Grading professors gravitates online

Teacher evaluations use fewer scantrons

By Jennifer Parli

Students might be seeing one less scantron sheet at the end of the semester.

Teacher and course evaluations are slowly transitioning into using online methods to get student input about classes, said Roger Sugarman, director of Institutional Research, Planning and Effectiveness at UK.

The online evaluations were first used in Spring 2008 and 83 courses participated. That number jumped to 825 courses using the online forms in Fall 2009. Sugarman said the use of online evaluations is still just an option at this point because he wanted faculty to feel more comfortable before making the switch a requirement.

“We are trying to encourage the online evaluations, but we’re not requiring it,” he said.
“I think the university is interested in facilitating a switch to online course evaluations.”

These teacher and course evaluations have been used throughout the university for the last 18 years. The assessment consists of questions about the course material, the instructor and the learning outcomes for the course. Last semester, there were 5,939 courses, of which 3,755 were evaluated.

The IRPE is the department responsible for collecting the student assessments of courses and teachers. After the evaluations are analyzed, the IRPE sends the results to each participating college’s administration. Sugarman said after his department sends out the results, it’s up to each college to take action.

If a course or a teacher receives negative reviews, it is up to the individual colleges to decide how to handle the situation.

“Its up to the dean and the department chair of each college,” Sugarman said.

The Nursing, Pharmacy, Dentistry and Law colleges conduct their own evaluations. Some colleges, such as the College of Engineering, are required to ask specific questions about the class material.

Sugarman said student evaluations are good for the university culture to have student input on courses and professors. Wendell Fisher, an animal science freshman, said he believes what he writes in evaluations can make a difference.

“ … if you don’t take (the evaluations) seriously, then you won’t get serious results and it matters,” he said.

Some students, however, feel the evaluations are not taken seriously by the administration. Michael Morgan, a finance and accounting senior, said the evaluations do not make a difference because some teachers never change their methods or course work.

“I feel like once (professors) get tenured, it doesn’t matter because certain teachers have been doing the same thing for years,” he said.

Results of teacher and course evaluations can be found on the IRPE Web site, www.uky.edu/IRPE.