Starting in September 2012, course evaluations for the Faculty of Arts and Science will be administered online, a change that has elicited a mixed response from students.
New online evaluations
The Arts and Science Student Union currently distributes course evaluation forms in class to assess the quality of its faculty’s teaching, but critics argue that the current paper surveys are outdated and not environmentally friendly.
“For many years, we have heard from students and faculty that we should move to a modern, online system that doesn’t waste paper,” said Suzanne Stevenson, vice-dean of teaching and learning at the Faculty of Arts and Science.
According to Katharine Ball, president of the Arts and Science Students’ Union, the current evaluations take a lot of work.
“[There are] mounds and mounds of paper every year that could really be eliminated,” said Ball. “It’s very time-consuming to go through each individual paper.”
Alan Bewell, professor and chair of the English department, agreed that the build-up of paper surveys is overwhelming.
“As someone who has seen boxes upon boxes of surveys fill our staff offices every year, I think it is about time that we thought of a more ecologically conscious means of eliciting information about our courses,” he said.
Decrease in student participation
Despite environmental benefits, there is concern regarding student participation for the online evaluations.
According to Ball, the Faculty of Arts and Science has a 60 per cent completion rate for course evaluations — one of the highest for a faculty at the university. Currently, the surveys are distributed during class time and, as such, are convenient for students. She and others fear a decrease in participation once the survey is taken online.
French language learning majors Julie Nguyen and Yasmeen Absoud said that they prefer the in-class surveys due to convenience and would only complete the online evaluation if they held strong opinions about a course.
Nick Mount, associate professor and associate chair of the English department, acknowledged this issue.
“We know this and are working on and will continue to consider solutions,” he said.
Stevenson confirmed that in the planned online system, students will receive an email linking them to evaluations for all of their courses. Afterwards, they will be instructed to access their evaluations via Blackboard.
“I think students will like it much better than the old paper system. The online system is very user-friendly and easy to navigate,” Mount said.
Customized questions
According to Stevenson, some changes have been made to the old questions as students found them confusing and unclear.
Departments will have the ability to customize questions pertaining to professors and TAs that better analyze and reflect student experience in individual courses.
“We are very pleased with the manner in which an online system will allow us to gain richer, more concrete, and more targeted advice about the quality of our courses and their instruction,” said Bewell.
Privacy and security
One of the questions to appear on the new evaluation form pertains to attendance in class. As such, anonymity in the online surveys has been made a priority.
Stevenson confirmed that a secure access system will be put in place to guarantee privacy.
In addition to privacy concerns, there has also been concern regarding accessibility to the information, as well as fraudulent behaviour allowing students to complete multiple evaluations, distorting data.
“There are still outstanding questions about the security of students completing the evaluation online,” said UTSU president Danielle Sandhu. “We are concerned about the privacy of our members and want to ensure each user can only complete one unique evaluation and that the system is secured from fraudulent activity.”
Further revisions
Those involved in the process are in agreement that additional revision of the online system is required to ensure efficiency. The faculty will conduct online pilot evaluations throughout the winter semester in preparation for the launch of the new system.
“Overall, this is an interesting initiative that will be best evaluated when it is slowly rolled out by various divisions,” said Jake Brockman, student representative to the Arts and Science Faculty Council. “In this vein, the real evaluation of online course evaluations can only take place after the system is made available to students. In principle, I think this is a good idea, but the faculty needs to make ease of access a priority on this project.”
