Make the results available to the students.

I think that the evaluations should be more towards the class. Such as: having a different evaluation for each type of class, whether it be a management class or a science class instead of one general evaluation.

Chocolate?

I think an online evaluation would be easier and take up no class time.

The part where you circle numbers becomes very tedius and many times I really don't know what number to circle. Maybe concentrate more on comments and have other questions requiring an actual response rather than just circling numbers

Make it apparent in some way that the evaluations have any effect at all. It seems as though we fill them out and then they just disappear.

I think that teaching evaluations should be done half way through the semester - that way changes can be made before the class is complete. We take the time to fill out these surveys but the professors don't read them until the class is over - which doesn't help the current students out at all.

Decreasing the pressure when students are given a limited time to grade their teacher. Some teachers need a lot of advice, but they will never get it if students are rushed.

The evaluations should be made available, in some form, to students. We have no way of knowing the quality of teachers (and believe me I have had to awful ones) or courses except through other students.

Being online would make it much more efficient. If it were available to students, they could know what kind of teachers they would rather take or not take.

I think that students should be able to read what is written about teachers. Then professors will have motivation to improve their teaching.

Less generic questions should be included, for example questions tailored to specific classes or subjects. Students should be explicitly asked to comment on texts used, and other tools the professor utilized in the class; topics covered in the class that shouldn't have been, and those that should have been but weren't; the impact the size of the class had on the class dynamic, and whether this suited the subject material; and other similar questions.

I feel like it takes way to long for the evluations to be processed so that teachers never see them, putting them online, or doing them in a more effictent way would help.

Doing it online would give students more time to put their thoughts together.

I think the survey should ask things like: What did you find most interesting about this course? etc. And then provide these answers to the students at clark because when I'm trying to decide what courses to take the mini course summaries are to short - and often times not very accurate. I would enjoy being able to see what my peers think of a specific teacher or course.

If students were able to read them and know what professors are like before they have to be stuck with them for a whole semester.

professors could make changes based on them. that'd be nice.

I think that they should be give back to professors sooner, so they don't have time to forget about what the class was like. I also would really like to see evaluations available to everyone. I feel that teachers may modify their methods more or try harder if they knew that their peers, and students entering their classes were looking at them as well.

To be honest, I don't know.

Tailor the surveys to specific courses - if this is impossible, consider tailoring them to specific departments.

I think making the evaluations online and public would be a great help in improving the effectiveness. Having the surveys online would not take away from class time which is a major negative quality of the current system. Also having the results publically available may may the instructors and administrators more willing to listen since the results would now be shared with a larger audience.

We as students should know what the teachers feel about the responses to evaluations so students feel like their opinions really do matter and have an affect on the way that students are more apt to fill them out completly with more thought if they know that happens after they write them.

dont know

Maybe tell students at teh beginning of class to take the evalutation seriously. Just mainly express the significance of the evaluation.

Make evaluations public so students can read a professor's evaluation's before signing up for classes. Establish new contracts with tenured professors which state tenure can be revoked if a professor recieves consistantly negative reviews for 2 straight years.

Public availability of these documents so that students do not think that their effort spent filling out these forms is ignored. This will allow students to offer more detailed responses and make more informed decisions about course offerings. Professors will realize that negative reviews could affect future class enrollments and will do a better job of engaging students more. Administration will be better able to understand the types of courses that should be offered and who should be teaching those courses.

tell us how they are used and if/when teachers look at them

I think they are good, with the mix in ratings and in the paragraph form where you can write anything about the professor and the course.

If Professors were actually reprimanded when a lot of people complained about their teaching style etc.

By allowing other students to see comments, they would have a better way to evaluate what classes and professors they want to work with in the future

A professor's progress must be monitored by looking at every semester's evlautation forms. If a professor is receiving the same negative comments every semester, then the administration must take action.

I would like it if they were online. I usally feel rushed geting it done before the class starts.

Give more time for students to fill out the forms. I realize class is going to be held afterwards and the Professor is waiting for the evaluations to be completed, but if I feel rushed I am more likely to do a less complete job in evaluating everything.

I think it is fine.

I think the actualy form is fine-- it's what happens to it is what I don't know about. We never here anything about the results and I wish they were compiled so we could past evals in some way to help pick classes (Like rate my professor)

I think everyone's personal rating system is different. If the choices were more concrete, it might be a better evaluation.

Different departments should have different forms, because in my acting courses, half the time the questions dont really apply.

Put it online. Make the average of multiple choice responses available, but not the comments.

Im a transfer student, I haven't actually filled out a course evaluation sheet here. At my other school, it could be more effective if the teacher spoke about what comments they would take into consideration.

Making the statistics available is a really good idea from the perspective of a student, because people would be more inclined to believe they make a difference.

Nothing.

have more sections where students can comment. ex: all of the options plus an other box, where they can expand on reasoning

put it online. make the professors say exactly what they took into consideration from those evaluations so that students know they are taking them seriously.

They are fine, although I think that circling numbers doesn't accurately measure whether or not a professor is doing his/her job.

As far as I know, most professors do not really respond or alter thier techniques or behavior based on the evaluations. Those that do consider student opinion often take the initiative to understand beyond the standardized evaluations. I feel the administration does not really put pressure on tenured professors.

it's fine now. online would be just as good.

I think that putting them online would be more effective because students will have more time to fill out the evaluation and will not have to worry about what to write and if anyone will see what they wrote.

Once evaluations are filled out and turned in by students, we don't really have an idea of what happens to them. I don't know if my evaluation is looked at by the professor, or considered when restructuring the course for the future. I think more should be advertised as to what the evaluations are for, how they are used, and what what changes will come out of the feedback received. It would be nice to know the overall result of an evaluation, to see whether or not other students had similar comments to make.

I can't think of anything in particular.

Online evaluations would be great because then we can do them on our own time instead of class time.

put them online! i hate being surprised by these evaluations and then not being able to complete them as well as i could.

Perhaps actaully listen to them. I know of no one who was fired after overwelming negtive responses.

I think it is fine the way it is as long as it is been read carefully and taken seriously.

the professors need to show at least some change in their teaching style after evaluations. Its always this big time wasting farce every year when we know that neither professors nor admin really care about what we think. They just make us do the evaluations to make us feel like we're contributing something. The admin doesn't, and will never care, about student feedback.

They should absolutely be made available to Students, though I'm not sure other faculty need to see them.

make a little more time available; let students know a head of time when it will take place.

I don't really know

students dont care about evals adn they dont realize teh weight they hold for professors.

If students were made aware of what happens once we turn in our evaluations, there may be more of a response from the students. I think there should be a space for comments next to each question that asks for numerical values. Sometimes 1-5 is not enough choice to answer the question. There may be a particular reason why someone chooses what they do and I think there should be a space to say why.

open ended questions instead of multiple choice.

If students were made aware of the date when evaluations would be given, and the numerical section wasn't included because it is really ineffective and difficult to complete.

Less agree/disagree questions and more room for written comments. Not every professor and/or class can be characterised by filling in a bubble.

Open them up to the public.

Allow students to view results.

Show us that some change is brought about by the surveys instead of an incredible waste of 20 minutes of class.

i hate writing so if the comment section was online i think i would put more effort into it. and i wouldnt be so pressured for time

I think that it would be useful to know what is expected of professors and how they live up to the standards by comparing them with the evaluations. I think that these relations should be open for students to see.

Set up a website or publish a text that has assembled the information on the professors.

The ratings have little meaning, but the comments can be quite valuable, except the concerns voiced in them have not often been adressed in my experience. I base the previous statement on having the same professor in concurrent semesters and having the same dissapointments in both, for some professors this has been even more than 2 semesters, in fact spanning two years. It would be helpful to have the admistration and faculty discuss the evaluations and address the concerns voiced by students. I think that professors should have their say in the process as well, but that a meeting should be held between faculty and administration to adress concerns of the students. While many professors are excellent, I have had several (3 or 4 in 5-6 courses) who are absolutely ineffective, boring and unable to comunicate information. Having expressed those concerns and then having class with them again i experienced no change in teese tendency and in some cases a worsening of them. The highly problematic issue with this is the fact that most of these professors have taught classes that were required and often with only one section. This is a serious problem that has caused increased difficulty in later courses that built upon those ineffective but required courses.

comments after each question that is aplicable

Online access. More warning before evaluations are here.

For the adminstrator to take more time and more seriousness in our comments

I agree with the way it is done now.

If the evaluations were collected, submitted, and then printed in a overall survey report concerning students' feelings about certain professors. For example: 33% thought Professor X was effective in teaching while 40% disliked it, etc.

I think it's pretty effective as it is now.

I would eliminate the numerical ratings altogether, just have a written section, I can say a lot more about a professor than filling in a dot. Also, MAKE EVALUATIONS AVAILABLE TO STUDENTS AS WELL AS FACULTY.

Let students know what if any effect their comments have.

I feel that some of the questions on the front should be changed. For example, the question about help outside of class and about assignments often don't apply. Often I don't utilize my professors outside of class, and I feel that a "NA" rating implies the professors don't offer. Often times to in classes you only have 1 or 2 assignements per semester so I never really know how to rate that one.

Make sure the professors take into consideration what is written in the comments. Many of the professor who I evaluates haven't changed their style or course at all.

not sure

have them pre-printed with the class, instructor, etc -- gives us more time and motivation to complete the rest of the forms thoroughly

I am not sure what can be done to make the evaluations better. Maybe have more written questions instead of the "fill in the circle" questions because these seem less informative. Where as in the written questions students can state what they liked about the course, what could be improved, etc.

Having people's opinions fo everyone to see. This way they would know what other students thought about prof/class.

I think they're fine. THey give sections to write anything that we feel should be added.

