What happens to all of those course evaluations?

One question that students often ask is 'how are course evaluations used?' The answer is that course evaluations are an important metric of instructor and course performance.

Once students fill out a course evaluation at the end of a term, the evaluations are collected by the Dean's Office to be read and analyzed. Frequency distributions, means, and students' written comments are distributed to individual instructors to help them understand how they are doing overall and to guide them in thinking about what is going well and what needs to be improved in their courses. Summary reports of individual instructor course evaluations are also distributed to area chairs and to various committees around the School.

Area chairs review course evaluations for the instructors teaching in their area to help them track area and instructor performance over time and to use as an input to staffing decisions for courses. So, for example, an instructor that is having difficulty in a particular course can either receive support to help improve their performance or be re-assigned to teach a course that better suits their capabilities. Naturally, the faculty areas also consider an instructor's course evaluations when making contract renewal or promotion recommendations, as well as future staffing decisions for key courses.

The Dean's Office employs course evaluations to track program, area, and instructor performance over time. As an illustration, the chart entitled 'Instructor Ratings by Program' shows the average instructor evaluations for the BBA, Evening MBA, and Full-Time MBA programs since 1998-99. At the beginning of this time period, the average evaluation in the BBA and Full-Time MBA programs was around 4.3 and the average for the Evening MBA was slightly more than 4.4. By last year, the average in the BBA and Evening MBA programs was about one-tenth of a point higher and the Full-Time MBA average had moved up by nearly two-tenths - all significant changes given we teach over 500 sections each year.

The Dean's office also uses course evaluation data to examine how different groups of faculty are performing, how individual faculty are doing in a given year, and the trajectory of both over time. The School's Executive Committee (an elected committee of 5 faculty members from across the School), considers course evaluations as one aspect of a tenure-track faculty member's overall teaching performance during annual performance reviews. These assessments, in turn, influence annual salary decisions. The Executive Committee also examines course evaluations as one indication of teaching performance when making contract renewal and promotion recommendations to the Dean.

Is the course evaluation system perfect? Of course, no single survey measure is likely to provide a complete picture of teaching quality. Rather, we evaluate teaching in multiple ways here at the School. New course development, pioneering teaching methods, and other pedagogical innovations are very highly valued. And, in fact, such attempts at innovation may not always lead to the highest student evaluations right away. Mentoring of new and junior faculty is also critical. Needless to say, like you, we value teaching leadership in all forms.

I hope the above helps make clear the importance of course evaluations for individual faculty members, area chairs, and the administration of the School. I just want you to know that all of us at the School take this input very seriously. As always, we appreciate and welcome all helpful and thoughtful suggestions for improvement.

In closing, this would be a good time to recognize a few of our faculty whom you've rated very highly in the last year. The table below lists a few of the highest rated instructors in each program (for sections with enrollment greater than 30), based on student's average response to the question: 'Please rate the overall quality of the instructor's job in teaching this course'. Congratulations to each of these terrific instructors, recognized by their students as doing an outstanding job in the classroom!

One last thought: As you look at the names listed, please keep in mind that there are another 10-20 instructors in each program who averaged within 0.1 of the bottom of these lists last year. More than half of the School's teachers averaged above 4.5. We are truly fortunate to have many, many talented people working here at the School to make the educational experience here truly a great one. I would like to thank all of them for the tremendous time, energy, and effort they put into teaching. Keep up the good work!