Pain in the Assessment? Teaching Evaluations and the Tenure Track
Location
LaSells Stewart Center
Event Website
http://uenr.forestry.oregonstate.edu/
Start Date
3-14-2008 12:00 PM
End Date
3-14-2008 12:09 PM
Description
Teaching assessment can be a pain; but it can also be an opportunity. This poster describes my experience with course evaluations and teaching assessment. Many colleges and universities require course evaluations, which are often used to assess teaching in the promotion and tenure process. The evaluations at my institution include ten questions, scored on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most positive response. I am a tenure-track instructor, with an eighty percent teaching allocation. I teach two required courses for our general education curriculum. Enrollment averages ninety students per course per semester. Thus, when I am up for promotion and tenure review, teaching evaluations are an important component of my documentation. My evaluations have ranged from 3.7 to 4.0 over the past few years. While some administrators and colleagues view these numbers as outstanding given the context, not all take the context into consideration. Evaluation numbers for other faculty, other required courses, or other departments are not made available for comparison. Because my scores have been considered average or even low by some, and because my promotion and tenure are dependent in part on the criterion of “student reaction to teaching,” I developed a supplemental course assessment instrument. This survey was designed to address the college instrument questions with low scores. I also included questions that addressed various course components and the context of the course as required for general education. The surveys supply valuable information. Not only do they provide additional clarification of scores on the college evaluations, but they also furnish information about student assessment of course lectures, readings, and assignments. The ongoing course assessment can then demonstrate commitment to teaching and to self-assessment.
Pain in the Assessment? Teaching Evaluations and the Tenure Track
LaSells Stewart Center
Teaching assessment can be a pain; but it can also be an opportunity. This poster describes my experience with course evaluations and teaching assessment. Many colleges and universities require course evaluations, which are often used to assess teaching in the promotion and tenure process. The evaluations at my institution include ten questions, scored on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most positive response. I am a tenure-track instructor, with an eighty percent teaching allocation. I teach two required courses for our general education curriculum. Enrollment averages ninety students per course per semester. Thus, when I am up for promotion and tenure review, teaching evaluations are an important component of my documentation. My evaluations have ranged from 3.7 to 4.0 over the past few years. While some administrators and colleagues view these numbers as outstanding given the context, not all take the context into consideration. Evaluation numbers for other faculty, other required courses, or other departments are not made available for comparison. Because my scores have been considered average or even low by some, and because my promotion and tenure are dependent in part on the criterion of “student reaction to teaching,” I developed a supplemental course assessment instrument. This survey was designed to address the college instrument questions with low scores. I also included questions that addressed various course components and the context of the course as required for general education. The surveys supply valuable information. Not only do they provide additional clarification of scores on the college evaluations, but they also furnish information about student assessment of course lectures, readings, and assignments. The ongoing course assessment can then demonstrate commitment to teaching and to self-assessment.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cuenr/7thBiennial/Posters/7
Comments
Poster presentation for 7th Biennial Conference on University Education in Natural Resources, March 13-15, 2008, Corvallis, Oregon. Featured in the ScholarsArchive@OSU in Oregon State University. Suggested Citation: Vonhof, Sarah. 2008. Pain in the assessment? Teaching evaluations and the tenure track. UENR 7th Biennial Conference, ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University. http://hdl.handle.net/1957/8117.