Student evaluation form comments analysis fall 2021
The student evaluation form included the option for students to comment on their instructor, the course, the course materials, and to make any other comments that they might have. The individual comments are of particular value to the individual instructor. The comments, however, can also reveal broad common themes for the experience of the students as a student body. The following report looks at these broad themes. The author has made a best attempt to categorize comments under broader generic themes.
In the sections evaluating the instructor, course, and course materials, students were asked if there were any changes needed. Varying with the section, forty to forty-eight percent of the students left this item blank. Forty-five to fifty-three percent of the students responded in some form of "no change is needed" often with the attached reason that everything was good. Some students even answered "none". Only six to nine percent of the students responded with suggested changes. This context should be kept in mind when viewing the suggested changes. An overwhelming majority of the students who submitted evaluations either did not respond or felt no change was needed.
Given this context, the comments suggesting change still provide information on areas where improvements might be possible.
The following is based on 814 evaluation forms submitted. Students were to submit one form per class. Because the survey was anonymous, the number of students who submitted evaluations cannot be determined. Note that this survey went predominantly to students who were in online classes.
Instructor comments
The area of change most requested was for faculty to be more responsive. This included response times to messages and marking and grading of assignments in a timely manner. This area also included calls for faculty to be more responsive in the sense of posting assignments sufficiently ahead of due dates - to be timely in their posting of work.
A second area of change was for improved communication, which relates in some cases closely to being more responsive. This was a broad area asking faculty to communicate more clearly, more frequently, and through additional venues such as asynchronous help sessions via videoconferencing.
The third most frequently seen theme was also related to communication. Students wanted better explanations of assignments. Students did not want to be told to reread the text or rewatch a video. They wanted more examples, more sample problems, more clarity especially in regards to third party platforms as to what was required to be done and what was not.
Students also asked that the workload be reduced, but this should be seen in the context of five requests out of 814 evaluations submitted.
The theme that perhaps surprised this author the most was a few comments asking for increased academic rigor. These comments are challenging to interpret outside of the context of the specific course in which they were made. One commenter suggested that faculty should be "less patient with obvious slackers." Another wanted faculty to incentivize productive responses in discussions.
The last area was a request that faculty be more flexible and accommodating of students. This area also included calls for a return to face-to-face instruction as the in-person classroom was seen as more accommodating of individual needs.
Course comments
Only nine percent of the students chimed in with course suggestions.
The dominant recommendation was for returning to face-to-face instruction. As seen in the instructor comments section, students also wanted better explanations of what was expected of them. The students wanted more explanations, more study guides, improved clarity of instructions, more examples, and the option to get help over videoconferencing. The comments are not calling for synchronous whole class videoconferencing, but rather for the option to obtain one-on-one assistance via video link.
Students are looking for more flexibility and accommodation for the challenges they face in online education.
Improved scheduling included a request for breaking up a long once a week online class into multiple shorter sections offered during the week. There was a request to be mindful of online classes starting too early in the day. In some of the comments one is left with the realization that while the national campus allots time slots to online courses in an attempt to avoid time conflicts for synchronous videoconferencing, this approach overlooks that many students are on other campuses with different schedules and time zones. A student on another campus could have a conflict with a local residential course that is unknown, for example, to a national campus faculty member. Synchronous videoconferencing is especially problematic for students who chose online courses because of work schedules or home and household obligations such as caring for preschool children. Students want the option to get personalized assistance via videoconferencing, not necessarily synchronous online classes.
Some items echo items covered under the instructor comments section. There are issues surrounding textbooks that were seen in this section of the evaluation and appear again in the third section. Textbook availability and an issue in some courses where different editions were inconsistently referred to appear in this section of the evaluation.
Course materials comments
Six percent of the students had comments requesting changes be made.
The dominant request was access to the textbook. Some of these comments appear to arise from the state campuses - books that did not arrive. Some of the comments were direct requests for a free online textbook alternative. A couple comments requested a physical textbook. Again, this is ten comments in this area out of 814 evaluation forms submitted.
In this section the request for more examples, more videos, more information, and sample projects for a student to see.
Provision of more technical support included both requests for more training as well as requests for specific technical support. One commenter suggested students be reminded to download the app for their platform, in this case Canvas, as this helped them and they felt this would help other students as well.
Change technology used included two comments questioning the necessity of third party apps being used.
Other comments
Other comments were a broader smorgasbord of responses and were harder to clearly categorize under broad themes.
| Theme | Responses |
|---|---|
| blank | 456 |
| wrote none, NA, no comment or related | 123 |
| all good | 82 |
| instructor good | 78 |
| challenging | 20 |
| online courses are good | 16 |
| return to face-to-face | 11 |
| financials | 3 |
| season greetings | 3 |
| textbook access | 3 |
| fees misapplied | 2 |
| improve technical support | 2 |
| laptops never came | 2 |
| more responsive communication | 2 |
| transportation | 2 |
The following areas had only a single comment:
Asynchronous classes are better
course skills not relevant to the field
earlier assignment notification
face-to-face class with online assignments is good
improve breakfast, dinner at the dining hall
improve network infrastructure
improve power infrastructure
post grades in a timely manner
provide more flexibility
provide more time
reduce load
replace instructor
request for calendar
reschedule courses
students not working as hard online
vaccine question
videoconferencing for tutorial support
The lead response after leaving the item blank or writing "none" was that everything was fine, all was good - the instructor, the course, everything. 78 responses praised their instructors for their care, support, understanding, and skill. There is no other term for the comments: many faculty are beloved. The message that comes through from comment after comment is, "My instructor cared about me." That is a powerful message and a real core strength of the institution.
Students commented on the class as being challenging, but often in terms of the challenge being a worthy challenge.
Comments on financials had to do with specific students' personal financial challenges.
A couple students noted that they were paying fees that as purely online students did not make sense to them to be paying. They were not using college facilities, they were not availing themselves of health or recreation capacities at their local campus. They wondered why there was not an adjusted fee schedule for purely online students.
Questions on transportation appear to relate to residential courses that had their students fill out the online evaluation form.
Discussion
The comments recommending change come from only a small number of evaluation forms and an even smaller number of students. They do provide some insight and background for the numeric assessments seen in an earlier report. These again provide for evidence based training of faculty and help faculty improve their ability to deliver online and residential courses.
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