The possibility of a University-wide shift from paper to online course evaluations because of budget concerns has sparked debate in the University community on the advantages and drawbacks of an online system.
Online evaluations "would make data analysis and collection easier, because everything is stored in digital format," said Robert O'Connell, academic affairs committee chair for the College. "Also, students could complete course evaluations on their own time, and individual departments would not have to worry about creating course evaluations."
Currently, each individual academic department creates its own course evaluations and bears the cost individually. An online system, facilitated by the Instructional Toolkit homepage, could be used by each of the 25 departments in the College. The financial burden would be localized to the College central administration.
Although an online system would have a large initial start-up cost, the cost of maintenance would be less than the yearly cost of the current system.
The psychology department began replacing paper evaluations with online evaluations about four years ago. The first semester online evaluations were used, the department compared response rates between the online evaluations and the traditional paper forms.
"We compared response rates between them, and did a study" when online evaluations were introduced, Psychology Prof. Peter Brunjes said. "The online response rates were equivalent to the paper forms."
Brunjes also said the online forms were easier to use.
"It's much easier -- you have a database automatically, you can compare professors before and after tenure, or anything else, very easily," he said."It keeps records without having to worry about individual professors keeping track of them."
Any time a professor is up for a raise, tenure, promotion, post-tenure review special honor or award, the course evaluations students complete help the department make a decision.
However, many note that student involvement is crucial to the success of any evaluation process.
"I think [course evaluations] are an integral part of professors and teaching, but a lot of students don't take them seriously," first-year College student Sarabjeet Kapoor said.
First-year College student Patrick Leitch student agreed.
"I try to give a good evaluation, but it's hard by the fifth or sixth question," Leitch said.
Some students expressed interest in the possibility of a reward and punishment system based on the completion of evaluations. Possible rewards could include extra credit in a course, which would depend on an individual professor, or priority registration the next semester for students completing evaluations for their courses, O'Connell said.
If implemented, the online course evaluation program will be available on a trial basis this spring.
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