On-Line Feedback of Faculty: Many Faculty Express Concerns
Your local Union representatives heard many faculty concerns regarding the new on-line student feedback on faculty performance tool and as a result, we circulated a survey monkey to learn more.
The response rate was overwhelming! 136 faculty completed the survey and 93 faculty took the time to offer comments. Thank-you to everyone who did the survey as the very high response rate indicates a genuine concern regarding this issue, and it also indicates that there is a great deal of validity to our surveymonkey results.
The following will summarize the survey results:
Question 1: Do you have concerns about the new on-line student feedback survey that was used for the first time this semester?”
Yes 59.56%
No 18.38%
Not Sure 22.06%
Question 2: If you are aware of the student completion rate, please estimate below, approximately.”
0-20% 30.17%
21-40% 40.52%
41-60% 18.1%
61-80% 8.62%
81-100% 2.59%
Clearly, this is concerning, that over 70% of faculty estimated that the student completion rate was below 40%.
Question 3: Comment summary was mainly captured by the following categories with examples:
- Happy with the process
- 7 comments
- e. “I teach in a lab so it was easy for me to give the students class time to complete the survey. I think this is much more efficient than distributing paper surveys to the students.”
- Too much work for the students
- 20 comments
- e. “…students I’ve talked to said they couldn’t take the time to do the survey…the old way was the best way.”
- Survey structure was problematic
- 22 comments
- faculty were concerned about the accuracy of the on-line survey (i.e.: peer pressure, poor response rate)
- e. “the ability to ‘evaluate my teaching’ without ever, actually, attending a single class.”
- Concerns regarding administration and how to encourage student participation
- 20 comments
- e. “Lack of administrative support and communication around use”
- Faculty who felt that angry/upset students would dominate the responses
- 13 comments
- Students were given a long period of time to do the survey
- e. “This type of survey allows students to blame the prof for their failures and to have their friends join in and bash a prof. There is no control on the environment to where and when the survey is done.”
As a result of this survey and the outstanding response rate from so many engaged faculty, your union representatives will be able to discuss our concerns with management regarding the on-line tool and ensure that it is not in any way detrimental to our membership!