Key Dates:
Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 9am: Evaluation window opens for students.
Thursday, December 10, 2009: Last day of classes.
Monday, December 14, 2009, 9am: Evaluation window closes for students.
January 2010: Online results available.
For Instructors:
For Students:
Giving Constructive Feedback
Why is it important to give written feedback to your instructors on end-of-term subject evaluations? Because it is used by:
- Your instructors, to modify and improve the approach, pedagogy and content of the subject for the future, and to see what their students thought was most useful.
- Departments, for faculty promotion and tenure, accreditation, and, curricular changes, for example. Good evaluations can help your instructor receive raises, awards, promotions, and (for teaching assistants) jobs. If your instructor is untenured, he or she will need consistently good student evaluations to get tenure.
Why is it essential to give constructive feedback?
So that your instructors, fellow students and others can act on the feedback. Bubble sheet answers and quantitative ratings are useful and necessary for instructors and departments, and for students who use it to shop for courses, but what instructors value most is useful written feedback. Most instructors will take feedback seriously when it's time to teach this class again. If you are interested in helping out the instructor and future students in the class, take the time to leave constructive feedback.
| Be descriptive. | The book by Jones was very confusing and disorganized, and I didn’t think it related well to the course material. More specifically, we were asked to read chapters 5, 8 and 11 but those were not mentioned on the syllabus. |
| Offer suggestions. | Could you please put less information on each PowerPoint slide, and use a bigger font? |
| Don’t criticize things your teacher can’t control. | It’s not helpful to complain that the class is too early in the morning or that the classroom is too cold. Your professor probably has no control over these things. |
| Be polite. | Honesty is important, but there’s no need to be mean. Instructors take evaluations very seriously, and it’s extremely hurtful to receive nasty comments. Using the evaluation as a form of revenge against a teacher helps no one. Speaking your mind politely about a teacher’s strengths and weaknesses is certainly helpful. |
| Be appropriate. | Thoughts of “Dude, take a bath!” and “You’re hot!” are best kept to yourself rather than put down on paper. See The Golden Rule, below. |
| Explain what you liked about the class. | I really benefitted from the hands-on activities because they helped me learn the material. |
| Thank your teacher for the great class. | If you enjoyed the class, let your professor know by thanking him or her. This is one of the nicest things a student can say to a teacher. |
The Golden Rule: Give feedback to your instructors as you would have them give feedback to you — be fair, thoughtful, deliberate and objective.