By Jennilyn Bylund
Finishing his last Business Management 340 lecture for the semester, Bill Swinyard had a heart-to-heart chat with his 300-size student audience.
Tracy VonCannon sat in the NLTB auditorium listening to Swinyard as he sincerely expressed his hope for the class to fill out the online teacher evaluation forms.
She said he encouraged the students to complete the evaluation and offered a personal experience as to why they were important to him.
“He told us about a time when one of his former students filled out an evaluation and it really hurt his feelings,” VonCannon said. “He encouraged us not take our aggression out in the evaluation, but to try and give constructive criticism and at the same time being honest.”
VonCannon said she was surprised to find some teachers actually take the time to read all the evaluations and apply them in their teaching. Teacher evaluation forms have changed from the paper and pencil version to an online assessment, and new issues are being raised about the effectiveness and influence of these evaluations. Many BYU students, however, are ignorant of the significance of evaluations and the weight they carry.
“I have no idea if teacher evaluations have any significance for teachers or not,” said Alicia Ingalls, a senior majoring in accounting. “Teachers tell me to fill them out every year, but I don”t even know who reads them, or if what I write will have an impact.”
Richard Williams, academic vice president of faculty, supervises the rank and status process for faculty in which student evaluations play an important role.
Student evaluations started at BYU between the late ”50s and early ”60s, but were not revised again until the ”80s. They were recently revised a second time when they were changed to an online format.
Williams said not everyone thought it was a good idea to put the evaluations online, but said he thinks there are advantages because of the accessibility to modify, add, delete and change items that are not measuring anything.
“Some people have thought it was a good move and have liked it,” he said. “And some people have thought it was a terrible move and have hated it. We think there are significant benefits which is why we”ve gone ahead with it.”
Teachers who are opposed to the change say the online evaluations have caused a significant drop in student response rates.
Timothy Threlfall, an acting fundamentals professor, said computer evaluations are inaccurate because students aren”t required to take them and are not confined to the classroom to complete them and get full participation.
“For me, the electronic version is not valid unless it is required of each student,” Threlfall said. “Generally speaking only those with an ax to grind with what went on in the class will go there, and so I think you have skewed results, often to the negative.”
Generally speaking, regardless if the student data is accurate or not, most students” intentions in filling out an evaluation is to express their feelings about the class. Most students complete the forms in hopes of using it as an effective way to specifically express to the teacher their thoughts about how the class was taught and make suggestions for changes in the future.
As the administrative supervisor overseeing evaluation distribution, Williams said responses and comments are available to teachers after all grades are turned in for the semester. They are then given to department chairs to review and discuss with teachers during annual stewardship meetings at the end of winter semesters. Following the reviews at the chair level both the college committee and the university committee assess the evaluation information.
Alan Dupr?, a business major from Shelbyville, Ky., said even though he knows department chairs and teachers review the evaluations, he thinks evaluations should be used as an analysis of their teaching and to make goals in areas that need to be improved.
“I think that they are a good idea, but I don”t think they are used in the way they were intended to be used,” he said. “Their greater value is assisting the person develop as an instructor and I don”t see that happening.”
Williams said he sees it differently.
“They do have an influence at every level of the review in the rank and status process. And they do have an influence in every yearly stewardship interview that a faculty have with the chairs,” he said. “That I can assure you.”
English Department Chair Edward Geary, said it might be helpful if some teachers had a different perspective of evaluations.
“Instead of thinking of [evaluations] as a camera in the ceiling looking at us, and having to look out for it or be concerned about it, we should create the kind of culture where we welcome self-evaluations from others as a way to become better,” Geary said.
On the other hand, some teachers say they have never seen the evaluations, or if they have, it didn”t make a difference to them.
Hal Black, a teacher for integrative biology, said sometimes it is hard to tell from the evaluations if it”s the student who is crazy or if it”s the professor who is crazy. Black went on to say that for the most part he and most of his colleagues dismiss those types of evaluations.
Black said he believes in what he is teaching and how he teaches it. Because of this, even if a handful of students offer suggestions in their evaluations they aren”t going to have much of an effect.
“I”ll be honest about something,” Black said. “Overall, I don”t think I have done much different.”
Threlfall said he thinks evaluations from students should carry less weight in the rank advancement process, and although he said he doesn”t like the evaluations, he does think they can be helpful tools.
“Generally there are ones that can help you know if you are going in the right direction, if you are getting through to people or not, or if you need to kind of change directions,” Threlfall said.
Williams said he feels strongly that evaluations filled out by students are a good indicator for student learning and considers them to be a valuable assessment about the teacher. Williams also said the evaluations measure student experience and those experiences correlate with learning.
VonCannon”s business management experience is one Williams wishes every student could catch the vision of.
“After he told the class of his experience it really changed my perspective of things. I really wanted to make my evaluations more meaningful and helpful,” VonCannon said.
Williams said BYU is committed to quality and so evaluations are a must.
“What I am hoping is students will assume the responsibility for filling them out honestly, and faculty will assume the responsibility of taking them seriously and responding to them,” Williams said. “That”s my dream.”
