As university students, we’re constantly being evaluated. We receive marks on essays, labs, tests, exams and sometimes even attendance. Receiving a grade for any form of work is so ingrained in the Queen’s culture that students are often reluctant or unmotivated to complete assignments that are not “worth” anything. If students are so preoccupied with receiving marks for the work that they do, why is it then that we’re not marking our teachers on their work? Less than 65 per cent of students participate in the University Survey of Student Assessment of Teaching (USAT). If we so badly want to receive marks and work towards better scores and being better students, it’s most likely that our professors feel the same way.
USATs are an evaluation process undertaken every academic term in which students have the opportunity to evaluate their teachers on their performance, as well as their courses. The process, as described by the University Registrar, involves “four university-wide evaluation items, up to seven department-chosen items, and up to ten instructor-chosen items.” With anywhere from ten to twenty-one individual assessment criteria points, students have a valuable opportunity to comment on what they’ve learned, how effective their teachers are, and give their professors a grade.
There is a quiet assumption among students that the USATs collected are not used for any significant purpose. This is in part due to the short time span of fifteen minutes that students have to fill out USAT forms, but it also touches upon the fact that USATs are done in the final weeks of a course. For students enrolled in a course that ends that semester, it’s difficult to ascertain how filling out a USAT can benefit them. In fact, a USAT study has demonstrated that the later the date of the evaluation during the term, the higher the chance that the USAT forms will not be returned to the administration.
USATs are used in a number of ways that are quite valuable to students. The primary purpose of the USAT is a performance evaluation governed by the collective agreement between Queen’s Faculty and the University Administration. USATs are used to measure an individual’s progress as an employee. Scores are factored into tenure, promotion metrics and are used as a tool for self-improvement. Is it a surprise that the most popular professor-selected question to be placed on a USAT form is “The instructor was enthusiastic in presenting course material?” The majority of teachers at Queen’s are passionate about what they do, and want to improve themselves as teachers, as well as the learning experience they offer. They value the feedback students give them as much, if not more than Queen’s students value their own academic feedback.
Not only are USATs valuable to professors, but they can help students as well. In addition to providing points for self-improvement and teaching development, USATs have the potential to be used as a course selection tool, helping students select courses with interesting course material taught by engaging professors. The Alma Mater Society has the ability to publish USAT results, and will be launching a new service website this winter that incorporates USAT results into a wider course companion resource. This resource will allow students to determine if a course is right for them based on course content, and USAT driven student feedback. Therefore, the more students participate in the USAT process, the more informed they will be when selecting courses.
Low student participation rates are not the only problem with the USAT process. Many students use the evaluation as an anonymous opportunity to attack their professors and teaching assistants, abusing the USAT process to express frustrations with the course, their teacher and their averages. However, this is not the only abuse present in the current system. Year to year there are concerns that racist comments, sexual innuendos and inappropriate comments inundate the USAT forms and severely hinder the evaluative benefits of the process. Obviously, this is not the point of the USAT process. Nor, do I think, do students understand the full ramifications of abusing USATs in this manner. Such comments diminish the performance benefits of evaluation processes and discredit the value of student assessments of teaching in general. This can cause problems with faculty members and internal performance evaluations, but most of all it hurts students’ ability to give their professors informative and substantive feedback.
Students at Queen’s are concerned about the quality of their education. Students who see increasing class sizes, less course variety and decreasing support services may become disheartened with university processes. But apathy is worse than complacency and purposefully disregarding the purpose of the evaluation is worse than not filling one not. Students are not commonly given an opportunity to provide direct feedback that can affect their academics and the USAT is one established process that is well recognized, entrenched in our institution, and, if filled out thoughtfully and honestly, can have an impact on students’ education.
Students need to capitalize on it, however. Faculty is losing faith in the process and the percentage of professors who authorize the release of their results is quickly dwindling. In the past ten years, the percentage of released results has dropped 12 per cent, which means that of the over 2,500 course evaluations conducted, students are able to see the results of less than one third. It’s important that students take these evaluations seriously: they affect the quality of our education, the livelihood of our professors, and our ability to make informed course selections. Grade your professors; make the work they do “worth” it, and everyone, students and faculty alike, will benefit in the long run.
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