Committee for Effective Teaching Chair: Joel Dittmer Presenter: Devin Burns

Are the capstone courses considered to be the same as lectures for Teaching Awards? Policy: “Only lecture classes will be considered for purposes of evaluation”. Departments determine whether Capstone courses are to be considered for purposes of evaluation. If the Capstone course is recognized as a lecture course, then its evaluation will occur automatically, the same as evaluations for any other lecture course.

How can we further increase the student response rate? Instructors were encouraged, but not required, to set aside time in class to allow students to fill out evaluations on their devices The committee also recommends some sort of incentive policy for students to fill out evaluations which: accords with best teaching practices (e.g., assigning extra credit for filling out evaluations is not best practice) and is universally and uniformly applied throughout the campus (so, the incentive is provided not at the instructor level, but at the university level).

The implementation of the mid-semester evaluations The committee recognizes the value of instructors offering mid-semester evaluations. Although the practice of doing so should not be required of instructors, steps should be taken to make instructors aware of the opportunities of doing so, as well as some support (if not just informational) in doing so.

CET Question order We will move the question “Overall effectiveness” from the end of the survey to the beginning to help guard against carry-over effects

Faculty Awards Administrator Privileges We will instruct IT that the list of users assigned administrative privileges to the Faculty Awards application be updated on a yearly basis, in the beginning of the fall semester

Eligibility for Teaching awards in small graduate classes Current policy requires a minimum of 13 enrolled students per semester with at least 8 evaluation responses in order to qualify for the teaching award We decided to change the requirements for instructors teaching at least one 6000 level course to 10 students minimum with 5 responses We also recognize the fact that those with high teaching scores who would have received awards had they not been ineligible still receive an official letter from the Provost recognizing their achievement in teaching

Abusive cET comments The committee takes this matter very seriously. It does, though, express its concerns about devising a university-driven mechanism by which anonymity of comments can be reversed. Dealing with this serious issue is not within the purview of this committee. This is a matter of Title IX and/or law enforcement, in particular in the case of threatening comments made; the committee is not against law enforcement identifying those who make threats of physical harm. We take seriously the measures needed to protect the well-being and rights of all members of the university, and we want to make sure the most appropriate responses are taken when/if these awful events take place

Abusive cET comments With all of that said, the committee will include a civility statement on the “front page” of the students' evaluation form for instructors. At this point, the tentative statement reads: “The faculty of Missouri S&T appreciates your feedback on the quality of instruction you receive here at the university. In order to best reflect your evaluations of our teaching, we request honest, professional, and civil responses.”