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[tenured_feminist]

It's that time again and the stakes are probably a bit higher than usual for some of us, given the budgeting uncertainties at so many institutions. Obviously it's too late to make major changes designed to improve evaluations, but I'd guess that a lot of us have ideas about how to improve things marginally.

Yes, I realize there's an ethical issue here, and some tactics do in my opinion cross the line (a few of which I have posted on another thread). But I also think that quantitative evaluations are given far too much weight and many of the questions asked are poorly designed and not properly validated, so I don't have a problem with gaming this a bit, particularly for junior faculty and adjuncts. 

A couple of thoughts to get things rolling.

1. Be transparent about the uses for the evaluations. Some students don't know that they matter for faculty retention and advancement. Knowing this may make them take them more seriously. Also, if you regularly use the evals, particularly the narrative sections, to improve course design and execution, tell your students this explicitly.

2. Never do evaluations at the same time as you return an assignment, unless all of the grades are stellar. Always remember that it only takes a few really disgruntled students to bring the averages down unless you are teaching a large class.

3. Avoid doing evaluations on a day when an assignment is due in class. As a general rule, students who are committed to the class and always come will evaluate you better than those who only show up to turn things in.

[geonerd]

I will add:
Do not do evaluations on the last day of class. Students who skipped class all semester WILL show up on the last day hoping to find out what's on the final exam, and they will not hesitate to evaluate the heck out of you even though they haven't attended a single class.

Hand out evaluations a few sessions before the end of the semester, while the disgruntled ones are still absent. Carry the forms around in your backpack and be ready to pick your day when the time is right.

[peppergal]

1. Be transparent about the uses for the evaluations. Some students don't know that they matter for faculty retention and advancement. Knowing this may make them take them more seriously. Also, if you regularly use the evals, particularly the narrative sections, to improve course design and execution, tell your students this explicitly.

Chime on this!

Of course, you run the risk of what happened to me one semester.  I told my students that I send these evaluations when applying for TT positions, and that evaluations are also used in tenure decisions.  I mostly told them because I didn't want to get random comments like "I like bananas" (which had happened to me in the past), but I wanted them to be thoughtful and honest.

Each and every student ended the narrative portion of the evaluation with "Please make Peppergal a tenured professor!"  I have no idea what happened, whether they planned it after I left the room or what.  But now I have to attach a note to that semester's evaluations explaining what happened, so that it doesn't look like I bribed by students...

[carebearstare]

I try to be honest with my students about evaluations. I let them know that it's their opportunity to evaluate me, and that I read them after grades are turned in. I also tell them that they factor into my job performance evaluations and that they're taken more seriously by the powers that be if they're clear in their praise and constructive in their criticism.

I almost always do them on the last day and haven't had a problem with this yet. I also usually say thank you to the students before I hand them out, which is maybe buttering them up a little bit but hopefully not too much.

[polly_mer]

What's this about picking the right day?  I've been informed what day someone will show up to administer the evaluations and that's how it's done.

[bigstateu]

Our university explicitly requires that we do not pressure students with the suggestion that evaluations might affect our promotion and tenure, so since it is explicitly forbidden I avoid being transparent. I do say something generic like "Take these seriously because it is your chance to give feedback."

One thing that I do that has improved my evaluations and requires no extra work, is that I grade tests and papers immediately rather than procrastinating. My turnover on grading is now always the very next class period and students are amazed because this is not typical. You have to grade everything anyways and you would not believe how much students appreciate timely feedback and how much they see it as a reflection of whether or not you care about teaching (and it is easy to appear timely when most faculty do procrastinate because face it we don't really like to grade and we do have so many things on our plate).

[cc_alan]

What's this about picking the right day?  I've been informed what day someone will show up to administer the evaluations and that's how it's done.

Our eval packets were passed out last week and we have until the end of the term to do them.

I do something like what bigstateu mentioned. I tell students to please take the evals seriously since my chair reads all of them and this is their chance to give feedback.

By the time I give them out (usually near the end of the term simply because that's when I have time), I have a good group of students who will write constructive comments and not just a bunch of-

"OMG! There is too much work to do! Cut back on the amount of work required."

or

"This needs to be a semester course instead of a quarter course."

Alan

[larryc]

My standard spiel is that the evaluations nare important and that I also take them seriously as a way to improve the course. Tell me what you really think, I say, I don't recognize your handwriting and I don't get to see these until the grades are in anyway.

This might sound like an invitation to get slammed but it works out just the other way.

[mountainguy]

All good advice so far.

