At most institutions, faculty participate in some sort of annual review. A discussion of student evaluations is usually part of these conversations, and they aren’t always easy interactions. Sometimes the issue is the rating results—they aren’t high enough, maybe they dropped in one course, perhaps they have stayed the same for some time, or maybe there is some question about why they’re so high. Sometimes it’s what the academic leader concludes about the teaching based on a few negative student comments, or it could be the action the department chair recommends. And sometimes, it’s the faculty member who doesn’t know what to say or becomes defensive.
This Magna 20-Minute Mentor, led by Maryellen Weimer, PhD, explores ways to communicate about rating results using three scenarios based on common situations, with the goal of making the exchange a constructive conversation about teaching and learning. She explores three conversations faculty might have when discussing course evaluation results—the conversation with oneself about negative feedback, the conversation with an academic leader about evaluations, and the conversation with students about course ratings.
Upon completion of this seminar, you’ll be able to have a productive conversation with your department chair about declining ratings, discuss negative student comments with your administrator, respond to an administrator who tends to overreact to negative comments, learn to dispel misconceptions about positive student ratings (i.e., you teach an easy course), and be specific about those aspects of your courses that you plan to work on in the coming year.
A discussion facilitated by Natalie Kautz, Assistant Director of the Faculty Center and Site Administrator for Rowan Student Evaluations, follows. Links referenced in the discussion and placed in the chat: Rowan IDEA Student Ratings of Instruction Student Evaluation website. Slide deck about IDEA SRIs. Rowan MOAs . From Vanderbilt University. Faculty Center’s Kaltura MediaSpace.
To access the handouts for this webinar, you may need to create an account with Magna (if it’s your first time in 2022). PowerPoint Handouts (PDF). Note-Taking Guide (PDF). Supplemental Materials (PDF). How Can Talking through Course Evaluations Improve My Teaching? Transcript (PDF). Magna’s Certificate of Completion (PDF) (for your own records, the Faculty Center has a different one for professional development).
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