On Wednesday, The Lantern reported that Student Evaluations of Instructors forms have been made public and can be viewed via The Lantern Web site. Concerns about privacy are being raised. Also, misuse of these forms is a cause for concern.
The intent of these evaluations is to help the administration make decisions on issues such as tenure and salary. As these forms become public, students could use them as a tool for scheduling classes. When we fill out these evaluations, we answer questions that are not geared toward how much you learned, but rather instructor organization and teaching effectiveness. I am in favor of having these forms public, and it is tempting to use them for scheduling purposes.
Making the evaluations public gives more power to the student in the decision-making process. Now, instead of simply picking a course, a more knowledgeable decision will be made about what instructor to take. This system of picking instructors is not new – we are simply going from a system of word-of-mouth to a more sophisticated form. I often have discussions concerning what instructor is good to have for a given class. Now if I do not have a friend who took the class, I can rely on the evaluations.
The concern about the evaluations being little more then a popularity contest, and therefore using them to pick instructors would be inappropriate, is a good one. This argument, however, cannot keep the forms private. This means the evaluations will soon have a dual purpose. One for assessing the instructors and one for students. If this becomes a reality, the forms should be altered to accommodate its new purpose. A student’s major and year should be with these evaluations so the student looking at them can compare oneself to the student who filled out the evaluation. I, for example will more likely give a math instructor a low rating simply because I do not care for math. Someone majoring in accounting, however, has a much different perspective and might give better ratings. This would help a student make a more informed decision on whether to take a class, and could help students find instructors suitable for them..
The evaluations would be a good tool for academic advisors to help students pick courses – especially for GECs. Students often take classes that are far from their forte. With an instructor who has a good grasp on the evaluations, picking classes would become less of a headache. GEC reform seems to be in the future, but for most of us attending now, the reform have little affect on us because we will have graduated.
The student evaluations being made public are a good idea. It will now carry accountability beyond just a specific department. The effectiveness of the evaluations will be measured by the public and students will carry a serious responsibility to having them become a popularity contest. With the knoweldge that fellow students will look at the evaluations to make serious decisions, a more serious approach has to be taken.
Tito Atkinson is a junior in journalism. He can be reached at [email protected].