If teachers took them more seriously I think students would, too. So perhaps implementing changes based on the majority of student responses. Of course there are going to be some students who are generally disgruntled, but if 90% of the class says you have too many assignments, you probably have too many assignments.

the evaluations seem to cover aspects that are important to the student. the potential gap that might occur is handled adequately by encouraging written comments. i have no experience in knowing the effectiveness of these evaluations. except once when a professor shared their experience with the class of a particular complaint on an evaluation (anonymous of course) and the professor seemed to take it to heart.

Give us more time. More open-ended questions.

Is the implication here that the evaluation is presently inadequate? Because I have no idea what happens to them after I hand them in, or how much stock professors set in them, or whether they change their teaching style -- seeing as I've already _taken_ the course at that point, I don't know how I'd know. That said, for written comments I really would prefer to just have a blank space, no prompt, because by the end of a semester I've usually got a pretty good idea of what I like or dislike about a professor, and it's almost _never_ covered by the questions on the form. (Which I of course can't remember at the moment -- something to make this _survey_ more effective might be to remind us what the evaluations actually look like, btw.)

New questions, drawn up by a student committee, should be added to the form. Most importantly, the evaluations should be made available to stduents and faculty (see below).

I love the online idea. I usually feel like I'm not given enough time to finish evals in class because I know the professor is sitting outside waiting, and usually they complain about how much class time they take up, etc. I think I would put a lot more effort into them if I could take my time and really think about it.

By including more options.

If they are not effective it is probably because the heads of the departments, or whoever has power that sees the evaluations, do not confront their teachers with any problems that may arise from the evaluations

I would first like to discuss Q 2-5 on this survey. I would have preffered to leave these questions blank, but the system made me put an answer in. I would have left them blank, because quite frankly I have no idea what the answer is. As I (and I would guess most students) rarely take many courses with the same professor, it's really hard for us to guage if there is any, some, or a lot of change. ------------------- With regards to teaching evaluations.... Having them online, and having them available to students (of course, the administration could feel free to have a minimum quality standard for posting) would give them a great deal more meaning. I feel somewhat sure that a teacher who has been teaching for 30 years isn't going to revamp his/her teaching style because of what I write on an evaluation form, but it might give students more insight as to the teaching style of said teacher.

I don't think we should make it online. It's not effective because no one will follow up; fewer people will respond.

I think students need to feel that their evaluations are being listened to. I sometimes feel like the evaluations are just a formality and are more or less ignored. I don't know how this could be accomplished, but I think it needs to be addressed.

Make the questions less broad

Some evidence that professors and administration actually read and consider evaulations.

The evaluations should be disclosed to the faculty and students after the semester grades have

been submitted. The administration should address faculty about the evaluations.

I think having them online will provide students with more time to think about their comments and will in effect provide a more accurate response to the course and instructor.

The numerical ratings need to be updated and address the professor's teaching style more directly. The evaluations are never addressed by the department or we never hear feedback back from the department. If there are issues and concerns students have about a class or a professor they should feel like the department is reaching out to them, not keeping this separation. I just feel like no one reads the evaluations and the department chairs don't address the problems to the professors.

It's fine now. Some teachers just need to follow them more.

Stress the importance of students taking them seriously, and proving that they are in fact taken into consideration. This extends beyond just the evaluations, it needs to be stressed in all of school life. Many students don't feel that the school cares so much about catering too thier needs, but rather looking as if they do for their parents. Why should they put much effort into these things if they don't feel like thier comments are valued in other areas of school life?

Surveys should be completed online, which can be done at your own convenience after you can think about your comments more. Results should be displayed to students who request it, either by logging in to web for students, etc.

have more questions that can apply to more professors. Many of the questions are irrelevant to some classes and do not give a full evaluation to the class.

I'm not really sure, perhaps add more open ended questions that address specific aspects of teaching.

More faculty concern about the evaluations.

I like the idea of the evaluations being online, it would be easier to fill them out without the whole class waiting for you to finish or trying to see who wrote what and how much they wrote about a certain professor.

If the teachers would pay more attention to the evaluations instead of meeting the requirement of passing them out and then continuing with their teachings.

ask more short answer questions that target different aspects of the teacher's abilities.

make them public to everyone, this would make them a truly valuable form of evaluation

It requires time and thought to make an accurate and helpful evaluation, which makes it impossible to do a great evaluation in the way we currently do it, (15 minutes in class with no advance warning). Online evaluations would allow people to put thought into it. Also, some guiding points about what to look for (given at the beginning of the semester) would help students think about whether the professor does a good job (this is not obvious, as the line between what the teacher does and what the student does to make the class worthwhile is blurry).

I think the administration/departement chairs should pay more attention to them. Other than that I think the current stystem is quite effective.

It can be put online. Then class time won't be wasted.

I think they're quite effective as is.

make the backside of the eveluation sheet right-side up, 4 years of it and it still confuses me to turn the page over and have it be upside-down

ALWAYS give evaluations at the beginning of class. When evaluations are given at the end, students put no thought in because this is a free ticket to get out of class early, just make a few marks, and you're done.

I think asking more specific questions on the comment section. i tend to ramble on because there is so much space. Or I don't write any comments when i just don't care all that much about the professor. I think if it was broken up differently it would be better. Also get rid of some of the questions at the beginning they are repetitive and often don't really add to the questions.

I think that the method right now is pretty effective

Make sure students know how much these evaluations are actually considered when evaluating professors for rehire.

There is always room for improvement. Maybe the evaluations could ask if the student actually likes the professor and ask if the student feels the professor treats all the students equally or how effective is the time used in class? (meaning does the professor always let you out early or always let you out fo class late?) Stuff like that. Also, I know that I want to say more about my professor in the comments section, but I cannot think of the words I want to use to describe him/her. So maybe I list of descriptive words could be provided and the student can circle or rank order 3 that best describe the professor. And one final thing, dont just ask if the questions on the front of the evaluation. Follow each numeric response with "why rate your professor the way you did?" or just leave space for students to write a comment on way the rated the professor that way. Like for the question "how helpful is the professor outside of class", I might give my professor a 1, but the administration would never know why I ranked him/her that way. Maybe I could write in the comment section "because he/she took 3 weeks to respond to my e-mail.)

I think its fine the way it is.

Less bubbles and more fill-in-the-blanks.

My evaluations for Professor Billie Turner's classes and Professor Larry Lewis's classes were identified by my writing, and both professors made comments about the information I stated in my evaluations. Because of this harassment, I will NEVER write out written comments again, in fear of being persecuted again by professors diagreeing with what I say about their class. Written evals is a Horrible system that Professors can get away with!

Allow students to access teachers' past evaluation forms and have the Deans and Faculty pay more attention to students responses.

First of all I don't even know what exactly happens to our course evaluations. I would like to be better informed as to who reads the course evaluations and what the effects are, if anyone has ever taken action after recieving good/bad course evaluations and what teachers thik of the evaluations: if they value them or not, or if they even ever read them. Teachers should read each and every one of their evaluations and make a plan to better understand their students and their needs.

Allow students to take more time to discuss professors.

this semester i filled one out online. i provided as much feedback as i would in class, maybe more bc i could type it, but i kept forgetting to fill it out and bc there was no set time to do it, i almost didnt turn it in. i think ppl will be less likly to fill out surveys if they are online unless they HAVE to (atleast open the link) or get MANY reminders

I think online evaluations would be better, and the two questions on the back can get a little broad, and there's a tendency to repeat oneself in the second question, taking the evaluation in class takes up way tooo much class time

Not sure.

i think the evaluation forms are fine and i always feel like i have enough to fill them out.

The system seems pretty good as it is.

I think it's an interesting idea to make the evaluations of the previous course offering available for students looking to take the course so that they can see what other students thought of the course before making a decision.

Wastes too much class time. I had a class being team taught by two professors, thats forty min. of filling these forms out. Thats half the class not learning and with the professors outside the room sitting on their hands.

Online would make it a lot easier to do.

Have specific open-ended questions to answer about professor and classes.

actually make professors change their teaching styles? i've blasted at least one professor and then had him the next semester and NOTHING changed!

Offer all of them on line. I find that when I am in class it is hard to get all of my thoughts down on paper at that point. If I do them on line, I am more able to put down my thoughts.

provide more time for responses, make the forms more personalized depending on the type of course.

providing something like ratemyprofessors.com that is available for everyone and taken more seriously

I believe putting the evaluations online would inspire more students to take the time to write something constructive to their professor, typing is so much easier than an old fashioned pencil, I believe this would be more effective than the ones you have now. Plus, people could take them when they have the time, whereas kids often miss the class day that evaluations occur and can never grade their professor.

I think more emphasis on the section two, where you write then the numerical bit

I think that if the evaluations were placed somewhere where they would be available for faculty and students to look at, this might put more pressure on the faculty to pay more attention to their weaknesses and thrive on their strengths.

Put it online, not have it done around other students.

conduct them online

I like it the way it is, to be entirely honest.

Taken more seriously and made available to students looking into taking courses with that (or other) particular professors.

more, and more specific written responses instead of multiple-choice.

Doing them online like this survey is a good idea.

I wish it wasn't so generic. Art classes are a bit different than sociology. Also, some of the numerical questions are unnecessary. You can make a series of short answer questions addressing those numerical questions instead.

If the professors or administration actually paid attention to the evaluations instead of throwing them all in a huge garbage pile at the end of the year. NONE of the professors who got FAIR criticism from their students have been known to change their teaching methods, and the administration continues to pay lip service to the student body while ignoring their comments entirely. What does that tell one of the effectiveness of teacher evaluations? If I had my way, I'd do away with this rubbish and not waste class time. If the admin wants to make themselves feel better by knowing they at least sent those forms out there, I'd prefer they do it on their own time.

Less questions about what the class has to do with your major, and mor eto do with how the professor does in class.

