STLHE 2016 SAPES

Course evaluations provide students an opportunity to give faculty student feedback on teaching effectiveness. In addition, faculty can, and should, use course evaluations to improve their teaching. Though there are techniques for doing so in productive ways. In 2014, the University at Buffalo (UB) transitioned from over 15 disparate systems to a university-wide online evaluation process. This poster will review the process for making this transition from the initial committee formed to consider this potential outcome, through identifying the core questions that promote developmental teaching effectiveness, to identifying a system to manage the administration and meet varying needs, to how the university encourages faculty to utilize course evaluation data to improve teaching. Initial feedback from several studies and follow-ups of progress will be presented, as well as adaptations of administrations. These studies will share important learnings suggesting best practices for faculty and departments to use and maximize online course evaluation product features to better evaluate courses and report back to faculty in a timely manner so that changes can be made in teaching practices. This poster will highlight the impact that online course evaluations can have on improving teaching, when used effectively. In addition, a short discussion on the culture of course evaluation at the campus-level will be included as it impacts not only response rates, but also for improving teaching and in promotion and tenure discourse. Participants will gain an understanding of the complexities of the uses of course evaluations from multiple stakeholder’s perspectives (including their influences and concerns). Finally, the poster will present effective ways of using course evaluations for improving teaching effectiveness based on theory and research (i.e., Davidovitch and Soen, 2006).