One University’s Measured Approach to Student Evaluations

Abstract

Student evaluations of teaching occur at most universities and colleges in the United States and are used for a variety of purposes including course improvement and as data to evaluate instructors.  Increasingly, universities manage the collection of student perception data about courses and teaching with commercially available software.  This is a report of the work of one university to review the process of collecting and using student assessment of instruction data and to determine how the data would be used.  The work of a task force to examine a process in place for ten years by seeking input from stakeholders, reviewing ten years of collected data, and reviewing the literature is presented in a case study format with task force recommendations and a report on subsequent implementation.