The system seems to be fairly effective as it is. Some professors I have had have implemented the suggestions made by the students while some have not. In my experience, the professors with the most enthusiasm for teaching seem to be the ones who are more likely to pay strong attention to the evaluations. My suggestion would be greater oversight by the administration, or the department chairs, that if students continually express similar concerns every semester about a professor or a particular class that the administration step in to correct the problem. I may be wrong but in my experience at Clark I have not seen the administration offer much if any oversight such as this.

Put them online. Find a way to make professors take feedback seriously.

More space for written comments on the multiple choice questions.

Letting course and professor evaluations be completed and reviewed online would allow students to be more thoughtful and go into more detail when evaluating professors and their classes. When I know that students can not see the comment that I write and that I am constrained by a limited amount of time, I do not put in the effort to write all that I think about a professor or his course. Incidentally, the fact that I must take great amounts of time and effort to push a pencil for work that benefits nobody, to my knowledge, only discourages me from writing.

I think there should be more choices to pick in the section where it asks the reason for taking the class, and that a student could fill in multiple answers for it. For example they could put down that it was required in their major, but that they also heard the professor was good.

Specialize it for each class

A listing of possible problems with a class/instructor that a student may choose if they'd like to, problems such as wordy assignments, unclear paper topics, slow grading, keeps students late, useless homeworks, etc.

To my consideration, evaluation for the existing professors/instructors should be provided in the first two-three weeks of each semester and they should be avaible to the professors right away so that they can change their methods and correct the dissatisfiction that the students would may have with him/her. Once the entire semester is towards the end, what is the benefit for thoes students who have have problems with their instructor throughout the semester?

Make evaluations available to students and factuly.

Have more than one opportunity to evaluate your instructor; have more options to evaluate in addition to in class such as online or submission.

The person who is handing out the tests should express how important it is to be honest and really take the evaluations seriously. They should be abel to be completed online cuz if you miss the class then you dont get to fill out an evaluation.

i think that instead of having the first page be a lot of questions where we rate the teachers performance by numbers, there should be a few more relevant questions (maybe questions that are relevant to the particular class or department) and the responses should be written, not a rating by numbers.

Not sure

Have the evaluations available online, but mandatory like the alcohol edu courses for first years.

If they were done outside of class, I would have more time to think about what I wanted to say, and take more time to write it down.

1.Ask if the student's opinion of the professor has changed throughout the course. 2. Ask if the teacher was approachable. 3. Ask if they were helpful. 4. Ask if they went to office hours of teacher. 5. Ask how the difficulty of this class compared to their other classes. 6. Would they take another class with the professor?

I like that evaluations are currently done in class. Because there is an alloted time for evaluation, I think that students put in more effort than if it was up to us to find our own time to evaluate online. The only way students would care enough to evaluate online would be if they knew that their comments were going to be available to the Clark community. Under the current system, we have no reason to believe that our comments are read and acted upon. Yes, we are told that they are, but I don't think we ever see any actual evidence that our suggestions have been incorporated into the curriculum or administrative decisions.

People will not feel obligated to do them if they are online. When a student enters class and the evaluations are being held they have to do it.

They would take up less class time. Students wouldn't feel guilted by having to see the professor immediately after writing a possibly negative review. Online evaluations might be more honest.

I think it would be much better online. The only draw back that I foresee would be participation, unless there is a requirement, I doubt as many students would fill them out.

people will not fill them out as much as if they are done in class

I'm sure many people wouldn't do it but then others might actually spend more time since it's not done during class and theres more of a sense of privacy

I think there will be less incentive to actually fill them out if we don't sit down and do them in class.

I think that if they were online, more students would complete the evaluations, and would also have practically unlimited time to fill them out. I find that I am rushed with the 20 minutes that are ususally alotted during class. A problem: Because students are not given time in class to fill the evaluations out, they may not complete them at all, considering the fact that they would have to make time in order to fill them out.

I for one would probably not complete the online evaluations. I would forget or just stop caring. As long as I am in class, I always fill out the forms. But if I had the choice between going out of my way in my spare time to fill out the forms or sleeping/eating/studying/wasting time, I am sure I would choose not to fill out the form. I am only filling out this form because I am putting of homework.

People might not fill them out as often, and they are very valuable so they need to be filled out.

Won't lose class time.

I think people will ignore the emails, like all the other mass emails, but if people really care about having their voice heard and having things change then they will take the time to fill out the survey online.

Students would have to find time to complete the evaluations, instead of having time given to them during class. This might cause students to "not get around to it." A benefit would be that class time would not be wasted by the evaluations, and students would not be rushed. Also, students would be more likely to write more extensive comments in an electronic form, as it is quicker and easier to do so. (Who writes on paper anymore?)

A benifit woudl be they woudl be easier to process, and veiw by the the professor and other adminstarors sooner, by browsing them. Also, students could see evautions before they sign up for classes. Maybe only the numerical vaules would be put for studetns to see.

I don't believe that as many people would fill them out if they have to be done on the student's time rather than class time.

Some people might not do it in their own time, whereas if it's during class, they can't really decline.

If the surveys where given online I honestly dont think I would take the time to fill them out. When you are presented with the survey in class, you are more compelled to take the time to think about the teacher and the class - and even in these cases many students are done in .5 seconds. So if Clark presented the evaluations online I dont feel that many students would take the time to fill them out never mind fill them out with thought.

The problem I see is that people won't fill them out unless they are forced to by some sort of punishment.

easy access but less effort put into them

My only concern is that people will not fill them out. However, the people that won't be filling them out might be the people who don't take them seriously in class as well. People who have something contsructive to say about a professor, whether good or bad, will make the effort to fill out online evaluations.

Like this survery, probably a lot of students would ignore the emails and not complete the evaulations. Most of the people like to fill out the evaulations in class because it takes up a decent amount of time. Some even try to write slow in order to delay class starting. I believe if it were conducted online, fewer students would full them out.

I feel more people would not do them, despite how people might respond in this survey. When people are presented with a survey in class, they really have no option other than filling out the survey.

There might be a problem with getting people to actually take them. While I myself would fill them out and find that having them onlineis a much better system, some might opt not to fill them out. (Having them in class ensures they will be filled out).

I think that some people will not do the evaluations because it will not be something that is done in class.

Students will probably ignore them and not fill them out.

more people will do the in class ones

It is not a good idea b/c the students are not in the classroom situation where they learn and may not remember things or really care as much when in their room on the computer.

One problem is response bias. The middle ranges of students who are indifferent to a professor will not comment, so that one will get only the highly negative and highly positive reviews. One solution is to require evaluations to be tied into the ability to register for classes so that a student who fails to complete evaluations will not have their holds released.

There is the potential for a lower level of involvement in online evaluations as students currently view evaluations as somewhat of a chore and often complete them because they have nothing better to do in the 20 minutes that have been alloted for evaluation. However, allowing students to evaluate their professors at any point during the semester instead of a specific 20 minute time slot would enable greater reflection and higher numbers of participation. Other online communities based on "open-source" ideals have proved beneficial to the community in aggregate. I think online evaluations would work similarly in that more students would participate once they saw the benefitted from reading the evaluations of others.

doesn't take from class time, feels more confidential

Even though students may not be thorough in their paper evaluation, it is in front of them and they will fill it out. But, online evaluations, depending on how it is put forth, students will choose not to do it because they feel it is not required as the paper evaluation is. I would still fill them out if the evaluations were online.

Link errors, hacking, virus issues etc.

They would be faster and cheaper to do, students wouldn't be in the class with the peers and the professor, its a different enviornment, which would change the way people take the evaluations, for better or worse

Many people may choose not to do it. But if they come to class, they have to fill out the evaluation form.

The only problem i can see would be glitches in the online system.

people just might not do it. they will delete the email sent out asking them to do it and not care. it makes more sense doing it physically in person because people have to do it. online it is their own perogative.

Fewer students will complete online evaluations. They will not take the time to do it because it is not mandatory. If evaluations were online, the professors would probably not get an accurate reading of how productive or unproductive their class is.

Very few people would actually fill them out.

I think a lot of people wouldn't do them. I would only if i felt very strongly (like or dislike) about a teacher.

I don't think that people would fill them out. Also, I don't think people would put as much effort into them if they were online. Many people would delete the e-mails about course evaluations or not take the time, by having them in class people are forced to do them and enjoy taking time from class to do them.

Not everyone would do them, unless they were made to be mandatory.

By doing evaluations online, there would not be as much time pressure. However, I am not sure too many people would bother. I would though. I think it's important to have my opinions heard.

I think it would work quite well, though its possible that some people would not do it. Since they are done in class now, the majority of students do the evaluations.

Can put more time and thought into evaluations. Problematic if you don't have easy access to a computer. No time put aside for filling it out.

I think less people would take evaluations online, it's easier to take time in class, when your in that subject mode.

I know I would be less inclined to use my own time for evaluations especially when I already feel no one really reads them or responds to the data generated.

If evaluations were to take place online, I don't think that I would have the time or the patience to sit down and properly evaluate a teacher.

No one will do them unless they are required to (to get their registration holds removed, for example, but at the point in the semester when evaluations are filled out, we have already registered).

A potential problem would be that many students would not take the time to fill them out. Benefits would be that you don't feel rushed and can take time to seriously consider the appropriate ratings.

fear of being anonymous

If you were to implement online evaluations I think people would feel less obligated to fill them out,so less students would take the time to fill them out. Having them in class is very convenient considering you have nothing better to do then fill them out and I'd say most people put a lot of effort into them. If they were online people who have homework or another million things to do would not take the time to complete the survey!

i don't see any problems. i think it is very beneficial and doesn't mess with the class times.

