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[circularity]

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).

SIGH. This works the opposite for me in my freshman survey class. I always hand tests back the next class period and go over them. Half the f***ing class doesn't show up on these days. In this class, I always end with low scores on the "instructor provides timely feedback" and "instructor explains reasons for criticism of student work" parts of our evaluations. GAH. Maybe next time I'll deliberately put off handing them back for an extra day or something.

[midwestgrad]

In regard to the plagiarizer issue, this is another reason why you should give blatant plagiarizers an F for the course instead of a 0 for the specific assignment.  If s/h/it already has a guaranteed F for the semester, then s/h/it doesn't fill out an evaluation (because presumably the student doesn't keep coming to class afterward).  If you give a 0 for the assignment, the student will probably still be attending class on eval day.

[cranefly]

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).

SIGH. This works the opposite for me in my freshman survey class. I always hand tests back the next class period and go over them. Half the f***ing class doesn't show up on these days. In this class, I always end with low scores on the "instructor provides timely feedback" and "instructor explains reasons for criticism of student work" parts of our evaluations. GAH. Maybe next time I'll deliberately put off handing them back for an extra day or something.

Yeah, I get the same. I always hand them back next class--sometimes even put their marks and comments online within 24 hours of the assignment due... and get low marks on handing back quickly--like, what exactly were you expecting??

[sir_lancelot]

What can you do if your numerical score and the answers to open-ended questions don't seem to go together? I always have a low score on the numerical questions, even on questions like "Prof comes on time" when in fact I am never late or "Prof is prepared for class" when in fact I am very well prepared. Reading the scores you would think I am the worst teacher ever. But when you look at the answers to open-ended questions I read a lot of "Hu explains really well", "Hu is very thoughtful and cares", or "Hu helps us with questions when we are stuck". Sometimes the written answers directly contradict the numerical scores!

[mended_drum]

Because I'm tenured, I now do evaluations every third semester.  A week or so ahead of time, I let students know about them (important now that they're on-line) and I note that they are free to write anything they want, but that I'm considering changing X about the class (an assignment, a reading, a method of organization), and that I'd be especially interested in hearing their thoughts on that aspect of the course.

This works extremely well.  I get specific feedback on a part of the course, and those students who weren't likely to leave comments (the silent middle) fill in with good comments that offset the empty praise or insults that the more passionate students typically include.

[punchnpie]

I think it is interesting that folks have suggested being transparent about the evaluations and their use. I don't know why this is a big secret.  It always seemed that way to me, but why should it be? Why shouldn't I tell my students how the evals are used? Thanks for the food for thought.

[tamiam]

I am completely transparent that I care about my evaluations. I also tell them over and over again that I want them all to succeed and want to work with them to make sure that they can succeed. And I bring cookies.

[mickeymantle]

Quite frankly, I wish we did online evaluations at my college.  The college administration, in its usual wisdom, insists that we do our in-class evaluations before Thanksgiving, then often doesn't send us the evaluations until the middle of the next semester or in July, when I really don't care anymore.  (Of course, it might help that I'm tenured and don't have to worry about these evaluations so much anymore.)

In addition, I have found that picking the right day does help.  For example, any classes immediately before the Tnanksgiving Day break are good, because usually Serious Students or Favorable Students will show up, and not Deadbeats or Whiners.  I also agree with the advice not to hand back exams or assign work the same day as evaluations. 

Finally, here's one story from my college years (early 1980s).  Pompous Professor forced the head of my honors program to give him our evaluations BEFORE the end of our semester.  (If I remember correctly, PP had more power than the poor Head of Honors.)  He was not pleased.  I doubt that PP could get away with that today. 

[embitteredhistorian]

Are evaluations taken more seriously now than they were 10-15 years ago? When I did them as an undergrade at a large top-10 state school, I got the impression that they were really ignored.

[larryc]

Are evaluations taken more seriously now than they were 10-15 years ago? When I did them as an undergrade at a large top-10 state school, I got the impression that they were really ignored.

This varies by institution, but at the teaching schools where I have taught they are taken seriously indeed. (Now whether or not they should be is a subject of some debate...)

[betty_p]

Here's a cute something I've discovered. On eval forms, students will parrot back anything you tell them during the semester.

One semester I apologized profusely when I didn't get assignments back to the students particularly quickly. That semester, the comments were all about "she should get our papers back to us more quickly."

The following semester, I was similarly slow, but stressed how concerned I was about giving each paper individual attention. That semester, the comments were all about "she gives each paper individual attention."

One semester, I had to work under the constraints of a hideous department grading scale, under which anything under 95% was an A-. I covered my butt with the students by telling them that this grading scale was a departmental thing, and I would do things differently, but...  The comments that semester were all about "the departmental grading scale is wack."

The semester after that, I stressed to the students that for this particular course, a more stringent grading scale was imperative since these were real-world skills they were learning--and the real world was far more unforgiving than any professor could ever hope to be. The comments that semester were all about "thank you for preparing us for real-world standards."

Want good evaluations? Tell them what you want them to write. Not the day of, of course, but throughout the semester. They're listening, at least to that part.

And it doesn't hurt (not just for evals--just in general) to mention at the end of any particularly successful class meeting that you appreciated their preparation and willingness to engage. "Good thinking today! Thanks."

[mad_doctor]

Yes, this is true.  They'll write pretty much whatever you tell them as long as you can make them think it's their own idea - I think it's related to the way they ask you about whether everything they do is "what you want".  I tell them how happy I am to be there, and how I'm looking forward to spending the semester with them, and they say things like, "mad_doctor is so passionate about teaching" and "it's great to have a professor who cares about his students".  I also make a point of telling them how I'm impressed by how much they have learned by comparison to other classes, so they know how to answer the "How much did you learn?" question on the eval.  I actually really do grade papers quickly, so I don't have to make anything up, but I'm sure to tell them how hard I worked to provide timely feedback for them, and they respond with, "mad_doctor is one of the hardest working professors in the college".

Ah, yes, so young, so impressionable...

[phlegmatic]

Crap--I need to start telling students that my occasional lateness in returning papers is because they are getting "special individual instruction"!

My only tip is that I give students the evals at the beginning of class. That way they can take the amount of time they need to properly fill them out rather than hurriedly rushing to leave early and give no comments if I give them the evals at the end of class. (Sorry, syntax police.)

[betty_p]

Thread hijack:

Oh, but it's not BS about the individual attention for me, Phlegmatic. I really do spend 15 to 30 minutes on a student paper in my writing classes. Those among you who don't teach writing complain that your students don't seem to learn anything in their writing classes, but I do my best to make sure they do. I have 40-60 students in writing classes alone per semester (I also teach two lit classes and write evaluations for at least another 15 advisees per semester), and I do give every paper (and I assign four or five per course per semester) individual attention.

Yes, there are a hundred ways I could make my grading life easier and faster. I've experimented with some of them. For me, none of them work as well as my slow but thorough method. Impugn the theory if you want, but I just today found that I have cured Football Guy (who's taking an elective 200-level writing course with me this semester, having earned a D+ in my Freshman Comp course last fall) of his comma splice.

End hijack.

My point is this: Evaluation instruments are imperfect and there are ways to game them. That I can manipulate my scores based on how I frame any given class-management issue speaks, to me, to the instruments' invalidity.

But administrators like them, so I play along.

[mountainguy]

Thank you for your commitment to improving student writing, Betty. From having instructors like you in high school and early college, I learned to become the writer that I am today and I'm thankful that someone invested time in helping me improve. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time to grade student papers, but I do try to take writing pedagogy seriously.

--We now return to your regularly-scheduled thread--