SA to pilot mid-semester evaluations

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by Ben Gerdemann

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Students in the classes trying the evaluations this semester will receive an evaluation form after spring break. The evaluation will be one free-response question about the course and professor. The evaluations will be anonymous and go directly to the professor. Unlike the end-of-semester evaluations, the midterm evaluations will not be published, sent to the registrar or put in a professor's job evaluation.

At the end of the semester, the students and the professor will receive a second survey to determine whether they thought the midterm evaluation was effective and whether they thought the teacher changed as the result of the evaluations.

Baker College senior Alice Armintor, a member of the SA committee implementing the student evaluations, said, "At least at midterm you can still see changes. If there [are] minor things there's still some hope."

According to Armintor, the idea of midterm evaluations came up at the fall SA retreat. "A lot of issues came up about teaching and what is good teaching. Sometimes professors and students have different views about what good teaching is. Something as simple as a midterm evaluation can help."

Armintor believes there is support for the idea. "In general, there is overall support from professors and a lot of student support too, especially from students who have done midterm evaluations [in classes where the professor organized them] before."

If the evaluation process goes well, the committee hopes that most classes will have midterm evaluations next year. "Originally, we thought that all professors would do [the evaluations], but there are exceptions -- team-taught or project-oriented classes for example," Armintor said.

Linda Neagley's HUMA 108 class would be one example of a possible exception. Because Neagley is only teaching the first half of the semester, a midterm evaluation would be irrelevant. Neagley, who was not familiar with the SA's pilot program, said,"I guess I'd need a quarter evaluation. Other than that, it sounds like a good idea."

Dave Gibbons, a Hanszen College sophomore, thinks midterm evaluations could be useful, but wonders if teachers will really pay attention to them. "I think teachers might ignore them," he said.

Physics Professor Barry Dunning used midterm evaluations in his physics class last semester and is one of the professors who is participating in the pilot program for the SA evaluations this semester. Dunning found the evaluations to be valuable last semester.

"It's a great idea. I learned a lot about the students," he said, but had some concerns about the SA's approach. "Free-form questions get you polarized responses," he said. "It's hard to keep the flavor of the responses. It's hard to see quantitative results or find a census."

Dunning's evaluation last semester included specific questions about which parts of the class students found to be most helpful. "Overall, a midterm evaluation is a good idea," Dunning said.

"It's useful for the student and instructor in preparation for the class."

Armintor defended the lack of a quantitative part to the evaluation. "I never find bubbles to be effective," she said. Armintor said the goal of the evaluations is not just to evaluate professors. "We want to start a campus dialogue about what good teaching is."

This item appeared in the News section of the February 7, 1997 issue.

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