Not as many people would fill these things out online, because it is an extra effort. In class, most of the time students are there so they have no choice. Last year I had one class that did evaluations online, and I did not fill it out because it did not seem as important.

I feel most students would not volunteer their time on evaluations. I know I would probably not complete them without incentive or pressure to do so. Also, like any optional evaluation where respondents take the initiative, I think only people who were particularly disatisfied would make thier voices heard. It would scew overall results to negative and not really serve as an valid measure.

many people may not fill them out. there could be technical errors. however, you could fill out the evaluation on your own time, so it wouldn't be such that when you miss class you miss your chance at filling out an evaluation.

Benefits of online evaluations would be that they would be more confidential with less of a time constraint and students and faculty could see what the evaluations were. This would also make it better for students when choosing to take courses because they could see what other students have to say about the professors and classes. A potential problem would be that since it is no longer in class, there is nothing to make the students fill out the evaluations and a fewer number of evalutations on courses and professors will be filled out.

If students had to fill out evaluations online, it may be harder to get students to participate.

I don't see any potential problems. I think online evaluations will be a lot more convenient, and they won't cut into classtime.

It would be great to be able to do evaulations when we had time and not take up class time. Also

if you are absent during evaluations you miss out on doing them where as online ones you would be able to do them whenever you could.

if they were online we would have time to think about what to write. however, i wonder if everyone would fill them out. if this is the case, then assume that those who do not apparently have to problems with the classes.

you are lucky i am wasting time on this survey, there is no way i will do this for all my classes.

I think that an online evaluation would result in a decrease in number of evaluations submitted. THe only benefit could be the possibility of add extra comments that would not fit on a written form.

I worry that students, particularly new ones, will not complete them at all. Also, technological complications could arise.

I won't take it as seriously and I will put it off to the point of not actually doing it. Its a hassle to do it online for me.

I would have to use my own time to fill them out so I don't think I nor other people would spend as much time on them. If they were in class then there is nothing else to do but fill them out and I think it is better that way.

One of the problems with online evaluations is that you miss the connection of doing it with other people. Once, after I had just written a word to describe the professor, the person next to me asked me how to spell it, because they thought the same way I did.

I really don't think people would do them if they were online. At least within the class setting, students will do them beacuse everyone else is.

online evaluations are a bad idea. students already dont care about them and if they are online they will care about them less, fil them out while doing other things, not in the privacy fo the classroom, or not do them at all.

Benefits could include more flexibility in time to complete the evaluations and more privacy. A problem may be that students may forget to do it.

if evaluations are online i don't think people would be likely to do them.

Online evaluations might not be done by all students, and there are always problems with technology that might make evaluations more difficult. One benefit is that students could spend as much time as they would like to doing the evaluations.

I know I personally would not take the time and effort to fill out a form if I had the option to do it online... It would be too easy to put it off and to rush as well.

People would definitely delete them or not go through with them. Only people with axes to grind will fill them out.

Depending, I may not fill out the evaluation online. I would much rather prefer to do them in class.

It would be easier for students. We just rush through the surveys to leave class anyways. People would take them more seriuosly if they were done in private.

problems could be that people wont do them, they will just delete the email or forget to post. they would be beneficial because we can do it on our own time and not be pressured by everyone in the class and use up class time

With online evaluations, students can put more thought into the comments rather than being put on the spot in class.

Potential problems would be that many students may forget or just not want to fill them out so they won't do them. Online evaluations would take less time out of class that could be used learning.

Many people tend to overlook email surveys, where you in class you have to do it. I believe you will receive less responses than a typical class would.

I feel this was addressed by the agree/diagree section, with the exception that a handful of students may feel more confortable (less likely to be "found out" by the professor) and thus more likey to be honest.

most students probably wont do them

anonimity would be a concern, especially with the written comments, but one would have more time for thoughtful answers and less peer pressure by completing them online.

system failure. lose of information.

I feel many people will not take the time eto do the evaluations and therefore we will be missing many more evaluations

Taking time in class to complete the evaluations ensures that everyone will do it, and do it thoughtfully. It's harder to take time outside of class when other committments overshadow the evaluations. Anyone who does complete it will complete it hurriedly. Also, not everyone will have a voice in the evaluation since not everyone will take the time (or even remember) to complete it.

It is quicker and hopefully less time consuming, you do it on your own time as opposed to doing it in class. Most people type quicker than write. With the internet, I believe you could take your time with your comments. In class, they want to hurry you up if most people submitted their online evaluations.

Most people are less inclined to take part in it. During class, it's not really taking up their own time.

Benefits - more time, more thought. Problems - fewer students will fill them out, although currently, evaluation time is a good time to go get a snack and miss lectures, so its not that much of a difference. But I think it should be a choice whether you fill out evaluations.

I feel as if there is a small chance of the loss of anonimity, however I find it unreasonable that anyone would really try and trace back evals to see who wrote them. A benefit would be that it would be far more convenient, take up less class time, and significantly decrease the amount of tedious work for those who put together all the evaluations.

Many people might not complete them because they forget about them, or they don't fell they have to. On the positive side, they take up less class time, so we can learn more.

I think having them online would be good because it would allow students to complete them at their own pace, but i also think that if it wasn't handed to them in class, forcing them to complete it right then and there, many people would probably forget to do them, or just not care to take the time.

too many distractions, limitless time could be a problem, procrastination. i might write more though because it's easier for me to type than it is for you to read my writing...

The number of students who fill out the evaluation forms might decrease if they are online instead of during the class.

I usually won't put as much thought into online evals, because I am by myself.

Not everyone will do them as they do in class so the results will be bias. Students should be required to complete them.

Many students just delete emails, making them less likely to do the evaluations. With evaluations on line I would have the opportunity to spell check them, and not have to use pencil (which I hate).

basic paranoia that somehow my anonimity may be in jeopardy. and also see the next question.

Would give us more time to fill things out. But people might forget to do evaluations.

I would love to have online evaluations; I never have enough time to think about my answers in class. I can see, though, where getting people to fill them out at all could become more of a problem -- maybe leave the written comments part for online?

While online evaluations may allow students more time and allow absent students to complete them, there would be no opportunity for discussion amongst students while filling out the forms. Please take into account that people who do not complete this survey may be less likely to complete online teacher evaluations for the same reasons they chose not to complete this one.

Problems may be that students won't take the time do to the evals online, but I also think that those are the same students who don't put much effort into them when done in class. Students who really have a strong opinion of a professor will absolutely take the time to go online and fill out an eval.

The benefit is that students can do course evaluations with much thought and not face the problem of facing the teacher and evaluating the course at the same time.

Bad: People will probably not take the time to actually do them. And they no longer will provide a brief break from class. Good: Students may feel more comfortable with the online form because they know their handwriting cannot be detected by the teacher, although I'm not sure how much of a problem this actually was.

Problems: People might not do it as often. And, as online surveys would feel much more voluntary, only those with strong opinions of the teacher might write one. And in volunteer samples like these would be, the responses tend to be overwhelmingly negative. Pros: While fewer people might do it, I feel like those who did would give more thought out evaluations.

see above

Online evaluations are easier to handle and don't take time from classes, however, I don't think as many students would complete them if it was on their own time.

we can actually spend some time on the evaluations- so often i feel we have such a restricted amount of time and a lot of pressure to fill in the bubbles and move on to class time. online evaluations would allow us the time to focus and give the administration a clear idea of the teacher (since teachers aren't observed...)

people would not fill them out if they were online because they have other things to do... It think that having them in class is better for a reason that may not be so good but it is the truth; that is because students would write as much as possible to delay the class from starting and in turn students would probably write what they truly think about the class

Lower percentage of students taking the time to fill them out.

Maintaining confidentiality is a potential problem as well as forgetting to complete the evaluation if it was online.

One problem might be forgetting to do the evaluation.

I'm really worried that most people won't take the time to fill them out if they were online. It's good to make evaluations in class because you'll never get that many people to do them at home.

Fewer people would do course evaluations if they were to fill them out in their own time, unless it was absolutely compulsory with horrible ramifications if you don't. Benefits would be that people'd have more time to write an in-depth comments section.

Fewer students would do it, they are not in the environment in which they developed the opinions and comments they are being asked to recall, and those who do complete them are less likely to take extra time to make it thoughtful unless they are given it, like in class. Benefits would be saving time in class...

Have to make sure people can only submit the survey once and that they are actually currently registered for the professor they are evaluating.

I feel like you would have a much smaller amount of participation.

i feel that a lot of students wouldn't take the time to fill out the evaluations. when we do them in class, we are "forced" to do. we are provided the time to fill them out and we dont have to worry about using our free time to get it done.

Many students will probably not do the evaluations of they're left to do them at their own convenience from a computer.

I feel that having online evaluations would reduce the response rate drastically. Those who do respond would likely put less time into the evaluation than they would if it was in class, if for no other reason than the fact that the more thought they put into the evaluation, the less class they will have that day. I see little possibility that doing surveys online would provide any significant benefit, but I see many potential problems.

I bet many students would just ignore them, but not the ones who simply live on their computers. Hate to point this out, but the ones who live on their computers are probably the ones filling out this survey, too.

I don't think people would do it if they are not given the evaluations in their hands and given time to do it in a controlled setting in the classroom.

i like that it takes time out of my regular class. i don't think as many people would fill them out if they were all done online.

this would bring up serios questions about the annonomus status of the person filling out the evalaution. also, if not handed to students in class, fewer people may fill them out.

The biggest problem is that many people will not fill them out. The benefit, as stated above, is that it allows students to put thought into the evaluation.

I don't think students would fill them out as much

The people who care enough about the evaluations to do them will still fill them out online. Those who don't care, won't.

