Student feedback essential in awards, tenure decisions
“Fill them out, and fill them out carefully,” Amiridis encouraged students.
A faculty member with positive evaluations may be nominated for awards and promotions. However, negative evaluations could result in the denial of tenure or raises, Amiridis said.
“If a faculty member consistently receives negative evaluations, the department chair will work with the faculty member to address teaching,” College of Education’s Associate Dean for Administration and Research Michael Seaman wrote in an email. “This sometimes includes mentoring and assistance with a faculty member who has a reputation as a strong teacher.”
The university is trying to standardize course evaluations, Amiridis said. The College of Education, and other schools and colleges at USC use Class Climate. Class Climate is a system run by Scantron and automates online and written surveys. Class Climate also analyzes the results, according to scantron.com.
Course evaluations generate a table of data, which is then given to the faculty member being evaluated and to the department chair of the instructor’s department. The data is kept in the faculty member’s records and used when considering the professor for tenure or raises.
A variety of factors affect the responses students give when assessing courses.
Research has proved that the time a class is taught factors into the way a student feels about a class, Amiridis said. If a professor teaches the same class at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., he said, the class at 10 a.m. will receive better evaluations. These discrepancies are not necessarily reflected in student evaluations.
“Although it’s not a perfect tool, it’s the best tool that we have,” Amiridis said.
In addition to evaluations at the end of the semester, USC also seeks student feedback in other ways including long-term surveys.
The College of Education conducts exit surveys when students are graduating, Seaman wrote. He added that they also conduct surveys after graduation to see that the education received “has been fundamental in locating and obtaining employment.”