Course Evaluations

As a part of the Academic Assessment plan, every faculty member must conduct student course evaluations for at least one course each year. Some questions should be common to all of the department's course or seminar evaluations, consistent with the goals that the department has set. Other questions may be specific to the course, focusing on particular areas of curriculum and pedagogy about which the faculty member wants to know more. The departmental portion of the completed course evaluations will be read and discussed by the faculty member and the department chair. This discussion should focus on the course and curriculum, and is explicitly NOT intended to be used as part of tenure and promotion decisions. Since course evaluations reflect only indirectly on student learning, they should be used in conjunction with other, more direct measures, as part of a robust assessment plan.

Provost Thomas Stephenson provided guidance to department chairs in October 2013, to clarify some confusion about the policy.   It is available here.

See under Resources > Tools > Surveys for some examples of course evaluations.