The biggest potential problem I see is that because you are not forced to do it, a lot of people won't complete the evaluations and even people who want to do it will forget to. Some people might spend more time and write more honestly, but I think many fewer people would actually complete them.

risk of someone filling it out for you risk of not doing them or not being thorough enough benefit of not having to write it by hand (my hands cramp if its a particularly, um, interesting class)

Some students may not do them at all, or if they had to, they would not spend as much time on them. Because nobody can even glance at the evaluation and see the amount of writing.

Having them in class is important. I wouldn't fill them out if they were on-line, unless they made it a requirement, but even then I wouldn't necessarily do a good job. I like having them in class.

ppl will not fill them out...its going out of their way and some will forget.

They will not be completed or will be completed will less thought and/or effort.

I feel that these evaluations are not taken seriously. When I converse with other students in my class I get a pretty good idea about how they evaluated the professor and it is usually similar to my evaluation. Although, I will take a class with the same professor the following semester and nothing would have changed. For example: If many students said a professor always goes over the alloted time for the class period and the next semester. I feel the evaluations need to be looked at more carefully and the suggestion on them need to be employed by professors.

i don't think I'd take the time to do it if I didn't feel that strongly about a teacher. I feel that evaluations in class are the best because I take them seriously, and they do not take away my personal time. I know that I wouldn't put the time in when I was in my dorm because I would feel it was taking away from my personal time.

Students would need incentive to complete them - perhaps before they can receive final grades they need to complete online evaluations, something like that to make sure all students complete them.

Providing a direct link to the evaluation forms would be extremely helpful. I could not find the exact place to do the evaluation forms when I tried the link for the experimental evaluation forms and therefore could not fill out the form.

I think a lot of people would be less inclined to fill out online evaluations. Many kids don't even fill them out in class, and if they were nto sitting there in front of them many people would not take the initiative to do it. Plus I don't think that many of the surveys out on line have a high percentage of people that fill them out.

A lot of people would not do them. The only reason many students do evaluations is because they are forced to.

i had to retype it 4 times and call ITS . it was anoying. there were no reminders or set times to do it so it wasnt on my priority list tho i thinks tudent feedback is important.

students might not care as much, when evaluations are given in class, the students have to take them, but if online, the students who really want to write evaluations would take good time to do so

People may not respond as thoroughly because when they are online, they are usually doing something already.

put them online

i did an online evaluation this semester, but i prefer the ones done in class. i overlooked the online form numerous times before i actually did it.

Taking class time to do it allows me to feel that I'm writing a thorough evaluation with effort. Not only is it time set aside specifically for the evaluation process, but also, being able to write the evaluation while in the room that the class is taken is more condusive to having a better general memory of what occurs in that class. If I were to evaluate online, I would probably end up losing the link in my e-mail or something like that. I wouldn't take the extra effort to do it unless I was particularly mad at that professor, say for a paper I was writing. Then, I wouldn't be thinking of the positive things that happened in class. I'd be thinking about the homework. I think by doing the evaluations online, you'd only get evaluations from people with very strong opinions or with a lot of free time on their hands.

People would probably be less likely to do them, though it might be less distracting for those who do.

Overall you will have less responses since everyone does them it class but not everyone will sign on. At the same time not everyone is always in class or on time, and the written responses generated online will be better written and more thought out. The best part about onine is IT DOES NOT WASTE CLASS TIME.

Less people might actually do them.

Time that I spend online doing surveys is annoying when I have a lot of work. Student will probably not bother to fill them out. Students may fill them out drunk, thus skewing the results.

easier, and does not take up class time

no one would complete them on their own time

I cannot foresee any problems. I would think that you would get a better reaction because people can put more thought into it

If evaluations were online I think many students (including myself) would not complete them. It is easier to fill them out in class because you are given the time to do them and you HAVE to do them. Making them online would make them optional so I think less students would complete them. However, making them available online would also give students who do complete them more time to fill them out and would allow students to go back to them if they need more time to think about their responses.

problems could be less likely to remain totally confidential, benfits are that it's more convenient, more time can be spend on them, and more thought would be put into them.

i think it would feel like it won't get read. sort of how i feel about writing this survey response now

People may not take the time to fill it out, so the administration might have to make it a requirement to get the students to actually take the time to do it.

wouldn't take away from class time. this classes aren't cheap and where i see that evaluations are important i hate having good class time wasted by evalutation. It is such a waste. Also i would feel less resitricted evaluating on-line because i would not be surronded by classmates and about to see the professeur i just evaluated.

Students might ignore to do evaluations. If it is in class, then we have to do it, no matter what.

Comments some students make on the online evaluations may be purposefully embarrassing towards the professor and, therefore, should not be read by the public because of malicious intent.

Some students may choose not to fill out the evaluations at all. other students might find it easier to do the evaluations on their own time and not feel rushed, as they do in class.

it's a hassle to remember to do it on line. When its handed out in class, its easy to do.

It could only be better.

people might not be as likely to do them, but then again their responses might not be worth aving anyway (if they're not willing to fill it out on their own then making them fill it out might result in useless responses)

I don't know how to use computers. I'm taking a course with a professor who is part of this new online evaluation trial. I can't find the evaluation. I've spent entirely too much time trying to find the evaluation in order to fill it out. So I stopped. I'm not evaluating that course, even though I would like to, because I can't find the evaluation.

nobody would do it online, at least you get the scantron part taken care of

While it seems beneficial because it's the same thing, maybe even more anonymous, I would have to oppose because I would find it more inconvenient and time-consuming to worry about it. Plus, the class is the best place because you're going to get more typical results. Such as in my Intro to Psych class, only about 1/4-1/3 of people actually show up that are supposed to. The evaluation was probably more inclusive and detailed then if it had been online, where less reliable information would have been derived (in my opinion).

fewer students will do them if they are optional/not imposed.

Less people might do them.

people might not do it because college students can be lazy and apathetic. Maybe you can make it so that they have to fill out the evaluation before accessing web for students? but then students might not take it seriously.

Online evalutations won't cut into valuable class review time.

I think that it would be much better because people wouldn't be afraid that a teacher would recognize their handwriting and so therefore would be more willing to be honest on the forms.

Students would likely give the same thought and quality of comments online. My only concern would be that the number of students who choose to fill them out would drop because they would be done in the student's spare time rather than in class.

People will not do them unless someone is watching over their shoulder. But these are the same people who will half-heartedly fill out the evaluations in class, so it doesn't really matter. Putting them online will leave more class time for actual teaching.

Not many students would take the time to do them unless they were required.

Online evaluations would drastically increase the quantity and quality of my comments about a professor and his course. There is no physical discomfort or time constraint associated with typing comments about a professor. Without time constraint or discrepancy based on penmanship, comment can be of greater quality, more detailed, and more useful to their readers.

I think the main problem would be that a lot of stundents wouldn't fill them out because there would be no real way to make them do this. Even though some students don't put very much thought into the in class evaluations, it is still better than no answer at all from the student.

no one would take them

it will enable students to put off filling them out. If they are put online no one will remember to do them or want to make the extra effort of doing them on their own. In class forces us to. In class is more efficient.

i think people would spend less time on the evaluations because they would be doing it on their own free time.

Kids would take them less seriously and be less diligent about filling them out because they have to complete them during their own leisure time.

I think, with the online evaluation method, students would not know what course(s) is this evaluation about? However, if there are separate evaluations for each course so that it is clear to the student as to what course they are asked to be evaluating, then the online format would be fine. Otherwise, right now I do not know what this is all about, I m just feeling out.

I do not believe evaluations will be filled out as often if they were online.

Online evaluations would have to be one additional option for students to evaluate their instructors. If it was the only way, I think far less people would respond.

The evaluations could be put off, I might be less able to find time to do them or not make it a priority. But I would feel less rushed and be more likely to write wat i really feel than what my friends around me are putting down.

a lot of people probably won't fill them out

I do not think that many students will complete online evaluations.

One benefit of online evaluations is that students would be free to spend as much time as possible writing comments and not feel the pressure of the rest of the class being done. Students may express their feelings more openly not worrying about the comments of the person sitting basically on top of you because the desks are so close.

i believe they will not be competed and not as much would be put into the evaluations if they were completed online

people may not do them if given that option

There are both pros and cons to the online evaluation. Even though it doesn't take away from class time I think that there would not be as many responses. Since the surveys are in class students have an alloted time to fill them out. However, outside the classroom students are busy and probably will not take the time to go as in depth as they might in class.

I would either not do them or postpone them, while spending less time and though on writting them.

I feel strongly that the comments made by students should be available to all Clark students. Currently, the only way to find out if a class is worth taking is by finding a student who has already taken it. This is more difficult for first year students. By allowing access to these records, better classes could be publicized and the less effective classes would drop in attendance. It would be a natural selection process. The strong classes survive, and the weak die out, making the university academic system a stronger whole.

It doesn't take class time away, and it is much easier to write more because an individual can type their comments instead of handwriting them.

Faculty might suffer from sore egos, but that might prompt those who receive criticism to adjust for the better.

Hmm I'll need to think on that. Essentially it would just be ratemyprofessor with more comments and ratings.

I think it would be beneficial to be able to see what my peers thought of professors so then I can see whether I want to take that class or not. I don't see any problems really, maybe people would be more afraid to write what they really think but overall I think it would be beneficial

We as students can get an idea of what other people thought of a course to help to decide whether or not we'd like to take it.

Benefit: You get to see what other students feel about a professor. This would help in course selection; taking a class with a highly respected and intelligent professor would be far more enjoyable and intellectually worth while, rather than taking a class with a professor who many students find, well, let's just say "not so great" Problem: Bad professors might be humilliates...but then again they shouldn't be teaching

One benefit could be that students could look up forms for specific teachers, and plan out their schedules for the upcomming semestester based on the opinions students have of their teachers. It follows that the bad teachers would of course have smaller classes. Definitely a benefit.

