A new evaluation system called Class Climate is being purchased at Mississippi State University to help modernize the teacher evaluation process and possibly allow student viewing of these evaluations.
The idea for allowing students to view teacher evaluations was part of Student Association President Jon David Cole’s 2005 campaign platform on academic reform. A committee was created to help with the reform and is now working on ways to change the teacher evaluations, SA director of academic affairs Mandy Wallace said.
“This is something I’m passionate about, and I would really like to see something changed,” she said.
However, when the viewing of teacher evaluations was included in Academic Operating Policy 13.15 the faculty senate disagreed with the line and passed a revision of AOP 13.15 that did not include the viewing of the evaluations, associate provost Jerry Gilbert said.
One of the first things the committee is doing to help modernize the whole process is the purchase of Class Climate, “but the system probably won’t go into use until next fall,” Robert Holland Faculty Senate President Mark Goodman said.
The old evaluation forms and process need to be replaced because the current system is based on forms that have been ordered and used for about 12 years. The questions on these forms cannot be changed and are often unclear or lack validity, he said.
The Class Client system will help with the problems caused by the questions on the current forms by providing evaluations that are individualized toward the different delivery methods and classes. It will do this by providing standard questions, as well as allowing the faculty to customize other questions, Gilbert said.
“I’m hoping as faculty gets used to the new questions and as students feel more involved in the process, they may be able to create some kind of agreement on posting the questions online,” Goodman said.
Another reason the teacher evaluation should be improved and made available to students is because MSUteachers.com is now the only way for students to get information about their teachers, Wallace said. This site is often unreli able and biased, whereas a better system will help gain more honest student opinions, she said.
This new system will give faculty members the option to post evaluation results on a Web page that could be administered through the Office of Institutional Research, Gilbert said.
“I personally think that one way we can make some progress toward the students’ desire to see these evaluations is to create optional posting by the faculty members,” he said.
In order to make the posting of evaluations mandatory, there would have to be consent from the faculty. Then it would go through the standard approval process in order to make it a systematic policy. But if the posting of the evaluations was optional, there would be no need in changing the current policy, Gilbert said.
“One thing seems clear: it is extremely doubtful that we can go to all online surveys without the cooperation of most of the students. And the only way to get that cooperation would be to post these results online, in my opinion,” Goodman said.