Spring 2013Announcement: After consultation with the BLAIS Committe and Department Chairs, we delayed our move to the course evaluation system in New CourseWorks until next semester. We continue to use the same course evaluation system (from Old CourseWorks) this semester as we have been using. Since the evals will be process by the course eval system in Old CourseWorks, you may see it designated in course site menus as [Old CW Eval]. ============================================================ Dates: Spring 2013Wed Feb 27 - Tue Mar 12 Fri April 12 Monday, April 15 - Friday, April 19 Tue, Apr 24 Tue Apr 30 - Thu May 9 Mon May 6 Tue May 28 (Afternoon) Fri, May 31
OverviewAt the end of each term, Barnard students are asked to evaluate their courses. Student feedback is used in two ways: i) The faculty incorporate student feedback as they continuously revise and enhance their courses. ii) Data from these surveys are key elements in how the College evaluates teaching during the reappointment, tenure and promotion processes. Course evaluations are administered via CourseWorks Do students have to submit the evaluation forms? Students are requested to submit all assigned evaluation forms for all courses. To encourage participation, Barnard students (except for graduating seniors) who don't submit all the evaluation forms for a Barnard course (whether filled in completely, partially, or not at all) will be blocked from viewing the grade in that course in eBear for three weeks. Confidentiality In the CourseWorks system, the identity of respondents is confidential; responses are not linked to the student who submitted them. As an additional step, instructors cannot view any responses at all until after their course grades have been submitted. The CourseWorks system allows instructors to send an email to "nonrespondents" to encourage participation, but they cannot identify which particular students have or have not completed the evaluation. Non-Registered students Non-registered students will not have access to the evaluations and are not included in the calculation of the response rate. If more than one CourseWorks site exists for a course, students will only be able to access the evaluation in the section in which they are officially registered. Evaluation forms A standard evaluation form will be applied to most Barnard courses, but instructors or departments may add up to 10 supplemental questions of their own. There are distinct forms for Lectures/Seminars and for Labs. If Teaching Assistants are also being evaluated, then a second form is applied to the course for evaluating Teaching Assistants. Variants of each form are created and applied depending on how many instructors or TAs are being evaluated for a given course. Here are the standard forms:
Can responses be changed? Until now, an evaluation could not be changed once submitted This may change in Spring 2013. If you believe that you submitted a form that you filled out incorrectly, please contact courseworks@barnard.edu. What do Instructors, Dept Chairs & Program Directors, and Department Assistants & Administrators need to do to ensure that course evaluations are carried out properly?
Evaluations of Graduate-level courses All graduate-level courses are evaluated by Columbia Arts & Sciences. Their procedures are described here. You need to contact the Columbia Chair or Dept Admin to receive the reports.
How-to Guides
Instructors can add up to ten (10) questions to the evaluation form for each of their courses. The added questions will appear at the bottom of the standard evaluation form. (You should find out whether or not your department has any applicable guidelines before adding questions.) Adding questions is optional, and if you don't wish to add questions, then no action by you is required. All questions submitted by instructors will be added to the course evaluation, without editing for content, syntax or punctuation, so review carefully before submitting. If you need to change or delete a question after you submit it, send an email to courseworks@barnard.edu. However, once the forms have been assigned to the course in the final form, changes are no longer possible; (that date comes well before the evaluation window -- see list of dates above for the current semester.) Tip: If you want to use the same response scale for your questions as is used in the standard evaluation questions, use the scale titled: 5 pt - Number scale- 5 point (Number scale- 5 point-Low-High) Another scale has a very similar name, so be careful to select the right scale. Instructions: Adding optional additional questions (pdf)
Students receive automated email messages from CourseWorks related to the evaluation process; they get one when the evaluation period starts and periodic messages reminding them of evaluations they have not yet submitted. However, direct encouragement from instructors is much more effective in improving response rate. Students are more likely to pay attention to a message from their instructor than one sent from courseworks@barnard.edu. During the evaluation period, instructors can use CourseWorks to send an email message to those who have not yet submitted the evaluation form(s) for the course. (Note that Instructors do not see the names or email addresses of the nonrespondents.) Instructions: Emailing nonrespondents during evaluation window (pdf)
The course evaluation reports will not be released to the Instructor or Department until all grades for that course have been submitted to the Registrar. Once the grades are submitted, the reports will usually be released within 3 business days. To view reports:
To print reports
To save reports
Delegated Access to course sites for Department Chairs, Program Directors, and Department Administrators & Assistants
Questions & CommentsContact courseworks@barnard.edu or the Provost's Office with questions and comments about Barnard course evaluations. Student may also check with the instructor, department chair, or department assistants/administrators. Columbia undergraduate and graduate courses are also evaluated via CourseWorks, but using different forms and independent policies & procedures. Contact courseworks@columbia.edu for questions and comments about Columbia course evaluations. |