The benefits would be enormous. Students would not accidentally take a course with a bad professor. The registration in bad professors classes would drop, forcing them to improve their teaching or else be ashamed of their low registration. I know Clark doesn't want to make them available because some professors don't want it, and they want to attract good professors, but any professor who is scared to have students know how they teach is not worth saving. The evaluations should absolutely be public.

Students will not form their own impressions. Other teachers dont need to know what a class thinks of fellow teachers.

Professors may be overly defensive about the process but they shouldn't unless they have something to hide!

Faculty would be held more accountable to the comments given in evaluations if they were available to students and other faculty. Students would be more informed about classes and professors before they take them, creating a potentially more pleasant collegiate experience.

I am in a class right now that i woudl liek to tell every clark student to be ware of, and every clark adminstrator, i feel like having them avible sooner and to everyone would makeit so we could identify problems with professors sooner and solve them.

I don't believe that all of the comments should be made public as some comments may be offensive or not appropriate. A representative sample of comments might work slightly better. I also believe that making the evaluations available would be valuble to the students in making class selections and would put more pressure on faculty with negative evaluations to address issues. I do not know if any of my professors have taken their evaluations seriously because I don't know what other people have had to say and often never have that professor again after evaluating them.

Loss of privacy, identification and emphasis on "easy classes."

The only issue i could see with making the evaluations avalible to the rest of the clark community - would be if they were extremley negative and a teacher was giving a bad "reputation" due to them. Otherwise I think its important to know what others think of specific teachers and classes.

I can see that faculty might have a problem with this because some faculty know that students do not like them and may be afraid of having other students see such comments publicly

WOULD BE EXCELLENT. DO IT.

I don't see any problems with this, only benefits. I know it would help students choose classes better, and it may make professors want to try harder to improve their teaching if they know that everyone can see their comments.

This would influence students going in to classes with certain professors and taking certain courses. This can be a problem or a benefit. If I read the evaulation for a professor that was negative, I might avoid taking a course with that professor and in the end, I might have enjoyed that course. It also reflects poorly on the professor if they receive a bad evaulation. Even if they did deserve it, no one deserves to be publically insulted like that.

This is a policy I wish the university had adopted five years ago so I could have known something about my professors before I took courses with them. I hope that one day all evaluations could be made public, provided the evaluating student gives consent.

Students may take too much advantage of the availability of the results to the public and may use them as a way to vent any frustrations about instructors/classes rather than to constructively critique them in hopes of making them better.

Increased accountability maintaining/completing/fixing whatever issues discussed and for results and trends shown

The benefits would be that students would feel like their opinios matter to the faculty and they have some say in what is happening with their education. It would also be helpful because students would be able to better choose professors that fit the type of teaching methods they prefer based on what their peers reviews. It might also push professors that don't get good reviews to change their methods so that they wouldn't look so bad in the eyes of the Clark community.

dont know

it could hurt people's feelings, and really none of other people's business what other people think, could potentially censor what they say to avoid sounding mean

I think it's very important for Clark to become more transparent about how they maintain quality in professors. Students indirectly hire all the faculty at this school with their tuition fees and in return we expect that we will receive quality instruction. Sadly, even at a good school like Clark I find the whole experience to be a hit or miss situation. I've had horrible professors who I wish I had been able to avoid and I've often overheard people talking about an excellent professor and wished that I'd been able to see how they stack up. Students get grades that go on a transcript as a record of how we've done in school. They're given by our professors. We should be able to do the same to balance the power so that professors cannot abuse their postion to make unreasonable demands on students.

Professor might view this kind of open disclosure as a "threat" or challenge to their authority or job security. However, in reality, it will benefit the community as a whole. Professors that cannot adapt their teaching style to better involve Clark students based on evaluations, should not be teaching at Clark anyway. In my experience, students are truly outraged by the way certain courses are taught and nothing is done based on their responses. Also, students make an effort to be balanced in their evaluations and only react very negatively to a course when their is an extreme problem.

people would pick classes based on teaching styles that work best for them. problems could be that teachers will change based on evaluations but will loose out on students who do not give them this chance by not taking a class based on an evaluation

I think there would be problems in making them available to students and other faculty members. I personally wouldn't want more people to see an evaluation of me other than myself and the administration or whatever they have right now. But, it can help students in deciding to take classes so they know the method of teaching that the professor uses. Right now, looking for courses for next semester, I am trying to find professors' sites to check the structure of the class but they are usually not available. So, the evaluations would help me in this way.

Privacy issues, mortification of students and/or faculty.

the bennifits would be students would know what other students think about professors and classes. the problems would be amongst the professors. they might be mad if they have negative comments posted for all to see, also some professors might resent or be angry at their peers for overly positive or negative comments. I know i have said some really harsh things in my evaluations, all true to what i feel, but i can be mean

Faculty may not like that comments about them are being made public.

I think that the best feature of these coments is that they are between you and the factly member/addmintration. I think other students will have a negtive influance on the system. Making the evalutions more like rate your prof. dot com.

people are sometimes better off when they don't know all the bads going on. although, if you are like me you want to know everything and get mad when things about the school you attend are kept secret or are simply unaccessible. the benefits are also that if people know exactly what is going on they are more likely to make the change to fix and/or make better, or simply be happy to know what people are saying about professors and classes in general.

It may benefit students to see what others wrote about a professor they are thinking of taking a class with. Students go on ratemyprofessor.com anyway, so why not make it more available.

I don't really see the problem with that- everyone should know the truth about how a teacher is doing.

It would help students gague their future professors, but it may also hurt the enorllement of certain classes.

Certain issues about the teacher and their weaknesses could be addressed by a higher member of faculty and could be discussed as to how the teacher should go about changing their approach.

If multiple students give innacurate surveys, a professor may have unfair results. If these unfair results were available to students and faculty, it may sway their choices to enroll in a class or collaborate with the professor. However, there are benefits when the surveys contain accurate results, as students and faculty will be better informed.

Some people just take out anger over bad grades in their comments i think, and I don't really think the students have any need to see what others have written.

We will have a better sense of what to expect for each professor.

People would be less willing to speak their minds

Students are prone to bias, and it might cause a great deal of tension.

Making the evaluations available to Clark students would be a great benefit. It would enable one to see how others liked the course, how well the instructor was able to present the material, how difficult the course was, ect. All of these factors, I consider to be very important when I sign up for courses. If the opinions of other students were readily available it would make course selection much easier.

Students will only take classes that are deemed "easy."

I don't think that they should be as indepth for faculty. Unless something illegal or innapropriate is unway, the faculty have no business in how other faculty members run their classes.

...

i don't see any problems.

Students would not respond as well or honestly if they know that other people will read their resonses, regardless of whether or not it is anonymous.

I think it would be a more credible resource for student opinion than ratemyprofessor.com. Still, sometimes persuasive opinion or bias might influence other students when the professor is in fact effective. And of course the benefit is gives Prof. Bamberg plenty of ammo for his analysis. ;)

students may not want to share their personal opinions. it may change the way students feel about their instructors and other students. however it would be nice to see what other people think, but it's not important, it would just be nice.

A benefit of making the evaluations available to students and faculty is that students can see what other students think about courses and professors. For the faculty, a bennefit would be that they could see what students have to say about them and their classes and could change things accordingly. A potential problem with this, however, is that students and faculty could take these evaluations to heart too much and classes could not be picked that should have and courses may change for the bad, due to a couple of students that may have had a bad experience.

Poor feedback could damage a faculty member's reputation, as some people exaggerate responses.

Making the evaluations available to Clark students and staff can only be beneficial. It can give students an idea of what the professors are like and it can give the faculty ideas of how to refrine their teaching techniques.

It would be nice to know what other students thought of a professor before taking their class. It could be a problem if students aren't honest in their evaluations because it would be hard to tell whether the professor is a good teacher or not.

i've taken classes that i've hated, had i been warned, i certainly would not have taken them.

there would have to be some sort of cencorship. Some people are mean and cynical without any reason. I would hate to read such repsonses twords a profesor that were simply stupid and unthoughtout criticisms.

Although I would like to be able to read what others have written about faculty members as it provides beneficial information on choosing a course, I still believe that it would cross a fine line of confidentiality. This provides opportunities for identification of the authors of the evaluations which defeats the purpose of an anynomous evaluation altogether.

If the faculty doesn't get wind of their teaching deficiencies (after all, the university IS supposed to be catering to students, not the other way round), then NOTHING will change. Reading this, admin? You have done NOTHING to change deficiencies in teaching here at Clark. Please get on the ball.

As said above, I don't think other factuly, outside of a professor's superiors is entirely necessary, but the students have every right to understand a professor's performance record.

Negative information may be a fuel for gossip. Also It would make me question how honest people would be if they knew that other people besides the ones directly affected will be viewing it.

Answers could be to blunt or discrimiate or offer to much information that maybe shouldn't be released for public knowledge. If they were somewhat censored, not completely though because that would take away from the purpose of evaluations in the first place.

I think it would help students be better informed when choosing classes, but it's hard to go by the opinions of others on such a personal issue. Maybe students will take the task more seriously if they know other students might benefit from it, but some students may view it as an opportunity to bash professors. Either way, at least students would have the opportunity to judge the evaluations for themselves.

Who would decide on which ones to make available? That could be an issue. Although, I think it is a right we have as students to see reviews of professors before we take a class with them. Sometimes it's not about good or bad, but different characteristics that are compatible with some students or not. I think if students knew that their comments would be open for viewing and maybe the cause of another students decisions, they would be more thoughtful and careful with what they are writing. Overall, I think its a good idea to make them available.

clark students and faculty should know how classes and professors are evaluated.

I think that one positive aspect of evaluations is that they are confidential, and allowing students to read evaluations would comprimise that. I think it would also influence the courses that students take in a negative way.

