Statement from the Senate Policy
The University has repeatedly affirmed the importance of and necessity for students to be able to provide confidential and timely feedback to faculty members regarding their teaching. This feedback comprises part of the information which is used to assess faculty performance, and is considered in reappointment, promotion and tenure decisions. As such, UBC believes that participating in teaching evaluation is a student responsibility which should be approached with due seriousness (excerpted from the Senate Policy on Student Evaluation of Teaching, May, 2007).
Tips on Evaluating Instructors
- Take some time, think about it.
Don’t just rush through the evaluation; take time to reflect on the entire term. Taking the time to give thoughtful, constructive feedback will help improve the learning experience for future students.
- Focus on things that will help your instructor improve your learning.
This isn’t an opportunity to get back at your professor, or to prove something. Think of this as an opportunity to help your instructor improve their teaching to help you learn.
- Focus on best practices.
It’s not only about personality, being funny or being entertaining. It’s about effective teaching. Consider the following excellent practices in teaching: asking the class questions, reviewing material, pausing, using alternative forms of assessment, giving timely and constructive feedback, being clear about expectations of learning, usefulness of the reading material, how well discussions were facilitated, effective use of technology in the classroom, and others.
- Be specific.
Use the written portion of the survey to explain why you gave the ratings you gave. The written comments are very useful for instructors to improve student learning. Be specific – give tangible examples of times when something worked really well, and times when it didn’t. Always try to answer why you liked or disliked something.
- Be positive, be constructive.
Make sure you tell your instructor what they did well! This is as important as the constructive criticism, as it ensures that they keep doing what was great.
- Tell your friends.
Encourage your friends to fill out their evaluations of teaching. Explain how important it is. Direct your friends to this resource, so they can better evaluate their instructors too.
Security and the Online Evaluation System
UBC has expanded the use of an online option for collecting student evaluation responses, with an increased number of departments and Faculties implementing on‐line evaluations. There is no requirement to use this online system campus‐wide; the decision to use paper or online is made at the Faculty level. The system provides a secure mechanism for managing student evaluations of UBC courses, while maintaining the confidentiality of student responses as required by the Senate Policy on Student Evaluations of Teaching.
The centrally supported online system is called CoursEval®. The software is made by Academic Management Systems, based out of Amherst, New York, USA. UBC hosts this application locally and manages and hosts all of the data in Canada, at UBC. CoursEval® is integrated with UBC’s local authentication system, CWL; secure access is granted to students enrolled in specific courses, and results provided to the appropriate instructors once the survey period is over and the deadline of submission of grades has passed.
UBC’s Office of Learning Technology (OLT) administers CoursEval® in partnership with Faculty‐based administrators. Faculty‐level administrators manage access and data for their specific academic units, and OLT administers the system as a whole, including most data imports. The system is housed on secure UBC IT servers.
