level, make curricular adjustments. At the instructor level, make teaching methodology improvements. Develop a plan. You can even reach out to a mentor, peer, or learning designer for support. Many instructors have even shared their plans with students on how they have changed their teaching and courses to reflect feedback they have received from course evaluations.  Follow-up with how this plan has impacted course evaluations (and other sources on teaching effectiveness) moving forward.