Privacy- a student's evaluation is their own personal thoughts and should not be allowed to be discussed by other students UNLESS the questionare was completed online and therefore handwriting would not be able to be identified.

Students would be less willing to write what they truly feel, for in some classes it would be easier to figure out who wrote what response based on the specifics of the comment.

If having a better faculty is a potential problem, then shucks, I don't want to fill anything out.

Students can then decide on which professors appear to be best.

Benefit would be that students could get an idea of how former students felt about teachers before taking their classes.

i believe that they would be beneficial so that students and faculty can see what should and shouldnt be done and whether the professor is what a potential student is looking for.

Making comments available to the Clark community is an incentive for professors to improve on their teaching and also allows students to take courses with professors who teach more to their learning style.

I think this would be beneficial because other students would be able to see how others felt about the same class. When choosing classes students could read about the teaching style and the class to make sure it would be a good match. If inappropriate remarks were made in an evaluation it could be humiliating and mean towards the professor.

You would have to be selective with the written comments and assemble an average of the multiple choice. Also, this may make the faculty feel threatened.

I think that availability of evaluations can make for a more qauntified and informed process of course selection. This would apply to advisors and students alike. An instructor cnam ake or break a course and iti s important to know ones track record, certain;ly faculty discuss students whp are entering their courses, shouldn't students have a reliable resource (rather thna rumors and horror stories) to do hte same.

benefits because you will be able to decide on what courses to take based on other students evaluation of them and on what professors they will try to get or avoid based on the same evaluations.

It would be fantastic to read what other students think about a class/professor as far as possibly signing up for it in the future, but a potential problem could be if students took the evaluations too seriously and avoided a class because of it. Nevertheless, it would be great to have them available.

i think the evaluations are private and need to be seen by facutly members but not students. however it would be helpful if a general evaluation and description of instructors was available when helping to choose courses. this could be made from student evaluations and compiled by a committee of students.

It would be nice to have input of faculty as well, that says a lot

I assume this pertains to making evaluations public. I think this would be a bad idea; students will write what they think other people want to hear, rather than their honest opinions. They may also be afraid of insulting an instructor or "getting on his bad side" for future courses. The privacy of evaluations encourages honesty.

Like stated above, students wuld know in advance how a faculty members teaching style is, and students could make wiser decisions on who they would want for a professor based on their teacher style: class participation, quizzes, or mostly tests and little or no class discussion, etc. Also, if the faculty actually read it, then I believe they should be open to improving their teacher style, although I feel that is unlikely to happen.

I dont see any problems with evaluations being available to students, particularly in intro/survey courses when there are several instructors teaching the same course, students can compare ratings.

Quite honestly, I don't understand why evals are not available to students. We are paying a lot of money to go here, and I think it is really unfair there is no university sponosored way to find out about how classes are from students that actually took the classes. For example, I've taken several classes that I wish I had known much more about the professors, because I felt that I wasted a semester with that professor.

Faculty might not appreciate having others see what is said about them. It might also put more pressure on them to change so they don't continue to get bad reviews.

it might deter students from taking courses with specific professors, however, that is not any different than hearing through word of mouth which professors to not take classes with, so I'm not sure how much of a difference it would make.

i wouldnt want them sent to students because that's not the point. the point is for professors to better themselves or commend themselves on a job well done... there are other methods available to us to ratemyprofessor.com so that we can get a sense of how others have liked a particular teacher or class.

The benefits of making these evaluations available to Clark students is that students who are looking to take the same course or a different course by the same professor can read these evaluations and get an idea of how the professor runs things, what the class was like, etc. Then the student will have a better idea if a certain class they are looking at is what they actually want to take before the registration period or before attending the class on the first day.

I can't think of any.

We will have a better idea about if we will connect with the teaching style of the professor or not, instead of finding that out when already in the class when it's too late and people get a poor grade or have to drop it.

Students may not be as likely to take a course if the evaluations are made public. Secondarily on that matter, teachers may take suggestions more seriously if students stop signing up for their courses. It could also give the administration a wake up call. Some professors are very good researchers, but cannot express a lucid idea in front of a class to save their lives.

the nature of student evaluations is soooooo subjective that i imagine it is hard enough for those (whoever they may be) who currently are privy to them to analyze the data. i liken it to online 'reviews' or 'recommendations' of/for doctors that are available. these are self-selected respondents, and i doubt that greater good could come of releasing this information to the larger Clark community. in other words i trust that clark's administration is monitoring their faculty quality as best suits the university's goals.

Evaluations should definitely be made visible to all students and faculty. I think students would pick professors based on these ratings. A professor who knows that his/her class enrollment would be affected by evaluations would probably be more likely to work on improving any weaknesses or changing class structure. We are paying tons of money to go to Clark, it's only fair that we know what kind of professors we are getting BEFORE we sign up for the class.

They already are, after a fashion. I usually spend some quality time with the Clark LiveJournal community and ratemyprofessors.com before choosing my classes. I think that whatever problems there might be with making the official evaluations public, are there already, and the more data students have to look at, the better.

While administrators frequently cite concerns in releasing evaluations to students, there are ways to work around this. For example, in order to make only certain parts public, each question should be labeled so as to indicate whether the response will be public. There should be a committee of students to decide (perhaps alongside the Dean and Provost) which sections will be made public and give good reasons for their decisions. The staff assigned to transcribe the evaluations must be impartial and responsible to ensure that nothing is censored. This process must be evaluated each year.

If students aren't honest about a professor on an eval and another student reads it they may be swayed one way or the other. On the other hand it is a good opportunity to hear what students think about a certain professor or a certain class.

The benefit is that everyone will get to know the ideas of the students and the problems they face in their certain class.

Students who are unfairly biased against a teacher may write comments that are unfair and simply not true. This probably happens sometimes now, but it may increase if students know their comments will be seen by other students. Also, the comments may unfairly call the teacher on something and bring it to public eye.

Benefits: Students would have access to somethin more official then ratemyprofessor.com or other such surveys. Potential Cons: Who is a good/bad teacher might really translate into "who "gave" me a good/bad" grade

I think this would allow for more dialogue on these issues. People would commuicate more openly and students and faculty can sit down and critique or hear critique well in order to better the classroom environment.

I think students have the right to know what other students think about certain professors and courses and that this could be useful in making our selections of classes in the future. Some problems might be that students are not always fair to their professors and have personal agendas with them, so the information would not be as reliable.

we can better assess the teacher's learning style and the compatibility of the teacher with our own style...

there are no problems .. with showing evaluations to faculty or students... The benifits would be that the students could better choose the classes that suit them and the faculty could see the way that students prefer to learn thus helping the productivity of the class

If students are aware that their evaluations will be seen by students and faculty, they may not write their honest opinions.

I think that students would be more encouraged to take courses knowing that the professor has a high recommendation. Making the evaluations public would encourage faculty members to be more available for students therefore increasing student morale.

It will benefit students by allowing them to know something about professors before they take a course, but it might also be a problem if someone does not take a course because of the opinion of other students that may in fact differ from how they would have rated the professor.

I believe no one will respond to online surveys. THis issue should be dropped and other more prudent ones should be taken up instead.

Professors probably won't like it since the evaluations can often be a time for negative venting, although I think that if people understood the new system of public evaluations they would be careful to be correct in their evaluation. I think students should have a system of knowing their peer's review. I think this would be a good way to the University to address any problems if professors are consistently not getting good feedback from students. This would increase the transparency in the university and create a more responsive community on all levels.

I don't want my semester grades made public to everyone, so I don't think teachers should have to go through that either, in addition to RateMyProfessors.com. Just... just make the professors actually follow them.

Students might be extra harsh or say something just to humiliate the teacher rather then help to improve their teaching stragies after a poor semester. It might result in the creation of preconceptions of the teacher by students planning on taking a course under them, that are not conducive to productive or positive participation in the course. On the otherhand, the professor is often a deciding factor in the benefits and enjoyment of a course and it could be of assistance in choosing professors who best matchup with ones needs or personality, and thus the students overall saticfaction with the school. Other teachers might benefit from having access to thier fellow professors evaluations in order to exchange tips and stratgies.

I think they should be made available to Clark students and faculty. It's a great way for the professors to learn what their students think about their teaching. For students, it will allow them to decide if they want to take a class with that professor. However, the evaluations have to be concerned with privacy.

I think that it would be a great idea. I think it would cause students to think more carefully about what they are going to say and cause the faculty to respond.

i think that this is great idea. when chosing a class we can look at ratemyprofessor.com along with the course evaluations. this can help students make a decision if they are not sure whethere or not they want to take a particular class. BUT some problems i can see if that if a professor/class gets really bad ratings, this will deter other students from taking the class. but, having seen the comments made by students, the professor may have changed some things about there class, but students reading the evaltuatsion will now know this. therefore, they won't take the class becasue of what other students said, but in fact, the course my be completely different by the time these students are debating whether or not to take it.

Not to many people would do them if they're online. They wouldn't want to take their own time to do it. In class, students have nothing else to do, so they fill out the evaluations.

Not all evaluations are going to be fair; there could be an instance where a student really dislikes a particular professor and gives them a horrible evaluation based on personal bias. Also, if there's a professor who continues to get bad reviews no one is going to want to take classes with them.

I worry that making the evaluations available to a larger audience, particularly the student body, would make people more reluctant to respond and to respond truthfully. I know I would be wary of having two thousand people have access to my answers, regardless of whether they are anonymous or not. However, I am unsure if most people would feel that way.

