Online course evaluations launched smoothly at the end of Fall semester.
The online evaluations were used for all classes for the first time last semester, following a trial run during summer classes. Online course evaluations began in part to comply with Duke’s sustainability effort, as the new system saves the University a large amount of paper.
“It’s sort of how our generation operates,” said junior Ray Li, Duke Student Government vice president for academic affairs.
Response from faculty over the summer was positive, Li said . Having students complete course evaluations online has led to longer and more thoughtful comments. Li attributed the improved quality of the evaluations to students feeling more comfortable using an online format.
The push to have students evaluate their courses online began several years ago but momentum built over the past two years leading to the recent launch, said Lee Baker, dean of academic affairs and associate vice provost for undergraduate education for Trinity College of Arts and Sciences.
Baker said that many students appreciate the sustainability efforts and feel more comfortable writing more when using a keyboard as opposed to writing comments out by hand.
However, not all students were more comfortable with the new format. First-year Hannah Moyles, for example, forgot to complete course evaluations as a result of the online format.
“If it was in paper and we had to do it in class, I would have done it,” Moyles said.
Li noted that it is academic policy to provide time for students to complete evaluations in class, but this does not always happen in practice.
Baker noted that the new system relies heavily on voluntary student participation. Participation levels from last semester are still being assessed, but if they are not robust, students could face consequences such as losing access to their ACES accounts until they complete course evaluations.
Li said this is a precaution that would provide an incentive but would not be debilitating.
Along with the shift from a paper to an online format, new questions were added. For example, students were asked about whether they found the Areas of Knowledge codings for their Fall classes to be appropriate.
This should serve to alert the administration more easily when courses carry the wrong curricular code, Li said.
There were few technical problems with the evaluations this semester, although there were a few hours during which certain students could not access their Spring courses following their evaluations, but this was quickly fixed.
“It was a bit of an Obama moment for me,” said Baker, on the number of emails he received following the "hiccup" during the first run of online evaluations.
The online format allows professors to aggregate data more easily, Li noted. Using the old method, student responses would have to be hand-coded and uploaded into a database, but the online method is more direct.
Li added that professors can now more easily assess how different cross-sections—such as freshmen and students new to the major—are responding to their teaching.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.