Carleton’s recent switch to online teaching evaluations has caused a decrease in student responses, according to contract instructor Craig McFarlane.
McFarlane, who teaches first year seminars at Carleton, said he usually receives a response rate of at least 80 per cent every year.
However, with online teaching evaluations he said only 25 per cent of his students responded.
“This is significant because for contract instructors, being allowed to keep our jobs depends on getting teaching evaluations that are over 4.0. If you only have five students filling out an evaluation and one tanks you, it is easy to go below that level,” he said.
Bruce Winer, assistant vice-president of the Office of Institutional Research and Planning, said the online system has many advantages that make it better than the “pen and paper” system of the past.
He said the system is more environmentally friendly, time efficient, and more confidential for students.
All universities expect and experience a slight drop soon after the switch to online teaching evaluations, Winer said.
“We have been very happy with the response rate that we have experienced to date with the online system,” he said.
Winer said the response rate for the online system in the winter 2013 semester was 48 per cent. The normal response rate in winter is 52 per cent, he said.
This differs significantly from McFarlane’s experience, and from those that he said he has heard from colleagues.
The highest response he said he has heard from a colleague is “barely fifty per cent.”
Furthermore, he said this drop was not experienced by all faculty equally, because only contract instructors were forced into the online system.
“Permanent faculty had the option of using online or pen-and-paper evaluations. Most faculty opted for pen-and-paper,” McFarlane said.
The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario recently released a report stating that although online response are lower, they remain an option because of the money and personnel time saved.
“The main saving is, of course, to the environment where we’ve saved reams and reams of paper,” Winer said.
