N.C. State has been experiencing a lack of responses to teacher evaluation surveys, and some professors are suggesting abandoning the current online-survey model. 

As a part of the evaluation process, students are asked to rate their teachers numerically, on a Likert Scale, and provide comments regarding the course.

When the paper-based survey system switched to an online survey system in 2007, the commenting rates increased, but the overall response rate wasn’t what it needed to be.

Jeff Joines, associate professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science, is chair of N.C. State’s Evaluation of Teaching Committee and is working with the committee to implement changes to improve the evaluation system.

“Teachers are getting more responses from a commenting standpoint, but the response rate is hovering in the 48 to 52 percent range,” Joines said.

Joines, as with other professors, can conclude that students who care the most about academic success are submitting comments. 

“There was a large study done that demonstrated that the better students are the ones that are filling out the evaluations, and they are probably more reflective of the true teaching,” Joines said.

However, because the evaluations are submitted anonymously, there is no way to determine the actual academic standpoint, such as grades and test scores, of the students themselves.

“I don’t have a clue as to who filled out my evaluations,” Joines said. “I cannot truly tell if test scores have an impact on the evaluations.”

However, some professors such as Kami Kosenko, an assistant professor of communication, said they prefer the paper-based system to the online survey system, even with an increase in commenting rates.

“I would prefer that it not be done electronically,” Kosenko said. “I think students get overwhelmed with emails asking them to do things, and it is difficult to separate the important emails from the ones that are not.”

Kosenko said that reverting to a paper-based system could be beneficial.

“If we do [evaluations] in class, like at other universities, I think we would have a higher response rate and those results would reflect the general classes rather than those who liked it a lot or did not like it,” Kosenko said.

Randolph Cox, a professor of foreign languages and literatures, is a non-tenure track faculty member and acknowledged the benefits of paper-based surveys.

Non-tenure teachers, such as Cox, must virtually proceed through the same evaluation process as all other faculty members. However they must progress through a more strenuous process of departmental evaluations as well as peer evaluations.

Despite this, Cox said that online student surveys are still a great resource for teacher evaluation.

“It’s a good tool for reading what students think about their classes, and the teaching style and whatever they think you ought to do differently,” Cox said.

In culmination with student surveying, faculty development is becoming an integral part of N.C. State’s Quality Enhancement Plan.

The University developed its current QEP to analyze the University’s compliance with core requirements, and the enhancement of student learning looks extensively at the benefits of faculty development.

The Faculty Development Plan, included in the QEP, encourages faculty growth through voluntary participation, self-assessments and surveys that compare and contrast creative and critical thinking skills before and after development activities.

This plan requires teachers to create a portfolio that includes a course syllabus, a summary of class activities, statistics about student achievement and a self-reflection.

The QEP also integrates the National Survey of Student Engagement in regards to evaluating students’ levels of creative and critical thinking skills.

Only college freshmen and seniors take the survey, which helps to determine N.C. State’s role in contributing to the development of these skills.