It’s everyone’s favorite time of the semester — ClassEval time.

Now that we are getting closer and closer to the end of the semester, our NC State email addresses will be flooded with reminders to complete our class evaluations. With our minds on the upcoming exam week, you may be putting off filling out your ClassEval or considering not filling it out at all. Although you may find the emails irritating and the surveys tedious, ClassEval is actually an excellent and useful tool to give helpful feedback on your courses and professors.

At NC State, all classes are required to offer an end-of-semester survey to their students to evaluate both the courses and the professors who teach them. The surveys go in-depth on multiple subjects, from the effectiveness of required books to the professor’s attitude. Whether your class experience was positive or negative, filling out ClassEval is not a waste of time. ClassEval gives you the chance to give your opinion on your college educational experience directly to the people in charge of it.

According to NC State’s Office of Institutional Research and Planning (OIRP), “Instructors use the evaluations to improve instruction and include them in their promotion and tenure dossiers, while department heads use them in annual reviews.” This means that your voice is heard during course evaluations and your comments are vital to the continuation of professors’ careers.

Although you may find ClassEval to be ineffective, it actually is carefully studied. For example, course evaluations are highly considered when a professor is applying for tenure. So if a professor wasn’t receptive to students after class or took weeks to grade exams, then ClassEval is your opportunity to voice your concerns.

Meanwhile, if you think your professor is particularly efficient, ClassEval also is considered when professors are applying for grants and awards. No matter which situation you find yourself in, ClassEval is necessary for courses to evolve and for professors to change their teaching strategy.

However, if you choose not to respond to ClassEval, the survey results are highly skewed and nothing will change. The OIRP notes, “the lower the response rate, the more likely it is that the mean score may be biased by responses of students with atypical opinions.” It is more likely that an extremely positive or an extremely negative student will fill out the ClassEval than a typical student. This causes the ClassEval to be pointless and inaccurate if a majority of students fail to fill out the survey. Therefore, no change will occur.

Now you may still find ClassEval to be pointless, since your time in the course is practically complete and any change that occurs will be after you finish. But you should consider both the futures of your professors and your fellow Wolfpack members. Unless you complete ClassEval, there will be no adjustment for them.

If your experience in a course is negative and you don’t fill out ClassEval, you are only perpetuating the same negative experience for other students. If the course and professor were exceptional and you don’t fill out ClassEval, then you are taking away the opportunity for a professor to be recognized for their accomplishments. Even if your experience was average or not that impactful, you are not giving professors the feedback they need to improve the classroom experience.

Mindlessly clicking the ClassEval bubbles is also not a viable solution to enact change in the classroom. You should be thoughtful and honest with your responses, especially to any open-ended questions. Adding additional comments can give professors a clear understanding of what they are doing well and not so well.

Not only is ClassEval important to the future of NC State, but it also does not take a lot of time to complete. Even taking fifteen minutes out of one day could drastically improve courses and professors’ lives. Even if you’re still not particularly motivated to complete ClassEval, the best way to avoid receiving those pesky reminder emails is to complete your evaluations, so it is still a great idea to fill out these surveys.