Fine arts students can now tell their teachers they don’t like the lectures, love the examinations or hate their grading policy via the Internet.
The College of Fine Arts is the first U college to put teacher evaluations online. These evaluations are the same as those U students encounter in every class, but the College of Fine Arts now allows students to fill these out on their own time and from their own computers.
“If it works, I would hope that in the next two or three years we would have it campus-wide,” said David Dodd, associate dean of undergraduate studies.
The online form only takes six to eight minutes, and asks questions about demographic information, seven questions about the course and general education items for classes that fulfil that requirement.
The evaluations do not include specific department questions because there was not enough time to get the system ready for those questions, according to Dodd. The online evaluations also include space for student comments, just like the paper evaluations other departments use.
The online course evaluations are experimental this semester, and Dodd has two major concerns about their success?student participation and technical function.
Dodd’s biggest worry is whether or not students will make the effort to fill out the course evaluations. Dodd hopes that 60 to 70 percent of students will fill them out, which is about how many students complete paper evaluations. According to Dodd, 90 percent of U students register, check their grades or perform some university business online.
“It all depends upon student response more than anything else,” Dodd said. “I hope their main motivation is the realization that these course evaluations have a real impact on the retention, promotion and tenure of faculty. The faculty take them seriously.”
Sandra Shotwell, a professor in the Actor Training Program, is also concerned about a representative sampling of students filling out the forms online. She believes only the very opinionated students in both directions will fill out the forms. She thinks the online evaluations will not be as reliable as those administered in class.
“I think overall it [paper evaluations] works better regardless of the work in tabulating,” she said. Despite this belief, Shotwell thinks the online evaluations “would be terrific if it would work.”
Students who fill out online evaluations are also eligible to win one of four $200 gift certificates from the U Bookstore as an extra motivation.
“I definitely plan on getting online and filling them out,” said Rachel Pitchforth, a piano performance major on the college’s Student Council. “I think it will be great for the students.”
Members of the fine arts college Student Council handed out fliers and made announcements to classes telling them about the online evaluations.
According to Steve Roens, fine arts associate dean, as of Thursday, 1 to 5 percent of the college had filled out evaluations. The site opened on Wednesday and will remain open through Dec. 7.
The second concern is whether or not the technical system will work. According to Roens, there has only been one small glitch in the system. The system kicks students off after completing each evaluation and forces them to log in again to fill out another one. Roens hopes the glitch will be fixed shortly.
“I talked to a couple of students who said it was fine except that one thing,” Roens said. “I hope students would do it, it would be a great system if we could do it.”
Online course evaluations save paper and time for those responsible to prepare and administer the evaluations.
“It’s certainly more efficient than printing all of the pages and going through that process,” Dodd said. “If it works in terms of student response, it would be a lot easier for everyone.”