Fredonia University Senate

Below are some tentative recommendations from the Committee on Student Evaluation of Faculty Teaching. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Joseph Straight, Chair Committee on Student Evaluation of Faculty Teaching

1. Course evaluations must be done in any course enrolling five or more students.
2. Faculty are asked to take course evaluations seriously, and not treat the course evaluation as an afterthought. It is recommended that faculty allow at least 20 minutes of class time for completion of the course evaluation form.
3. The trend towards more faculty using formative course evaluation should be encouraged. This method of getting feedback from students about the course relatively early in the semester is especially recommended for probationary faculty, adjunct faculty, and any faculty member teaching a course for the first or second time.
4. The forms to be used for evaluating a course should be placed in an envelope clearly marked with the course information. They should be given to the instructor along with clear instructions for their use. Before handing out the forms in class, the instructor should ask for a volunteer from the class who will collect the forms, place them in the envelope and return them to the department office. (The location of the department office should be clearly designated on the envelope.)
5. If the forms are to be computer scored, they will be sent by the department to the computer center. After scoring the forms, the computer center will return the forms and the results to the department. The forms and the results belong to the department and are to be kept confidential.
6. A department chair is expected to have knowledge of the course evaluations for his or her department, and should be proactive in terms of spotting potential faculty problems or courses which need improvement. Thus, a department chair needs to maintain a summary of the course evaluation results for his or her department.
7. As soon as is feasible, individual faculty members should have the opportunity to review their course evaluation forms. After faculty have had the opportunity to review the forms, some departments may wish to have them returned to the department chair, and to keep the forms on file in the department. Some departments may wish to keep on file only the forms the forms for probationary faculty, or for those who may be considered for promotion in the (near) future, or for adjunct faculty. In any case, departments should have a clear policy on this.

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