Evaluating students' evaluation

Bubble sheets and golf pencils

KERRI WOLOSZYN STAFF

It’s that time of year again. No, I don’t mean time to start furiously studying for all those exams or start looking for a summer job. No, I mean it’s that time of year when a T.A walks into the room holding a large brown envelope and tiny golf pencils and tells you that you will have to fill out yet another student evaluation. I invariably groan under my breath thinking that in all the time I have been at the University of Manitoba (a long time) I have never heard anything about a professor who was reprimanded over a truly awful student evaluation. In fact, a while back I started to wonder if student evaluations were simply good reading material for those waiting to speak to someone in the arts office.

As reported in the Manitoban, on Sept. 4, 2002, the university senate moved to make Student Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ) available online to both staff and students. The move to make the evaluations more accessible for those wanting to read them was a good idea and the internet was the most obvious way to make the SEEQs easy to get to. However, there was a problem. Professors had to give approval as to whether or not they wanted the evaluations to be made available under the Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection Act (FIPPA). And they could choose to opt out whenever they chose. Students and staff wanting to look at the professors mysteriously absent from the online database would have to trek down to the library and do it the old fashioned way.

Not only are some evaluations hard to track down, but there are also problems with the evaluations as a whole. In my first year of university I did not know anything about what a good professor was. I did not know what a student evaluation was. I basically knew nothing about the process of going to university. So, I’m sure I gave all my professors great evaluations because I had nothing to compare. Now, I give all my professors great evaluations because it’s easy to pencil in “6s” all the way down the sheet. Yes, this probably does say more about me than it does the evaluation process, but I have been in many a classroom after the professor left where a majority of the students finished “evaluating” in about thirty seconds. I’m sure that wasn’t adequate time for thoughtful contemplation.

And in reality, we students have found our own ways of “evaluating” professors in a much less scientific manner. With sites like ratemyprofessors.com it seems to be less necessary for students wondering if they will enjoy a professor to check the “official” evaluations. Currently there are 1651 professors from the University of Manitoba listed on ratemyprofessors.com who range from a good quality (smiley face) rating down to a poor quality (sad face) rating. Students can also give a one-five rating on “Easiness,” “Helpfulness,” “Clarity” and “Rater Interest.” Despite the often bone-headed comments, ratemyprofessors.com is a helpful tool for curious students and non-students alike. You don’t have to have a student ID and password like you do to check the SEEQs online.

But does any of this stuff even matter? Once a professor has been tenured, is there really any point in evaluating him or her?

According to an article entitled “Learn to teach or perish, profs told” from a 2006 issue of the Vancouver Sun, some professors are taking the hint. The article explained that many professors were thinking more about publishing and researching rather than actually teaching. Some said that they didn’t have the time to worry about the students who came to them for help. The results of student evaluations were therefore quite weak. The solution was to set up a variety of different training programs for both new and already established professors. If the result of many poor evaluations is to help educators educate better then I will be glad to fill out hundreds more bubble sheets with dubiously sized writing utensils.

And so here is my evaluation: Most of the professors that I have had throughout my university career have been exceptional; some have been mediocre and very few have been poor. I guess I have been lucky.

Kerri Woloszyn has a degree in film studies and is the Manitoban's roving reporter.