For those of you who are at universities like mine where evaluations are done online, I've found that it's helpful not to hand back any major exams or papers during the time peroid that online evaluations are open (at PepsiU, it's a 10-day window). During that time, remind students at the start of each class period that online evaluations are open and that it's their chance to provide feedback. This is key to getting the students in the "middle" (who neither love nor despise you as an instructor). Better yet, schedule a computer lab for a class period and march your students down there. (The evil IT people at my school have deemed this to be "not a legitimate use of computer resources," but if you're at a school where this is possible, I think it's a great idea).

[new99]

Does anyone ever have, or suspect they have had, plagiarists or "lying scumweasels" who use anonymous evaluations as retaliation? If so, does anyone have advice on how to deal with that, either beforehand or after receiving the results?

[polly_mer]

Does anyone ever have, or suspect they have had, plagiarists or "lying scumweasels" who use anonymous evaluations as retaliation? If so, does anyone have advice on how to deal with that, either beforehand or after receiving the results?

All sane higher up people will disregard one obvious nutbar with an ax to grind.  Unless you have very few students in your class so that one person's numbers will make a huge difference in the results (I'm dreading the four person class that I have in which two people are failing), chances are good that one horrendous evaluation will be pointedly ignored.

I got one of these on my informal midterm evaluations, showed it to my department chair, and his response was, "Meh.  There's one in every crowd.  That's probably the same student who showed up to complain to me about you whom I told to deal with you directly.  I know you're doing a fine job.  Don't worry about it."

[mad_doctor]

Does anyone ever have, or suspect they have had, plagiarists or "lying scumweasels" who use anonymous evaluations as retaliation? If so, does anyone have advice on how to deal with that, either beforehand or after receiving the results?

This happens a lot.  I know for a fact that I got slammed on several occasions for catching plagiarists and cheats.  Once I caught a group of six students cheating on an assignment, and flunked them all.  These students skipped class on eval day, but actually went to the Dean's office to request an absentee eval.  Of course, the Dean's office was only too happy to comply.  My final evals for that term were something like 19 or 20 students who thought I was outstanding on everything, and exactly 6 students who thought I was the worst professor ever, "mad_doctor rambles incoherently", "mad_doctor is the least prepared professor I have ever had", "they'll give doctor's degrees to anybody these days, won't they?"  Those six students were enough to drag my evals beneath the college average and trigger a meeting with the Dean who was very much in favor of the evals, since there was no way I could prove that the six bad evals were the students I caught cheating.

Unfortunately, I don't think there's much you can do about this unless you have a supportive Chair or Dean.  You can also try to get the students to drop or withdraw before eval time, or as others have suggested try to give evals on a day when only good students are present.  I find that the good students are typically present on the day after an exam while the slackers treat themselves to a much-deserved post-exam break.  I would also suggest that if you have the leeway to do so, just bring the evals to class with you and make a decision on the spot whether you want the students who are present to do your evals.  If there's a bad crowd on that day, just put them aside for the moment and bring them the next day, and the next, until you have a cooperative group.

[glowdart]

Does anyone ever have, or suspect they have had, plagiarists or "lying scumweasels" who use anonymous evaluations as retaliation? If so, does anyone have advice on how to deal with that, either beforehand or after receiving the results?

Oh, yeah.  I usually have made them sufficiently angry that their profanity-filled evals are dismissed out of hand by the powers that be. 

I also avoid handing back final papers or projects or anything where I have failed people for plagiarizing until after the evals are completed, but I'm also on a campus where you get to walk around with them for two weeks and pick the best day to do them.

 

[higherandhigher]

We also get the evaluations a few weeks before the end of the semester, so I get to pick the day for them. Usually, though, I end up carrying them to class a few times before I give them out. It depends on how class goes--if I have a block of time I can use for evals, I'll use it.

What I have found helps me get meaningful written comments--which are very helpful to me, both in providing quotations for "evidence of teaching excellence" and for providing useful feedback for course changes--is to provide my students with three questions:
-What did you like best?
-What did you like least?
-What could I have done to help you this semester?

Without these three questions, I've found that many people leave the comments section blank or provide feedback that's too vague. With these questions, I have about 95% of my students providing written comments.

[new_bus_prof]

Online evaluations make this harder to do. Since everyone gets their chance, including all those people who never show up in class, to evaluate you.

Some things that help me:
- Thanking the students for a great, fun, challenging semester...
- A strong review session for final exams...
- Student Opinion session on... How this class will help you succeed in the future?
- Graduation ceremony reminder... When, where, and I hope to see them there!

I have the powers that be add a question to the evaluations (if its not already there)...
What grade do you expect to get in this course?