Teaching Evaluations at Missouri S&T Yinfa Ma, Chair Faculty Senate CET Presentation for FS meeting on November 18, 2010

Pilot Study on Electronic Evaluations at Missouri S&T Two electronic evaluation pilots were conducted (by Ad Hoc Committee for Teaching Evaluations chaired by Mrs. Stephanie Fitch)  Fall 2009 and Spring 2010  Fall about 12 instructors used the electronic system  There was a 70% response rate from the students.  Students liked it….especially that they had more time to answer the questions than they had in class writing the responses.  Used an outside agency’s survey.  Spring about 167 sections were evaluated electronically, involving approximately 60 instructors  “in-house” IT survey handle the processing.  The students liked it.  RESULTS WERE THE SAME when the electronic and paper evaluations were compared.

Evaluation Comparison Paper Evaluation Format  Costly. About $10,000 per year is only for the paper involved in the process.  A lot of people are involved and many hours spent administering the evaluations, running them through the computer, and so on.  The students who missed the class at the evaluation day will not have an opportunity to participate evaluations  The process takes several weeks and outside agencies are hired to handle the evaluations. Electronic Evaluation Format More economical (Obviously) and less labor involved for the process. Students have more time to answer the questions than they had in class writing the responses. The students who missed the class (for valid reasons) will have an opportunity to participate evaluations “In house” IT can handle the evaluations

Minor Complaints about the electronic system  The new mail.mst.edu system was proved to be a problem; however, it was caught early and fixed.  Some students did not hit “submit” and so their evaluations were not recorded. This can be resolved by reminding students to hit “submit” before they close the evaluation.

Recommendation from The FS CET Committee Based on the discussions at the CET meeting on September 29 th, the committee members voted in favor of adoption of electronic evaluation at Missouri S&T (total 11 voting members I have on record, one member did not send me the vote by the deadline). Now Faculty Senate can act based on the CET’s recommendation