Student Evaluations

Augusta University pays the Campus Lab company to organize the evaluation of the classes by the students. This is supposedly the place and time where students can help their instructors to improve their classes. It is done anonymously, so that students that negatively comment on the class can do so without suffering retaliation from the instructor, the department, or anyone else.

I love to read your feedback and to discuss how I can improve my classes. I understand that it seems “safer” to comment anonymously. But I hate the “quantitative analysis” (i.e., the grade) aspect of it.

Grading, Evaluating

When I grade your work, I do it:

• As anonymously as I can: by grading question by question, I can apply a uniform criteria “mechanically”, without knowing whose student’s work I am looking at.
• Repeatedly: so that you get multiple chances to improve, as I give you multiple feedback.
• Meaningfully: by giving you chances to discuss the evaluation with me, to check your grade, and with written comments to explain your mistakes.
• With a clear model in mind: I always solve the questions myself, and often share a possible solution with you.

Unfortunately, some studies show that students tend to evaluate their classes:

• Based on the availability of cookies [1],
• More harshly when they actually learned something from it [2],
• With a strong gender bias [3] (cf. also https://psmag.com/news/kids-will-be-gender-biased-kids).

I am not endorsing it in any way, but you can see some instructors ranting about those bias at https://twitter.com/PhDisillusion/status/1121438817435693061.

Then, What?

Evaluations are used in two ways:

• Your written comments are read by me, your instructors, and taken into account when I develop my classes.
• The numerical grade is compiled, and then used for tenure and promotion by my superiors.

I believe the first use is beneficial, and the second is harmful. A University is not a place where students should be treated as consumers, and where a “five-star rating system” should decide of our teaching politics. Your instructors are often trying to do the best for your learning, and not to maximize their evaluations: if you want to keep your classes meaningful and focused on your learning experience, then write lengthy, meaningful comments, keeping in mind the positive as well as the negative. And don’t pay too much attention to the “numerical scale” attached to the evaluations.

I’ll work on my side to read, consider and apply your comments, and to be as transparent as I can about my past evaluations.

My Evaluations

You can find my evaluations and the result of the short surveys conducted around mid-term in this document. If you are more interested in the quantitative aspect, you can use this spreadsheet.

The evaluations at “Rate my professor” are probably to be taken with multiple pinches of salt, since no verification is done, and since the racial bias can be strong [4], but available for my teaching at Appalachian State University and for my teaching at Augusta University.