At the request of a professor, a university center for teaching and learning conducted formative evaluations of an undergraduate course. The evaluation process included two stages: a mid-term formative evaluation with feedback and suggested changes and an end-of-term final evaluation and review. This case study discusses the evaluations and the…

For student rating data to be useful in improving college teaching, consultants and faculty need to know how different evaluative purposes effect evaluation results, and they must be able to interpret and use the data at hand. A series of steps should be followed to help ensure valid data interpretation. (MSE)

Student ratings reflect the variety and range of teacher behaviors and the instructional successes and failures. Although researchers, practitioners, and users of rating systems acknowledge their multidimensionality, it is not fully used. Understanding the context of evaluations and identifying how intended uses and audiences affect data…

There is steadily accumulating evidence of the misuse or overuse of ratings data, but this does not invalidate their usefulness. The research literature has been concerned almost exclusively with the construction of ratings instruments. There has been little systematic study about creating evaluation systems that truly respond to the needs of…

Examines the role of technology in teaching evaluation, discussing the need to incorporate the principles of good evaluation practice as evaluation systems become increasingly automated. Suggests applications of technology that hold promise for improving evaluation practice, such as teacher-course evaluation systems. (EV)

Those who develop and use student faculty rating systems have an obligation to make them support good practice. Effectively communicating evaluation results to higher education policymakers includes helping them understand system goals and what is needed to achieve them. Training information users in the skills of using the information is…