Mobile Friendly Course Evaluations

Professors are a crucial cog in the machine with the educational experiences students have at Concord University. Professors are the ones that relay the information students take pride in learning. Wouldn’t it be nice for each class a student partook in to be substantially better and more compatible than previous years? That possibility has the potential to be a reality due to course evaluations. 

    Students fill out course evaluation forms to detail their likes and dislikes concerning a certain class and write what the professor could have done better. There will be a slight change concerning these evaluations. Dr. Peter Viscusi, Vice President and Academic Dean and Dr. Cheryl Barnes, Associate Academic Dean and Director of Graduate Studies discuss the course evaluations in more detail.

    Dr. Viscusi explains that there is a problem with percentage return rates associated with the evaluation forms. “A student naturally puts the [course evaluation] off. Nothing is more disheartening when you’re a professor and you want feedback. When you get a ten percent return rate, that makes it kind of hard…” states Dr. Viscusi. He explains that most students who take the time to complete the evaluation within the allotted time are those who are dissatisfied. This begs the question to ask if the remaining students who don’t complete the evaluations are satisfied. He says that isn’t exactly right either. To address this issue, Dr. Viscusi said a discussion was proposed among the division chairs.

    In combating this problem, he said the first stage of resolution was incorporating the evaluation forms online. “It would be great if we could put the evaluations online. That was the first step. Then we had professors saying, ‘Well that’s great, now I can run 20 kids into a computer lab and they can all do it.’” There was another issue with this. What if a classroom had more students than available computers? Dr. Viscusi emphasized how great it would be if a professor could tell students to take their phones out and complete the evaluation at the end of class.

    Dr. Barnes agrees with Dr. Viscusi’s idea. “Students use phones for just about everything. That’s just a very convenient thing to them. You’re not always at a computer, but you always have your phone,” she says. Dr. Barnes and Dr. Viscusi said that IT was contacted with this issue and the resolution is to make the course evaluations more mobile friendly. However, there is a distinction. Dr. Viscusi explains that the evaluations would be mobile friendly as opposed to an app. Having them more mobile friendly will mean students won’t have to be all over the place when trying to access the evaluations.

    Not only will the evaluations be student-friendly, but they will also be professor-friendly. Dr. Viscusi says, “If you have [students] captive in class and take five minutes, it’s done. You’ll have a truer response [and] a truer view of what students think of the class.” Dr. Viscusi wants this implemented by the end of the semester but doesn’t know for sure if it will be ready; however, he did confirm that it will be ready for the upcoming fall semester. 

    Dr. Barnes and Dr. Viscusi discussed some other benefits of having them more mobile friendly online by saying it will reduce the amount of paper the university would have to use for the evaluations. This could save money for the university and also help keep the university “greener.” 

    Overall, Dr. Barnes and Dr. Viscusi expressed how important it is to have a good percentage return rate for course evaluations to further assist professors in improvements for the courses they teach. Having a mobile friendly way to complete the evaluation form seems like a good solution and will be implemented in the near future.