Faculty Evaluations

I have been talking about faculty evaluations at my institution, and I thought I would share my thoughts through this blog post.  Faculty undergo a number of evaluations, and each type of evaluation is conducted by different audiences and for different purposes.

Course Evaluations

Course evaluations are mid-semester or end-of-semester surveys students complete to provide feedback on the course and the instructor.  These questionnaires are essentially like customer satisfaction surveys that businesses ask their customers to complete.  Since students are not experts in teaching, some writers criticize course evaluations because they cannot provide an expert assessment of the teaching.  Nevertheless, many academics understand that course evaluations measure student “satisfaction with the course” or “perception of teaching” rather than providing an objective, expert assessment of the course or the instructor, and they nevertheless value the voice of the student.

With the general understanding that course evaluations measure “satisfaction” and “perception,” many instructors find useful comments about the course, the subject matter, and their teaching strategies from this student feedback.  Course evaluations often include free-response questions that ask students to explain what helped them learn, what they found difficult, what they enjoyed, and what could be changed.  All of these comments can help instructors better understand the student experience and make changes to the course and to their teaching in order to promote student learning.  This type of feedback is called formative feedback; the comments help the instructor improve.

Course Evaluations are questionnaires or surveys conducted at mid-semester or at the end of the semester, and they represent the voice of the student.  Often, course evaluations measure “student satisfaction” or “student perception,” and they don’t represent an expert, objective assessment of teaching.  Nevertheless, this student feedback can help instructors better understand the student learning experience, and they can use these comments to modify course content and their approaches to teaching.

The course evaluation also has questions where students are asked to rate the course and the quality of teaching.  These questions are often used as indicators for measuring the quality of instruction, and numerical scores from these questions are often included in yearly evaluations, tenure/promotion applications, and other considerations for employment, promotion, and awards.

Teaching Observations

A teaching observation is when an administrator or another instructor visits a classroom to observe how the instructor teaches the class.  The observer takes notes during the class session, completes a form or questionnaire or writes a report about strengths and weaknesses, and then provides feedback and recommendations either in person, in writing, or both.  Since the observer has an expert understanding of the subject matter and teaching strategies, the teaching observation represents an expert assessment of teaching, and the report usually carries a lot of weight in considerations for continued employment, promotion, and awards.

A teaching observation (whether in a classroom or in an online course) is an expert assessment of teaching ability by an administrator or by a peer.  The observation can be used for decisions about continued employment and promotion, or it could be used only as formative feedback to encourage improvement.

There are four types of teaching observations:

• Classroom Observation by an Administrator.  A department chair, lead professor, or academic dean observes how the instructor teaches in the classroom, and he or she provides an evaluation that can affect the instructor’s employment and opportunity for promotion.
• Classroom Observation by a Peer.  Another instructor, who is not a supervisor, observes how the instructor teaches and provides suggestions for improvement.  The peer observer provides only formative feedback that can be used for improvement; the observation is not used to evaluate employee performance in the way an administrator’s observation does.  However, the peer’s observation can be used to generate a letter of recommendation for teaching awards and promotion.  Additionally, the peer observer may be from another discipline, a mentor, or a teaching expert from the Center for Teaching & Learning.
• Evaluation of Online Teaching by an Administrator.  A classroom observation may not be possible or useful for instructors who primarily teach online.  In these cases, the administrator’s observation can consist in a review of how well the instructor teaches online.  The administrator would assess a number of factors in the online course, including organization of content, quality of learning materials, alignment of course content and assignments with course objectives, timely and meaningful feedback and engagement with students, instructor “presence,” and effective use of online tools such as announcements and the gradebook.  For these evaluations, administrators often use questionnaires, surveys, or evaluation rubrics, and the results can be used as determining factors for continued employment, promotion, and awards.
• Evaluation of Online Teaching by a Peer.  As with the classroom observation, another instructor, instructional designer, or quality assurance person can review quality of instruction in online courses.  This reviewer would use the same evaluation questionnaire, survey, or rubric as the administrator, but feedback would be used only for formative purposes and for awards and recommendations.

Yearly Performance Evaluation or Professional Development Plan

Some academic institutions have yearly “performance evaluations” or “development plans” like the ones in business and healthcare industries.  In these cases, administrators fill out a form or write a report, and they may also assign a score.  Often, administrators use course evaluation scores, teaching observations, and other factors such as committee work and number of publications to inform what they write on the form.  These documents are discussed with the instructor, they are used in decisions about continued employment and promotion and salary increases, and they become part of the employee’s record.  Often, instructors are also encouraged to write a response or a development plan in each section of the document.

At some institutions, it is the instructor, not the administrator, who writes the report.  The instructor writes a self-evaluation for every section, and then the administrator adds commentary to agree or disagree or support action plans or make recommendations.  At the end of the process, the instructor and the supervisor come to an agreement about the quality of instruction, and the document becomes part of the instructor’s file.

Tenure/Promotion Portfolio Application

Academic institutions also have a team-based performance evaluation process that requires a faculty member to collect documents and data about teaching, scholarship, and service over several years.  The material is collected in a paper or online portfolio, and it includes a CV or resume, a list of publications (and links to full-text articles for online portfolios), a list of courses taught, a list of committee work and other service projects, a statement of teaching, self-reflections or self-evaluations that describe improvements over the years, examples of teaching materials such as syllabi and assignments, letters of recommendation from peers and administrators, classroom observations, and scores or student feedback from course evaluations.

The portfolio is used as evidence of merit for a tenure application or for a promotion from Assistant Professor to Associate and from Associate Professor to a Full Professor.  The portfolio is assessed against a set of standards and expectations that are required to achieve tenure and a promotion in faculty rank.  The portfolio is evaluated by a faculty committee on tenure and promotion and by university administrators, including department chairs, deans, vice presidents, the president, and the board of trustees.

Often, the application for tenure and promotion requires five or more years of experience with teaching, scholarship, and service from one level to the next, and there are often major requirements which must be met (such as publishing a book in an academic press or receiving a major grant).  The application process also often includes mid-point reviews after year one and year three to determine if instructors are on track towards the next promotion.  If they are not, the instructor may be dismissed even before he or she can apply for tenure, or he or she may be put on a performance improvement plan to improve the quality of instruction, scholarship, or service.

Feedback – Post Your Comment Below

There are many ways college professors and teaching in general is evaluated.  And, throughout the U.S., there is currently a lot of discussion at a national and popular level outside of the university on how teaching should be evaluated (on what counts as excellent teaching) and on whether academic institutions should be providing tenure and promotions.

What processes for evaluating teaching and faculty does your institution have?  What do you think about the value of student-conducted course evaluations and peer/administrator-conducted class observations?  What do you think about the tenure debate?  Who should determine what is effective teaching – should academic institutions create their own performance indicators, or are outside groups such as employers, community stakeholder, students, and parents able to establish their own criteria for what constitutes effective teaching?

Lirim Neziroski, Ph.D., MBA is an academic leader and an assessment and technology expert at a liberal arts university in the Chicago area. Contact Lirim directly for additional resources and speaking, consulting, and writing opportunities.