Although it would put more pressure on the faculty to change in some way, the evaluations may also be embarrassing--the teacher may be a good at their job, but the students may just not like them.

they might have an easier time getting to them. it might be harder for people in other places to read them, such as the deans etc.

i see many more sthrengths than weakness in making this information public. like any research completeed, if the results are kept secret the usefulness of the information is greatly reduced. i think students respect difficult professors and would give fair evaluations. professors who do not treat their students fairly or well could have some problmes but making professors more accountable for their actions will in the end benifit the entire community.

Making the evaluations available puts more pressure on the professors to win the students approval, which may cause some professors to improve their lectures, but also adds (perhaps unnecesarry) stress to their jobs, which seems unfair if a lot of students do not fairly evaluate the professors.

If a professor is strongly criticized some students might respect him less or take him less seriously in class. If the evaluations are not made available to all the professor can use the positive critisism to change accordingly without any direct negative repercussions on his image.

Faculty members will have a better understanding of how their lessons are perceived by their students.

While this has many potential problems as far as people being upset personally, it would be good for students to have something to refer to when choosing classes, instead of taking the opinions of the few people they know.

i think it'd be okay to release stuff like how ratemyprofessor.com does, just comments about which teachers and classes are good and which are bad from a students POV... but not the whole evaluation, just selections from it, kinda like an ebay seller's rating system (positive/neutral/negative feedback, you get like 50 letters to put a comment in about it).

This could be very harmful to faculty if students write harsh criticism whether or not they are justified.

I think people would change the things that they wrote because they had a larger audience. i think evaluation should primarily be for the administrators and for the professor. At the same time it would be nice to know what other students thought of professors.

Students will most definitely pick classes based on the evaluations and this is not a good experience. Classes should not be picked completely based on the professor. Students need to learn how to deal with bad professors and not just avoid them because in the real world you can't pick who you'll have to deal with in your job.

I think it would be a good idea to have the evaluations availible for students and faculty online. In addition, I think students should required to look at the results (beforeing registering on WFS)or just encouraged to look at the results of the evaluations. That way the future evaluations could ask: "Have you read the results of the evaluation for this professor last semester?" and then "Do you feel the professor has improved on the areas students evaluated him/her poorly on last semester". This would give the administration (and the students) a better idea of the professors attempt to improve from the year before. This would also let the students know that there opinion counts and can actually make changes. Consequently, students will take the evaluations more seriously since they can be sure that they can make a difference.

I think it would be great if students knew what to expect from a class before they took it. class discriptions are so limited and you never know how much work to expect or how good the class really will be. i know i use rating websites all the time, but i think this would be a better sampling.

Students will know exactly what they're signing up for when they take a class, faculty will receive less emails asking about the specifics of the course and administrators can look at evaluations without having to bothering Jeff and Greg.

I think it would be an excellent idea for students to be able to view past evaluation forms. I think it would encourage teachers to read and consider past evaluations more critically and make for a better learning/ class picking expreience overall.

A real benefit is that students could choos professors based on their rankings. However, many students do not accurately fill out these evaluations causing problems.

the idea of course evaluations avialabke to students is an interesting one and persoanly i would love reading evaulatiosn to help me get a sense of the prof, BUT students may not be as likly to write honestly if they knew students were reading them so i think they would not be as effective for the profs. therefore, perhasp studnets could say if they wanted theirs realised to the studnet body (tho then results availible to students might be skewed) so maybe there should be an optional orm attached that goes to students w modified info and that is optional. just an idea i def think that they shouldnt be relased to students w in the current system

if the 1-5 scale method is kept, te scale should be broadened, more numbers, really

Benefit - people will be alerted (prior to taking a class) if a professor is good or bad Problem - people who are unfair in their evaluations will be holding sway over unknowing people.

thats a good idea

evaluations should be taken seriously so i find that making it available to clark students and faculty is beneficial for future students taking the course and for faculty to know weaknesses/strengths.

It would be nice to see evaluations of professors before attending classes so we'd know what to expect, but I'd imagine that knowing that the reviews would be made public would change the tone of the evaluations.

I don't see any problems, really.

If it was public two things would happen: Students would have a great new tool in learning about classes and professors, and professors would have to take the comments much more seriously if they are posted publically. I can see why some professors would have a problem with this.

I don't see any.

Students may avoid taking certain classes that they might otherwise enjoy, may have a bad attidtude about a class from the start.

students do not always write the truth in their evaluations. they make them personal. this should be private. but if made available, it would be a lot easier to choose your profs. in the meantime, just use rateyourprofessors.com

teachers will know that their evaluations are public and will make a better effort to correct any flaws

I think it is really important to make the evaluations available to students because through my experience at Clark I have found that the best courses I've taken have completely depended on the professor. A great professor can make a terrible class wonderful while a course that is theoretically great (interesting subject, good books, etc.) can be a terrible experience if a bad professor teaches it. My best classes have been with professors that other friends recommended

to me because of the professor's reputation.

it could be hurtfull to the reputation of faculty members.

obviously it could be hurtful, but i think that as long as students know it will be made public, they will be sensitive to it and just write in a fair way what they think of the given class/professor

It might affect the way people think about a professor before they even have them and the evaluations may not be accurate. It might slander a professor in this way.

i think they should be keep to the administration and professor to which they aply, it really isn't anyone elses business. Students looking to get information on a professor or class should talk to someone who took it or check out rate my proffessor.com

Benefits: I think that if the evaluations were placed somewhere where they would be available for faculty and students to look at, this might put more pressure on the faculty to pay more attention to their weaknesses and thrive on their strengths. Problems: Comments some students make on the online evaluations may be purposefully embarrassing towards the professor and, therefore, should not be read by the public because of malicious intent.

making evaluations available would allow students to read other students opinions on a class or professor that they are considering taking. This might make professors more concerned with what

students think of them and their class.

Students may post dishonest evaluations or random things as a joke that everyone will see. Essentially you're giving them a forum.

knowing that the entire student body will know how bad a teacher you are will provide incentive to be a better professor. there is a potential for slander though

I don't see any problems or benefits with making evaluations available to Clark students and faculty.

I think the evaluations would be a better consensus than ratemyprofessor.com and other websites, because only extremely opinionated people end up evaluating teachers there. I don't really find it necessary to make results available to faculty, however.

students may be afraid to be honest about criticism, even anonymously

These evaluations are sometimes deceiving and not at all informative. it would be a mistake to make them available for all to look.

a professor might loose his or her freedom to teach in his or her style and become a slave who aim to please. That is my nightmare.

As long as they're anonymous, it would be good for faculty to see how the students view them and change accordingly.

While as I said above having it be online is better because teachers wont be able to recognize the handwriting of the students, i think that it defeats the purpose of an anonymous survey.

I think that it would promote greater transparency. If students and faculty were allowed to see the results of the evaluations it may give greater impetus to professors to implement student suggestions. On the other hand, it may also keep students from offering honest evaluations if they are embarrassed or shy about what they have to say.

Students should be aware of the good and bad of professors with whom they may take a class. There are other sources of that information, but the evaluations are up-to-date and (hopefully) genuine. Faculty should be made aware so that professors who get bad reports all the time can be dealt with. I don't think it makes sense to make it an issue of privacy... If they're afraid of what others will think upon reading the evaluations, they must have something to hide/need to improve.

More transparency, it'd be good, but potentially embarrasing for faculty if there were negative comments.

Online evaluations would drastically increase the quantity and quality of my comments about a professor and his course. Knowing that students would be able to read and benefit from these comments would only encourage me to write. Since the quality of a class is so closely associated with the quality of the professor teaching that class, online evaluations would benefit the Clark community. I am a strong believer in online evaluations of professors and their classes because a four year student only takes 32 courses. An online evaluation allows students to take the best courses with the best professors, thus maximizing the limited college experience. This is why I use the website, ratemyprofessors.com, to evaluate all of my professors and to check classes before I enroll in them. However, online ratings could be much more common if the University institutionalized online evaluations, bringing accountability to professors and enhancing the college experience for students. Unfortunately, up to this point, it has seemed that the University’s administration has been a powerful opponent of such an improvement.

It would be helpful to see some of the written comments made about professors, so students could get an idea about what a professor's teaching style is before deciding to register for a particular course. This would be especially helpful for new students who do not know the different professors within a certain department yet.

people would know who not to take

It should remain private and confidential otherwise it will disuade students from filling them out if they know others will see them.

Students can sometimes become personal and harsh in their evaluationsperhaps attacking a professor unfairly. Ratemyprofessor.com is all this school needs to make available.

I think, evaluations are beneficial to both studens and faculty. They give the students a sense of "having thier say" about their instructors, as well as the instructors would largely benefit from them in improving their teaching skills. In terms of when to make them available to both parties, it is better to be done in the first month of the semester and to be available to the instructors right away. I do not think, this would raise any tension(?). Sometimes, instructors mention that they "would not get to see them until after the finals", what is the point for the students who have dealt with the existing issues with that instructor during the course? It would be great if some thoughts are given to this.

I do not see any problems here.

I think university evaluations should be private. If Clark students/faculty wanted their evaluations to be made public, there are other forums to do so such as ratemyprofessors.com.

as long as they are anonymous, i dont see the problem really, but if a teacher is bad, a lot more people will probably not takes their classes, but it would be a lot more of an incentive for the teacher to fix their problems. Also, i dont want their feelings to be hurt.

Evaluations should only be made known to the committee and faculty member which the evaluation concerns. Knowing that other students willbe reading the reviews encourages students to either censor their comments or possibly become nastier as 'revenge' for a poor grade. If any information should be made available, I would recommend just the numerical averages, not the written comments.

As a student it would interest me to see what other students had to say about the professors, for future reference and perspective. However, it seems like it's a little invasive too, so it would be important for the faculty to feel ok with it.

I think that this would be beneficial cause it might give students a better understanding if they should or shouldn't take a class with a professor.

Allows for improvements or necessary changes to be made, or at least considered by the professor, which could lead to possible improvement