Course Evaluations

Overview

Queens College routinely conducts course evaluations, using a questionnaire that was designed by the Teaching Excellence and Evaluation Committee of the Academic Senate. Data from these evaluations serve a number of important functions:

  • They can be used by instructors to assess the impact of their teaching and course materials on their students. The prose comments provided by students are particularly helpful in this respect.
  • They can be used by students to make decisions about what course to take in an upcoming semester.
  • They can be part of the supporting materials put together by faculty for purposes of reappointment, tenure, and promotion.

The CUNY Manual of General Policy indicates that “the Board of Trustees affirms its commitment to the consideration of student evaluations in faculty personnel decisions involving reappointment, promotion and tenure, according to the provisions in the governance plan in effect at each college” (Article V, Policy 5.01, 3 “Student Involvement”).

Evaluation Period

Evaluations are open for the last four weeks of the semester. Announcements are sent electronically to both students and faculty. To provide feedback on their courses and their instructors, students login at: http://www.qc.cuny.edu/evaluate

Encouraging Participation

Response rates will be higher if faculty actively encourage students to participate, by citing the reasons this procedure is in place. To encourage participation:

  • Point out that the information students provide via these evaluations will help future students considering taking your class make informed decisions. Students can browse data for at Teaching Evaluations Data
  • Describe the value of students’ written comments, and discuss whether evaluations by students in earlier semesters have helped to improve your own courses.
  • Talk with your students about the role that course and faculty evaluations play in reappointment, tenure, and promotion decisions.

If your students have technical questions:

  • The login page is http://www.qc.cuny.edu/evaluate. This link redirects to the CoursEval website which will prompt for login using QC user ID and password.
  • Technical questions should be reported to the ITS Help Desk (support@qc.cuny.edu).
  • Some frequently asked questions about teaching evaluations from the student perspective are compiled on our Student FAQs page.
Where do the completed responses go?

Scalar Response Questions. Summary data for previous semesters’ completed evaluations can be viewed at  Queens College Course Evaluation Data Dashboards.

Written Response Questions. Prose comments can only be viewed by the faculty who taught those courses:

To log in to either of these, use your use your Queens College ID and password.

If you are putting together materials for reappointment, tenure, or promotion

Faculty candidates for tenure or promotion complete a CV which includes a table listing teaching evaluations data for the past four semesters. We have made the data available in a format that we hope facilitates populating that table in the CV: Teaching Evaluations Data

Read more about teaching evaluations

How to read student evaluations, October 30, 2011, The Chronicle of Higher Education

  • This article offers good advise on how to interpret comments and quantitative data from evaluations.

From the Archives: on evaluations, November 14, 2011, ProfHacker blog, The Chronicle of Higher Education

  • This blog post includes links to previous posts in ProfHacker which discuss mid-semester self-evaluations, when and how to administer final evaluations, and how to benefit from student responses.

    Student ratings of teaching: the research revisited, September 1995, William E. Cashin, Idea Paper No. 32, Center for Faculty Evaluation & Development, Kansas State University

    • If you are looking for a summary of research on student evaluations of teaching, this paper surveys a broad set of studies and summarizes the main general findings. The paper offers some useful conclusions:  first, student ratings can be stable, valid, and relatively free of bias, but they are data requiring interpretation (like any other kind of data); second, student ratings are only one source of information about teaching and must be used in combination with other sources of evidence about teaching effectiveness.

    If you have any questions:

    The Committee on Teaching Excellence and Evaluation (chair: Sara Wolf) and The Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, & Leadership (CETLL) (Evaluate@qc.cuny.edu) are available for teaching and learning queries related to course/faculty evaluations.

    Please direct technical questions (ie: how do I login, how do I complete evaluations, when will professors see results) to the ITS Support desk Support@qc.cuny.edu